The New Creation (Part III)

Into the Light

The quest to engineer our own light has plagued man since his fall in Eden

It does not matter which stage your life is at as you read this. Maybe you have never read the Bible, or maybe you have been in church all your life. 

The reality is that we have been created in such a way that we will struggle if we are living in a manner that is incompatible with the truth. In order for us to really begin the process of change, something deep within has to take place at the core of our being, our identity. 

The kind of change the scriptures describe is change from the inside out. Identity determines values and shapes roles. It determines how those roles are going to be carried out. 

A person with a crisis of identity, cannot but misinterpret their own proper roles in every field of life. A human institution is effective to the extent that each member has identified who they truly are and are walking in the roles that naturally flow out of that identity.

Ever since the fall, the real design and value of every man's life remain hidden irrespective of how old he may live and how much he may strive to achieve on earth. Our true identity has been locked up in such a way that it will only begin to unfold relative to what is true. So for us to be complete, our identity has to be in agreement with the truth. 

Truth is not just a doctrine or a set of rules. It has been summed up in a Person. Knowing who we are begins by knowing Him. If you experienced new birth, the scriptures are clear that your life is hid in Christ with God (Colossians 3:3). This statement is in the present tense. It means the full disclosure of the meaning of your life on earth and in eternity has been made available now. It was a mystery before, but now that mystery has been explained. In His presence you and I can receive and walk in the full revelation of what we were created to become.

…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (Colossians 1:26-27)

Scriptures declare that Christ came as the true Light that gives light to everyone (John 1:9). As the Wisdom of God, He is the personification of all true revelation. He invites each of us to come into His presence where illumination abounds. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him. By deeply knowing Him, every human being on the planet has the opportunity to have the mystery of his or her existence resolved. There are many today who feel fully aware of themselves, they seem to have a good grasp on who they are and may be considered so by others. However, there is a reason why even those who may consider themselves spiritually mature are challenged to put themselves to the test. The Bible makes it clear, for believer and non-believer alike, it is possible to spend an entire lifetime operating in a identity that is untrue until its too late to turn things around. We will be examining some of these scriptures in this book, but it suffices to state at this point, that this error is brought about by a process known as deception.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

When it comes to the capacity of leading one stray, the human heart is on a class all by itself. Other renderings of the above verse use adjectives like desperately sick, exceedingly corrupt and incurable. Is this the library or resource center we want to turn to in order to get real answers for our lives? No matter how learned or experienced we may be, we are already deceived if we believe that we can rely upon ourselves to get a hold on who we are and where we our lives are truly headed. We cannot arrive at this understanding through deductive reasoning or by a special genius of human intelligence. We did not create ourselves and neither are we the engineers of our eternal future. True, we are surrounded with many technological advancements in our modern world. Yet none of us can determine or control our next heartbeat! There is a lot that our brains can process in the natural, but there is a lot more that cannot be understood simply by way of facts or information. This includes the truth about who we are. Identity cannot be understood apart from revelation.

For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. (Psalm 36:9)

It does not matter how we think of ourselves or where we come from. There is no illumination apart from Christ. Light cannot be seen outside of His light. True understanding will always elude us as long as we hold back from His presence. This knowledge is not just for the unsaved. As we will soon see, it applies to believers of all ages and walks of life.  What we see when we are removed from the presence of Christ may look essential, captivating and informative, but it will not be the truth. Darkness has been a problem for ages. However, the quest to engineer our own light has plagued man right from his fall in the garden of Eden. Today, we may define these pursuits and give them all manner of nice-sounding titles, but they are guises which do not really get to the root of the matter. They actually constitute an attempt to avoid the true light. Truth can only found by entering into the revelation of who He is, which is also where we begin to discover who we really are.

But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (Ephesians 5:13-14)

Whatever makes manifest is light. Light exposes the true nature of everything. Darkness does the opposite of this. Those who are children of light are able to walk daily in His light, to progress and thrive in the original identity God intended for them. His revelation is what discloses true identity, both yours and mine. Seeing Him as He is changes us in such a manner that we can flow and function in the identity He designed for us from the beginning of time. The capacity for you and I to walk in our real identity is directly proportional to our walking in the light of Christ. Throughout history, as men and women of all manner of backgrounds begun to walk with the Lord, they started to manifest an identity whose source was supernatural. They were able to overcome false identities which had been forged by their backgrounds, experiences and environments. This same challenge and opportunity has been extended to us in this generation.