Thankful for Light Shining into the Domain of Darkness

Right now I'm listening to "O the Blood" performed by Gateway Worship. It is my understanding that the lead vocalist on it is Kari Jobe. If you want to watch a video of it you can click here.

Last evening some of the guys from our church went to "An Evening with Matt Chandler". I had never heard him speak before and wasn't familiar with him. It was a tour for his forthcoming work The Explicit Gospel. The sponsors were Crossway which is a Christian not-for-profit book publisher and Logos Bible Software.

Matt's message was one that made me grateful. He spoke from Colossians 1:13-23. The part that really captured my attention was right at the beginning when we looked at what the domain of darkness was in verse 13. The verse in the ESV reads "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son..."

Matt explained that the domain of darkness is that place where people can't see. It's dark. They don't see that they just keep operating the same way they have been. It's without an eternal perspective. But God breaks in to bring light and show that there is something much more to our existence than family, work, hobbies, etc.

It's not really where I was heading with this post, but as an aside, those things still exist and are not evil. Most of us when we are converted don't move into an area of vocational ministry. Just like the shepherds had to go back to tending the sheep after they worshiped the newborn Jesus Messiah, we continue working and caring for our families. But the purpose behind our actions becomes radically altered. And in fact whole new goals and aspirations should arrive (spiritually growing in God's grace, being part of God's church in a local context, Church in a universal context, spreading the gospel). Overarching this combination of the life we were living and a whole new life though is that we are now transferred in to the kingdom of God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Everything that would be listed on our account of sins (past, present and future) is now paid in full by Jesus Christ.


Where I was going was a list I compiled a few years ago. On that list was many of the things I used to occupy my time, money, emotional energy and other resources. It was nearly 40 items long. Some of them were toys now sitting in a closet or the garage. Others were business ideas. Bad enough that I wasted time God had given me on some of those things, but I also took time from others.

Even though I believe I experienced conversion long ago, that did not keep me from operating in the flesh and seeking otherwise benign things. Was I in the domain of darkness still? No, I had been transferred, rescued, redeemed. But I was easily distracted from following God. Why? I'm not sure "why?" is the right question. I think the better question is "Okay, so now you know, what are you going to do about it?"


My answer is still being informed as I mature. I am getting better at putting distractions up against a filter based on God's redemption of my life and obedience to His Word. It began with His giving me sight to see. I think then I can choose to harden my heart and ignore Him or respond in repentance. In choosing repentance I say in effect "God, I don't want to waste my time on things that don't matter. Help me honor You with the things in my life. Help me to love and care for my family. Help me to do a good job at work. Show me how to be part of my church family. May my contentment with what You have for me show that I find You worthy and completely fulfilling."


As I close, it is my prayer for you and I, that the Name of the Lord Jesus be honored in our lives and in the lives of those whom we love. Amen.

 As I finish I am listening to "Great I Am" performed by New Life Worship. I'd like to share that one with you too. You can listen to it here. He is the great I Am.

A Grateful, Repentant Rebel

I would ask you to imagine with me the following scenario. But imagining it is not necessary. It is the reality.

There is sufficient evidence all around me to leave no doubt that there is a creator of this universe. The order and natural laws we see in place leave me no question that the creator would make himself known to his creation. This is what I believe the Bible is; it is the revelation of God to his creation.

As God’s creation, it might occur to me that I would have a relationship with him based on that alone. Though the analogy must not be taken too far as it potentially applies characteristics of the following people onto a God that is not like that. But just as in human terms the biological parents may or may not have a relationship with their children, God’s creating me did not obligate me to a relationship with him. It is not that he did not want one. It was not that he is absent, far off, disinterested, distracted, busy or otherwise occupied. No, God is near. But as others have said, he is a gentleman and will not force himself upon any man. So he created me and has given me the choice to have a relationship with him.

As much as it pains me to consider the following analogy, the pain cannot approach what God has experienced. Consider if one of my sons decided, once he was able to exert himself, chose to end his relationship with me – or said better that he decided never to begin a two-way relationship of his own choosing. That’s a difference; formerly he was obligated by proximity and dependence on me. But once he reaches an age of emancipation he chooses not to have a relationship with me. Like the prodigal son, he says in effect “I wish you were dead, give me what is mine by law and I will be gone.”

That is me. Although I definitely spurned the rightful authority of my earthly father, it pales in comparison to the willful disdain I have displayed that demonstrates my choices that not only means I have no relationship with God, it means there has been fixed a gap as wide as the east is from the west between the God of the universe and me. My actions are not those of someone standing up against a tyrant; there is no chivalry or commendable portion to my acts of rebellion. There is no feat of strength in my figuratively standing with a raised fist and saying to God “I am the only lord of my life and I will make of it what I want." No, I am a fool.

