Factors in Our Relationship With God

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - Light

Reading: John 1:1-28.

"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (1 Thess. 5:5).

"While ye have the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light" (John 12:36 ASV).

I think it is the Lord's will for us that we should be occupied with the matter of spiritual light. And a very elementary study of the Word of God will bring us very quickly to see that the Lord places a very great deal of importance upon light, that with Him light is a very vital matter. We shall first see that nothing can be done without light; then we shall see that possessing light is to be in possession of a treasure of inestimable value. We shall further come to see that that is shown to be true by the fact that light once offered and rejected, turned from, brings about a state which is unspeakable in its misery. Probably we should be surprised, even those of us who have studied the Word of God more or less thoroughly, if we were able to get a really clear, full, strong grasp of all that the Scriptures have to say about light, and if the Holy Spirit gave us the inner meaning of the Scriptures in this connection, there would be a tremendous movement in our hearts.

We have heard light spoken of disparagingly. It has not always been called 'light' in that connection; it is sometimes called truth, which is another word for doctrine. We have heard such phrases as "mere doctrine" or "mere truth". Of course, we know what is meant when those phrases are used, but I mention it at this point lest we might fall into a careless way in using such language. By those phrases, of course, people mean the doctrine, the truth, is not accompanied by something else which is important. They speak of it as something held merely in the mind, and they speak of it therefore as "mere doctrine", or "mere truth". But there is no such thing really as "mere doctrine" or "mere truth". Doctrine, truth, light are things of immense importance and value. They are indispensable and the Lord places upon them such a value as to make it perfectly clear that if once those things have been brought by the Spirit of God to anyone, and they have not been accepted and obeyed, that one may find that they have been brought into a most terrible state of a darkness which never existed in their experience before.

The force of this exhortation: "While you have the light, believe on the light, that you may become sons of light" (John 12:36), must be set over against another word: "If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Matt. 6:23). It is a darkness darker than the darkness which was there before the light was. And you and I, who are privileged to be in a realm where there is much light, the light of the truth of the Lord, need from time to time to be reminded of the tremendous value in God's eyes of the truth with which we are entrusted. We can regard it as commonplace; we can lose the sense of its value and importance.

Familiarity may breed some measure of contempt and we need constantly to be before the Lord, that the force and power of the truth with which we are so familiar may never be lost; hence this double reference to being "sons of light". There is a meaning in that phrase which lies beneath the surface, which you and I want to get hold of: "sons of light". That is, to be people who have been generated by the light and are the living product of the light, the living monuments of the light, whose very existence testifies to the birth which light has brought about in us. "Sons of the light". It is fuller than that. It is not simply being generated as infants; it is coming to a full place in the manifestation of the light: the difference is between there being truth, light, revelation, and doctrine with which we are associated in a religious way mentally, intellectually, and on the other hand, our being the living expression of that light, of that truth: "Sons of the Light". It carries us a long way beyond just knowing the content of the Bible. It produces men and women who are the personification of the truth; they are the sons of light, but you see the light is intended by the Giver of Light to produce that.

The Lord sets such value upon the Light that He gives, as in that He recognises that that light can become expressed in living personalities which are the product of that Light, so that all looking on will say: "Such and such do not merely know truth, they are the truth which they know, they are sons of light." And only as we are growingly such, is the value of the light which we have, manifested.

Well now, unless we recognize the Lord's mind in the giving of light, and cherish the light because of its power of constituting a personality which expresses that light, living beings which are a manifestation of that light, only as we cherish the light in the light of that, shall we be saved from the awful peril which is the peculiar peril of a people who have light, and that is: of becoming people who are more in the dark than anyone else. The world is in darkness, but the world which has never had the light is not nearly so much in the dark as anyone who has had the light and has not responded to the light.

There is a darkness deeper and darker than the darkness of having never been enlightened. It is called "the outer darkness", and the outer darkness is for those who have had the light presented and have rejected, or who have not appreciated, that light. Now, that is a very strong word for us, it may sound harsh. I do not intend it to be that; it is only by way of getting to the heart of this matter of the importance and value of spiritual light, and what light is intended to bring about when the Lord gives it, and of course, what great peril there is bound up with having light.

Light was God's first work. To darken that light was the devil's first work. Light being God's first work implies quite clearly that everything else comes out of light where God is concerned. Darkening being the devil's first work implies that all that God intends by light can be frustrated if the light is darkened. That is a contemplation of considerable seriousness.

