by Mike Ratliff
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23 ESV)
Spiritual blindness is truly amazing to witness. As our Lord said, “how great is the darkness!” Those in this darkness have been deceived and have been given over to their idolatry. Another tragic aspect of it is seen when they absolutely reject the clear truth from God’s Word while affirming the lies from deceitful spirits and wicked men. They also see legitimate debate on moral issues such as same-sex marriage and viewing homosexuality as acceptable in the Church as divisive and bigoted because real debate is not the same thing as dialogue. Debate confirms solid points of contention while dialogue causes them to crumble by having the sides come to a consensus. When it comes to what God has said in His Word, there is no room for dialogue. What He calls sin is sin.
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” (Luke 11:33-36 ESV)
The lamp in v33 refers to Christ and the Good News, the Gospel. When the Gospel, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, is the focus of our ministries then it touches everything we teach and preach. When we discuss discipleship, spiritual growth, standing firm, perseverance, et cetera, we do so in light of our understanding of God’s Sovereignty in our election and salvation. In this light, we see clearly that we bring nothing of value to the table. God did not elect any of us based upon our talents or abilities or capacity to believe and obey Him. No, God did not elect a dream team. In fact, those whom He saves must become totally transformed by His grace, becoming humble and totally dependent upon Him and His grace before they are truly usable to God in the Kingdom. In this brilliant light, we put down deep roots into God’s truth by His grace. Our doctrines are His doctrines. We take hold of these truths and live by them. These who conform to this by His grace have healthy eyes and lives full of the light of God because their will is subordinate to His and they pray accordingly.
On the other hand, when the eye, the lamp of the body, is bad then these have been deceived. They are in spiritual darkness. They have believed the lie. God has given them over to their idolatry. Their whole life, the way they perceive reality is from the perspective of fallen man instead of from God’s. The thinkers within these in spiritual blindness teach according to the philosophies of men. They reason according to the temporal way of viewing the world. Many are very well educated, but they do not have God’s light. Their understanding is dark, and how great is the darkness! I have actually attempted to debate some of these, but it did not last long. Why? They were full of pride and because of their seminary educations they assumed they could dialogue me into submission. When I made it clear that I was debating not dialoging the “discussion” usually ended very quickly. Their seminary educations may have taught them a great deal, but their view of God and His truth was from a muted and dark understanding. They had no ability to properly exegete scripture. Their use of God’s Word was wooden and full of exegetical fallacies such as taking passages out of context. Because of this, the rules for debate were established on this blog. Those who want to “dialogue” here using insults, personal attacks, intimidation, colloquialisms, et cetera, but have no scriptural basis for their point(s) will not be allowed to comment here. All they can share is the fruit of a darkened heart.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16 ESV)
All truly in Christ are the light of the world. They have healthy eyes which see God’s truth clearly and reject the fallacies and lies of the enemies of the Cross. As salt and light, we must stand firm and be God’s instruments in this dark age to bring His light to it. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling in order to become full of the knowledge of God that He gives us in order for us to walk through this world reflecting Christ and His light to all. This means we will be gentle and gracious yet firm and uncompromising. The world will see this light of the kingdom through our good works with the result that the Father who is in heaven will be glorified.
Much of what is called Christianity in our time is simply mass confusion rooted in subjective reasoning by those who are religious, but who know nothing of any depth of what God has given to us in His Word. Their leaders teach a mix of sentimental, man-focused, mystical nonsense that cannot be supported exegetically. I existed in a form of this from the time God saved me in 1986 until 2004. In 2004, God took me through spiritual boot camp. He drew me closer to Him starting in January more and more as He pared away those things in my life that were of man and not of Him. By August, I was in some form of worship, prayer, or Bible Study nearly all day every day. It was amazing. My eyes became full of His light. The darkness within was eradicated. I am not perfect, but the process of cleansing and repentance continues. It is amazing how entrenched our pride is. Our flesh, our propensity to sin and live as the world does, is insidious. We will not be free from this until we stand before our Lord and I look forward to that with my all.
One of the most remarkable things that God did through this was to make me completely reliant on Him instead of my own reasoning abilities. This means that God’s Word is the plumb line not my feelings or even my intuition. No, we cannot rely on these things because we are not God. Only God judges correctly. Therefore, what He says is sin is sin and that is it. Over the next several years, God has drawn me more and more into His light. When He gives us the ability to see things like election from His perspective instead of man’s then we are indeed blessed because then we see what a miracle our salvation is and then we do not take it for granted nor do we view our walk as something we do on our own terms. No, when our eyes are healthy we see God’s ways and truth very differently than those whose eyes are full of darkness.
