Coming Into The Light
During the electioneering this month you may recall hearing something about a Wisconsin politician that was not good news. He got reelected. According to some reports, he has come out of the closet.
Coming out of the closet means making public acknowlegement of homosexuality. For some folks, that step is considered good, for it presents the image of a prisoner emerging from the stifling confines of a restricted lifestyle; it paints the picture of coming into the light from a subterranean hole. Oh, how the prince of darkness parades himself as an angel of light, for he has deluded those souls into telling themselves and the world that, by coming out of the closet, they have come into the light.
Let us keep our feet on our foundation about light and darkness: “And this is condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:19-21).
The blatant and public boldness of the gay rights movement is not a coming into the light, but rather a renunciation of the light from God in heaven. Coming to God’s Light is quite the opposite of coming out of the closet.
God’s Light is the gift of seeing clearly the realities of sin and salvation. It gives us the light to see what darkness there really IS in the human heart that opposes God’s will, that turns away from God’s presence, that pulls away from God’s hand–and then declares it has found fulfillment and enlightenment. Indeed, there are none so blind as those who will not see.
I am not just “gay-bashing,” for we had better bash every evil thought, every dark urge, every black impulse, every shadow and shade of ungodliness as part of the darkness into which we also were born.
By right of birth you and I were not children of the light. By our genetic blood line we were inherently no better than the other perverts. It has taken a miracle of tremendous proportions to bring me and you out of our spiritual graves into the Light. God Himself had to get His hands on us and pull us free from the powers of darkness into which we were born, recreating us to conform to His image.
So what we need to focus on is God’s overwhelming mercy, on His over-reaching love, on His over-coming generosities. Those out there who have not come under that power of God’s love in Christ Jesus, who have not yet seen the true Light in the face of Christ Jesus–are the reason we go INTO our closets, there in prayer to bring before our heavenly Father those issues that lie upon our hearts. For when our Savior talks about the closet, He presents us with the picture of closeness as we bring our petitions to our Father in heaven. (It is simply amazing that this Christian image of the closet as the place of prayer has been sullied with such a different connotation in this stupid world).
And this passage from John’s gospel, this portion of a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, presents to our attending hearts the truth that escapes many in this world. For the LIGHT that has come into the world is Jesus and all the brightness of heaven that He supplies.
The gay-rights movement is not coming into the Light of God’s gift from heaven when its people parade in celebration of their dedication to sin, no matter how the limelight shines on them. That’s just darkness disguised as light.
Now our job is twofold: first, we must remain clear in the truth that sin is not a blessed release from conventional morality. Sin is not designed by Satan to be good for his victim. Sin is meant to backfire.
Secondly, inasmuch as we have been blessed with the Light of Jesus, our Savior, let us be dedicated to reflecting His image in the ways we conduct ourselves, both before one another and before the poor soul who has not yet been brought out of his darkness.
That’s our work, for which we are happy to serve one another. That’s our privilege which we share with the apostles and all God’s children through the ages.
Let’s pray and work to get somebody a lot further than just out of the closet. Let’s actually pull him into the light, where God has already brought us so that one of us here can show the way to Jesus, the true Light that can salvage anybody born into this world.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:12-13).
–Prof. Em. Paul Koch