Let us note a few things literally and symbolically about light, as we have it in the Word.

You notice that it says in the first reference to light in the Scriptures, that God said: "There shall be light" and there was light. That is the literal translation of the Word. Light came by the word of God. Now: "Then God saw that the light was good: and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night". "And God divided the light from the darkness", or "and God separated the light from the darkness... and God called the light Day; and the darkness He called Night." It is not the same word there in the Hebrew as: "Then God said, "Let there be light"; God proclaimed the designation of both. It was as though He said: "You are Day"; "You are Night"; God separated between. It was the result of a special apprehension of the value of the light. (Now this wants a little close analytical following). The word 'the' there in the Hebrew: "And God saw the light" is a Hebrew word of tremendous emphasis. It is the word which carries all the force of 'Amen'; 'Verily'; it is a word of emphasis. "And God saw the light, that it was good" and God made a proclamation: "Day". And everything, in the purposes of God, from eternity to eternity is bound up with that, and it is something by itself. Night; that stands in another realm altogether, of a different order, and God has separated between the two.

Light is a Distinguishing Factor

The light has God's special emphasis and stands in clear distinction and separation unto God for His purposes and is the distinguishing feature of everything relative to God. It is the distinguishing feature between God and satan. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5), says the apostle. Satan is always connected with darkness, even when he assumes the guise of an angel of light; his purposes are darkening, deceiving purposes. They are works of darkness still, and satan as an angel of light cannot stand the true light; he has to go. He is found, when transformed into an angel of light, to be darkness, when he comes into the presence of the true light.

I can put that into a simpler form, more up to date, experimentally. There are people of God who become deceived, not by what is obviously a black, dark deception, or delusion, or error, but become carried away concerning something which they are certain is light, is true, has all the marks of being according to the truth; and the day comes when those people come into the true light, and they find the very light they had embraced was darkness. Everything of satan is darkness. Much of what he does can only be revealed as darkness when the true light appears. Light is the distinguishing feature between God and satan all through the ages.

Light is the distinguishing feature between:

Holiness and Evil.

Holiness is always light, is always transparency, is always purity, is always sincerity, is always unmixed, unadulterated. Holiness is an essence of which there are no degrees; it is absolute. You cannot have degrees of holiness. You may have measures of holiness in one sense, but you cannot have degrees of holiness. Can you discriminate between a measure and a degree? A measure is an amount; a degree is a quality - in the way I am using it now, anyway. You may have a measure of holiness, but that measure is holiness; there is no mixture about it. You cannot have in holiness so much unholiness. Though it be but a little, it is utter in its quality.

Holiness is of God and in Him there is no unholiness, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." You may have a small measure of God, but that measure is without unholiness, and to increase the measure of God means to lessen the measure of unholiness, for the increase of God and the increase of holiness can never go on in corresponding increase of evil, or without the reducing of evil in the life. Holiness and evil are distinguished by the light. Light is the distinguishing feature between the two.

Light is the distinguishing feature between:

Christ and the World.

We are told that the world is in darkness, but because we are in Christ we are in the light. The difference between being in the world and being in the light is the difference between being in darkness and in the light; and you find both in the Word and in experience, that Christ stands in violent contradiction to the world in the matter of light. It is not a matter of words spoken, but it is just a matter of presence. The presence of Christ in the life of a believer brings that believer instantly, without a word being spoken, into a state of collision, a clash with the world. The more the light increases, which is the more Christ increases in the believer, the more violent that clash, and the more impossible to bring about an agreement.

No child of God can go on with the Lord and at the same time go on with the world. It is either a matter of standing still (if that is possible) or of decline if these two are held together. Well, that is very simple, very elementary, but it is very true and it is that which accounts for most of the sufferings of God's people in this world. If the adversary's objective is to quench God's light, because of all that is bound up with that light, then his objective is to quench the believer, and he will use the world to do it. That need not necessarily mean the conscious and calculated antagonism of people of the world, but the spirit of the world, consciously or unconsciously will be against the child of God. Many people in this world do not know why they are antagonistic to Christians, and they are a little surprised when you point out that they are. There is a world ruler of this darkness against the children of light.

Light is the discriminating, distinguishing feature between:

The Holy Spirit and the Flesh.