Ken Silva has been approached by some from the emergent camp to “debate” or discuss our stand on same sex marriage and homosexuality in the Church. I have listened to what these fellows have to say about this and I know that it would be a complete waste of time for me to debate them because it would be very short. Here is what God’s Word says and that settles it, homosexuality is a sin just as murder is a sin. Sin is what separates Man from God. Christ’s substitutionary death on the Cross provided the only way to be reconciled to God and that is open only to those who believe the Gospel, repent and serve Christ as their Lord for the rest of their lives. Homosexuality is a sin that God can forgive and deliver those mired in it. We are commanded as Christians to live holy and repentant lives. We are to mortify our sins, putting them to death in order to deny our flesh, take up our crosses, and follow Christ each day. That is the true Christian walk and those who do it are able to do so because their eyes are full of God’s light and they live according to it. This light is the Gospel, the Good News, and the lamp of the body.
Soli Deo Gloria!
AAAaaaaAAAAMEN Mike! We live and learn don’t we? God is so good. We keep seeking Him and He shows us.
Yes indeed Paul and Luann!!
Bless you Mike for this post.
There is no room for confusion in what you have written here. Sin is sin and Sin separates us from God.It is a matter of “God says it, I believe it, that settles it.” When you walk in the light, you want to see things and can see things from His perspective. Things become clear. You realise that you cannot use man’s reasoning to get to a Godly end.
I saw a question on a Twitter post the other day, while looking about a bit – which is the worst sin – Murder or Homosexuality? What has been written here gives a complete response to this.
Have a blessed day
Thank you Jessie I pray that God will give you a blessed day my sister.
I don’t even see HOW same sex marriage and homosexuality should even be a debate … the answer is obvious. We can and should lump those sins alongside a dozen other sexual sins that man is drawn toward… and it probably makes more sense to lump them together rather than just amplify one or two conditions that man wants to justify in human thinking.
Sin is present in the human condition and we have it! The tricky part for us as Christians is how do we go about our Christian methods and continue to demonstrate and evangelize the Gospel without just going after the external behaviors… in other words how do we maintain our heart and evangelize to the heart of sinners. Very hard!
I like Kellers and the people of the Gospel coalitions approach (http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/) which I have adopted as well, which is, see sin at a higher level. When talking to worldly sinners don’t just see one sides sins but see the sins of both. I believe it works because its also the method Jesus used. It also naturally leads you to sharing Gods truth but also maintaining a grace narrative as you demonstrate his truths.
Thanks Mike!
Jon, how could Jesus see sin at a higher level seeing the sins of people along side his since He was sinless?
Sorry Mike, my thoughts go different directions and I dont have time to elaborate always…
I was actually thinking of the Parable of the Prodigal God whey I wrote that Mike. Jesus saw the sins of both the elder and younger brother.
My interpretation of todays world, is as Christians its pretty easy to see the sins of the younger brother… the sins of the elder brother are much more subtle and insideous. As people, I believe we have tendency to see someone elses sins but its pretty hard to see our own. Its important to see sin at a deeper level… to see the sins of the younger AND the elder brother.
It also goes back to TOTAL depravity and not PARTIAL depravity. Thats why we absolutely need Jesus. We have a condition that is terminal and only Jesus is the solution.
We are all sinners, and God does not judge our sin on a sliding scale.
But many in the church choose to deny the Word of God (the Bible) and want to pick and choose, according to their own moral code, what is sin and what isn’t.
The Bible makes it perfectly clear that homosexuality and sex outside of marriage is sin.
Homosexuals ought be allowed in the church, as with sinners of all stripes. The mistake is to ADVOCATE this sin. To say there is no need to repent. To openly practice this sin as if it were not sin at all.
MANY within my own church body(the ELCA) believe this way. It is an absolute jettisoning of God’s law, and is wrong. It will serve to destroy what was once a great faith tradition and erode God’s Word in the Church at large.
What a shame.
Amen Steve!
Steve,
you were beginning to hint at the hard to remove sins of the elder brother when you said “We are all sinners, and God does not judge our sin on a sliding scale.”
The issue with elder brother sins is they begin each morning with the thought on a sin scale that “I am basically ok and those guys are not”. One of Martin Luthers biggest differences between him and the rest of the Church was that he maintained a high Cristology and the Catholic Church maintained a low Cristology at that time. The same variant exists in today’s Church as we become more about moralism (external behavior) than idolatry (the basic underlying sin issue).
As pointed out in Martin Luthers first theses the Christian life is one of repentance everyday. It is because of what he did not because of what I can do — and this needs to drive both our justification and our sanctification.
Jon, What? What drives our justification is God’s Grace by which He makes our faith alive and when we believe the Gospel and repent and then we are justified by faith. Period! What drives our sanctification is to work out our salvation with fear and trembling as we put to death the activities of the flesh through God enabling us to repent, Period! God grants repentance and uses our struggles with our old nature to mature us.
As a Fordeian (Gerhard Forde – great Lutheran theologian gone to be with the lord)…I believe that “sanctification is getting used to our justification”
http://sinningboldly.blogspot.com/2007/04/forde-on-sanctification.html
It may seem radical to many( it is!)
…but I believe it is biblical and keeps us centered on Christ’s work for us, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” St. Paul reminds us.
Thanks, Mike!