I take no pride in the exercise my arrogant self-will. As a matter of fact, my actions are the only evidence needed in the judgment that I am to be condemned. God rightfully will not permit a free pass for the actions of a treasonous rebel. I am without excuse and rightfully to be consigned to the sad, tragic end that is far from God, for all of eternity. To be without God for all eternity is far worse an ending than any we can conjure up in our imagination. Since no one on earth but Jesus has ever encountered the Father, how could any truly understand what it would be to be separated from him forever?

It would be easy to see how this situation might be irreconcilable. If God were a tyrant and intent on punishing me for my every action my fate would be sealed. The fact is that the moral laws of this universe designed by God demand that my actions are in fact punished and someone held accountable for them. The evidence, all of my rebellious and treasonous acts, must be assigned to someone and that person must suffer the consequences for seizing the rightful place of God as the sole source of authority (which is not tyrannical, since God as authority is what’s best because of who he is).

There is a literal account of all of my actions that spurned the law of God. The list is long. It is a grievous and extremely weighty matter. I can no more disavow my allegiance to myself as king as proven by these things than I could stop the sun from shining. That list is, individually and collectively, MY sin. It is a result of my choices. No one chose for me. I was not forced against my will to choose myself over any other. No, all the evidence is incontrovertible. It will not be disputed and there are no external factors. There will be a prosecutorial act for my sin. And the conclusion is foregone: It is upon my shoulders. How could it be otherwise? Who could rightfully take my guilty verdict? Could a friend, my own parents who would probably have given their lives to protect mine? My wife? Someone I bribe? What kind of God would permit another to be forever, FOREVER, punished for my decisions?

The connection here is between God and me only. There can be no other that enters into the equation. I am the accused, and I will be convicted. My actions are hateful, self-serving, betraying, seditious, fully deserving of the worst punishment imaginable. They are shameful. Hurtful. Purposeful. Painful. And they are the only evidence needed to secure a guilty verdict.

There are only two options that are tenable in God’s moral universe. Either I must pay for the penalty of my guilty verdict or God must pay for my penalty. There are no other options. The conviction stands. The list of wrongs has been ratified and is fixed. Two options: I pay or God pays. My payment for willfully choosing not to bow to God’s rightful place on the throne of my life (recall it’s what is best for me…not self-serving on God’s part), my payment for that is to be given for eternity what I had chosen for this life: permanent and eternal separation from God.

Or the other option is for God to agree to pay the penalty for my guilty verdict. This is no trivial matter. Maybe because I have grown up in a “Christian” nation, grown up in an evangelical church, my familiarity to the gospel has stunted my response to the incredibility of it all. This is not a matter of flippancy. We are not talking about a fine for a speeding ticket. I am guilty of intentionally assassinating God’s role in my life as king. The penalty is death – permanent, painful, and beyond comprehension. It is frightening – it should be. Again, my familiarity of the verses from the Bible, the story of God’s revelation, the calls of preachers to be reconciled to God for my sin, it all, in my case, has permitted me, to my own self-satisfaction, to build up a callous to the reality of these things.

God makes an offer to exchange my sin; no “exchange for my sin” is not accurate. God makes an offer to substitute another person for the penalty that is mine and mine alone. The only person not me in this equation is God. The only person able to act as my substitute, in the moral universe in which we live, is God. Not to get overly theological here, but that is behind the necessity of the virgin birth, Jesus must be God and man all at once or there is no substitution for my penalty. So that is what he does. Jesus enters our world as God and man. He has no wrong of his own for which a penalty must be paid. The guilt and shame for the full weight of all of my sin by my willful rebellion fell on the man who never did any wrong. Not only that, it fell on the God against whom it was perpetrated. And he paid, with his life on the cross. He offers me something that I could never achieve on my own.

In this remarkable, incredible, unbelievable, amazing, extraordinary, awesome, magnificent turn of events God offers me the opportunity to accept the payment of my penalty by him. He does not force it upon me. It cost him everything. If I accept, it costs me the option to be lord of my life. I cede authority in my life and bow my knee to the rightful King. And I begin a relationship with Him. My relationship with God begins at the cross. The resurrection of Jesus Christ that I celebrate today is God’s ratification on the sufficiency of His substitution. As Jesus said, “It is finished.”

God, I am sorry I preferred that You be dead so I could live the way that I wanted. I am unworthy of Your offer. I am unworthy to washed in the blood of the perfect substitute for my death, Jesus Christ. It is with a still-not-fully-comprehending, grateful all of me that I say “Yes, Lord Jesus, You are the only King and I accept Your gift. Help me to live the way You want me to live.”