As God and satan cannot remain together in harmony in God's universe, as holiness and evil cannot remain in fellowship in God's universe, as Christ and the spirit of the world cannot harmonize in God's universe, neither can the Holy Spirit and our flesh walk in agreement; one is light, the other is darkness. And there are few things more calculated to bring about darkness in our own hearts than a response to our own flesh. Choose your own way, decide your own course, have your own will, assert yourself in any way, and you will find the light in you becoming darkness - and that is more than just ceasing to receive fresh light.

Now I am not speaking about just ordinary human nature. God has two standards of judgment, I believe, with regard to men. I believe He has one standard of judgment for us as just ordinary men and women in our human weakness and imperfection; and He has a great sympathy for us in that realm. It would be a poor lookout for us if He had not. Even as His own children, God does not look for a perfected humanity in us. But there is another side to us, to the whole of humanity, and that is, that when that principle, that law resident within humanity which is a positive thing and not just a negative or neutral thing, a law called 'the flesh' (you know quite well what the New Testament means by our flesh, it is not just our natural life in its human weakness and frailty; the flesh is a positive law, something which works in our nature) becomes active to choose, to refuse, to will in any way whatever, then God meets with something with which He can have no fellowship. When the flesh comes up and begins to assert itself, that "I" principle, then you have a different thing altogether to be reckoned with. God will bear with our mere humanity, but God cannot bear with the assertiveness of the flesh, and it is that which works against the Spirit, and that is death and darkness. These two, the Spirit and the flesh, cannot go on together.

Light distinguishes between:

The Believer and the Unbeliever.

Of course that is so obvious that you wonder why it is said; and yet it is as well that it should be said, because again, I am not speaking of a feature which is just a matter of having certain information; that, to me, is not light.

Information is not light, that is at any rate, so far as the scriptural meaning of light is concerned. The essential nature of light, according to the Word of God, is that it is for appreciation not information. Now here is a student. That student has got to have a certain kind of information in order to pass a certain examination, in order to gain a certain position. He gets down to books on that subject, begins to work away, studying up, reading up that subject, and a tremendous amount of information is gleaned. The examination comes, the student reproduces that information upon reams of paper. It has passed from the manual into the intellect of the student, passed on to the paper and gone through and gained whatever advantage that information could gain in successfully passing the examination. That is not light. But see another student. Getting down to books, reading on that subject, and stopping: "My, I did not know that before; that explains so-and-so!" Off he goes: "This is wonderful, do you know I have discovered this? My word, doesn't this explain a lot?" He is just full of the thing! And it does not matter very much to that student whether the examination is passed successfully or not, the student is delighted in what he or she has discovered. It is discovery; it is for appreciation, not just information. Now, that is very poorly illustrated, I know, but you see what I mean.

Light is given by God in relation to the individual to whom it is given, to become a part of that individual so that that individual's whole life shall be brought into a relationship to that light, which makes another being of them. It is not information which changes them. That is the meaning of light. It is not something objective; it is something inwardly transforming. That is the difference between information and light in the Word of God. That is what I mean when I say that light distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever.

An unbeliever may have all the information and not have the light. And the necessity, for you and for me, is that we should see to it that for us, every bit of light that we have is light in the scriptural sense and is not merely that we have information which is additional to what unbelievers have. It is a most embarrassing situation when one day a Christian comes up against someone who makes no profession, and has had no experience of salvation, and knows as much as they do about the Word of God. That is the test. What do you know more than the unbeliever who has studied the Bible, religion, Christianity, and doctrine?

The difference between us and the world is not a difference of religious information, but it is of spiritual appreciation. There is such a thing as rejoicing because of the light. Now is the test. How much rejoicing does the light bring into our lives? Let us look into our hearts. Are we all able to say: "Now what I have of truth and light is to me so much, so vital, that no matter what it costs me I could not go back on it; I could not, without sacrificing my very being, part with what I know." That is the appreciation of the light. That is valuing the light according to God's measure. It must be related to our very being, and all the light that we have must be of that kind, that it brings us to a place where we say: "Well, that to me is more than anything; to lose that would be to lose a part of the fulness of my being." It is the distinguishing feature between the believer and the unbeliever. Not information, but that: something firstly inward in experience, and then outward in testimony; that is light.

Are we gropers, or are we knowers? What is the impression that we give? Of those who do not know? Of those who are in the dark, or in the shadows, in uncertainty? Or is the impression one of assurance; solid, positive, assurance? Is there the steady tread of an affirmation at the centre of our being: "What we have seen and heard we proclaim... what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life..."? Can you stand alongside of John and say: "We know... we know... we know..."? That is to be the meaning of light with us.

There are three things possible. It is possible to be in the uncertainty of gropers; it is possible to be in the false position of mechanical observers; and thirdly, it is possible to be in the positive position of those who know.

The gropers, they are without light. The mechanical observers are those who have shelved responsibility on to someone else and are simply going through a form of things which has no immediate personal relationship to their own spiritual being. The great Roman Catholic system is that. It is not a matter of an inward personal experience and enjoyment of the light; the question of anything inward, personal, experimental, altogether has been refused as responsibility, but it is put on to the church, and so you go through a mechanical course of things in a false security! The only thing that will satisfy the Lord is that the third is our position: that we have the light within and that we are walking in the light and are sons of light. That is God's thought for us.

Well now, we have said that light is basic to all God's works; all His works are upon the basis of light. God can accomplish through us as His servants, His designs and purposes just in the measure in which we are coming into intelligent fellowship with Him. We are in a different realm. We are not merely in the realm of God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty operates in darkness, but God's grace operates in light. God can use the devil sovereignly and all the workers of darkness and use darkness itself, and give us the treasures of darkness, but God's thought and purpose is not darkness. He will sovereignly rule or overrule it, but when it comes to God working out His purposes through fellowship, which is something far greater, then He does so as we progress in life. I mean this: sometimes we find ourselves very much limited in usefulness and we recognize that there needs to be an enlargement of usefulness to the Lord, and we are passing through times of trial and testing which lead us into deep exercise of heart with God. Through that enforced exercise with Him, we come at some time to see some new principle of God's working, some law which we never recognized as being God's law of effecting things. That is new light. We leap to it and rejoice in it, and from that moment our usefulness to God has increased that much.

We are useful to the Lord increasingly as we come into intelligent fellowship with Him. His works are upon a basis of light; they were from the beginning and they always are. Of course we know that the Lord Jesus is the sum total of the light, the exclusive centre of God's light; and what this means is not some abstraction called 'light', it is an increase in the knowledge of Christ. But the knowledge of Christ is the discovery of God's ways, God's thoughts. The whole range of the divine mind is in Christ, and what Christ has said and done and gone through represents not some mere course of history, but the sum total of divine principle. When Christ has said something, He has not just given expression to an abstract idea, He has enunciated a law, He has projected a principle. And when you get light in Christ concerning that law, that principle, you have come to a place of greater usefulness to God because there is the necessary basis.

God Works Upon a Basis of Light

Light is God's principle of government. He made the greater light to govern the day, the lesser light to govern the night. God's whole system is ruled by light. The law of government is the law of light. When you come into a place of light, not information, into a place of light according to our definition of it, you have come into a place of authority; and this has values in all directions. There is a tremendous authority about spiritual knowledge. Why was it that the Lord Jesus Himself was set over against the scribes who were the recognised authorities on all matters religious and legal, and it was said of Him: "For He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes" (Matt. 7:29). That was rather hard on the scribes! It was because of His spiritual knowledge. It was that which was the secret of His authority. Spiritual knowledge is authority, it is governing.

Now I venture to say that you and I will be in weakness, defeat, and bondage when we come up against some intricate perplexing problem of a satanic situation, until we have got light upon it which gives us the key to it. We may hammer at the door by prayer, use all the force of body, mind, soul, to break it down, but until God gives us the key with a flash of divine light, we are beaten. Immediately you have the key, your finger is put upon the spot revealed by the Holy Spirit and that thing is in your hands. Its time is up, you are in possession of the situation; the power of that thing is broken, and broken by light.

Do not forget that is the ultimate way in which all the power of satan will be destroyed in this universe, "then shall that Wicked be revealed... whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thess. 2:8). A flash of light from Him will destroy the power of satan. Light is a tremendous power. It is the governing, ruling law in God's universe. Do not think of light in a small way; it is tremendous in its power.

There is very much more which should be said about light. The Lord will give us more light as we go on. I think the object of the Lord in these words, above and beyond what we have said at this time, is to make us recognize the spiritual vitality and value of real spiritual light and not to despise it, to recognise the enemy is against our having it and is out to rob us of it. The Lord desires that we should be filled with light, and that we should be sons of the light.