Amen Steve, I like that. In my own case I see that the progress I have made spiritually has all been based on God showing me clearly that I am a lost cause outside of His grace. The more I surrender to Him in humility the more useful in the Kingdom I become. The more I try to serve in my own strength and ability the less I reveal that I understand this and usually have mediocre results. When I write posts like this one it always starts out in my helplessness and me falling before the throne of grace in surrender to Him. Then I begin to write with only a general outline in my head. He does the rest and I am amazed at how He brings His Word to mind as I write. My own walk of repentance makes me feel like a total failure. I often wonder what God sees in me because I don’t see anything of value.
I don’t know if you’ve ever read any of Forde’s books, but he really is a breath of fresh air, and a staunch defender of Christ and His work for us.
(some good ones)
‘Being a Theologian of the Cross’
‘Justification: A Matter of Death and Life’
‘ Where God Meets Man’
A retired blogger also had some good things to say about Forde in some excellent blog posts:
http://essentiallylutheran.blogspot.com/search/label/Forde
Enjoy!
Thanks Steve!
Wow…thank you for this. His grace and mercy just amazes me more and more. I pray that He continue to bless your ministry. I am so grateful to Him for leading me to your website!
You are very welcome D and I pray that God will continue to reveal his grace and mercy and sovereignty to you.
Steve, you know this already.
“Luther states in the first of his 95 theses that all of life is repentance. What he is a saying My justification and my sanctification come from the same source, and that source is not my will”. Many people will differ on this but I agree with it absolutely. Maybe that clear up what I was trying to say.
Here is the deal (for me at least). Repentance out of mere fear is really sorrow for the consequences of sin, sorrow over the danger of sin — it bends the will away from sin, but the heart still clings. But repentance out of conviction over mercy and Grace and what Jesus did (that I can not do) is really sorrow over sin, sorrow over the grievousness of sin — it melts the heart away from sin. It makes the sin itself disgusting to us, so it loses its attractive power over us. We say, ‘this disgusting thing is an affront to the one who died for me. I’m continuing to stab him with it!
I hope that clears it up!
Those in spiritual darkness reject Sola Scriptura, resulting in an anything-goes approach to Christianity. Since when did truth become subjective? Someone in this dark camp once told me, “Yeah but that’s just your interpretation … there are many ways to interpret the Bible, you should know that.” Well how many ways do you interpret this: “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6: 9,10) Praise God that He reveals His timeless truth to vessels like us!
…but I believe it is biblical and keeps us centered on Christ’s work for us, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.” St. Paul reminds us.
Right on Steve!!!!!! Centered on Christs work for us (high Christology). Spoken like a true Lutheran!
Amen Brian!
I think we may have to differ on sanctification Mike.
My Definition is Christ work in me:
The Holy Spirit sanctifies me (makes me holy) by bringing me to faith in Christ, so that I might have the blessings of redemption and lead a godly life. This is the part of the Holy Spirit’s work by which he directs and empowers the believer to lead a godly life
Many other good Christians Definition is:
The view the Law as necessary in securing justification. To secure is to establish, to make sure one’s status. The Law-keeping of sanctification is the basis on which the justified person receives benefits from the relationship he or she has with God. Many Calvinists, for example, say that ‘holiness, or conformity to the divine law, is the indispensable condition for securing favor, attaining peace of conscience, and enjoying fellowship with God
I disagree with the second statement and other subtle attempts to abuse it.
Jon, then we differ because our sanctification does not start until our justification. Justification must come first for we cannot be made holy until justified by God. This justification is by faith alone. Then our sanctification begins and it is a cooperation between us and God. We have to walk in repentance as God works in us to make us holy in Christ. That’s the way it is Jon. You may disagree with what you wrote there all you want, but it does not change the fact that we are called to walk in holiness through our sanctification our repentance and our growing knowledge of God and His holiness. We are called to mortify our sins Jon. We cannot be at peace with sin. We cannot ignore it. We must do intense battle against what our flesh desires. Also, your definitions are yours alone and the fact you disagree with what I teach here does not mean that I am wrong nor does it mean that you are right.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
I appreciate you input Mike and I understand your point.
Thanks Mike!
Once again, thank you for your teaching. I enjoy reading your articles because they are very, very informative yet easy to understand. I need easy to understand. I enjoyed reading your testimony about what the Lord was doing for you after 2004 and how He was preparing you.
Thank you for teaching on the “hard stuff” and putting up with all you must have to put up with for doing so. I appreciate it and am grateful for this web site.
How’s your mom?
Diane
Jon,
In sanctification we cooperate with God (synergism) whereas before, we did not have the ability to because of our carnal nature. It is impossible to cooperate with God and please him until the carnal nature is crucified. Those who are of the flesh cannot please him. To be an OT ‘law keeper’ contradicts what the cross does. The law is there is a mirror to show us the dirt that is on our face. But nobody takes the mirror off of the wall and washes his face with it. Instead he uses soap (Fullers soap in the OT) to fulfill the law. Fulfilling the law and keeping the law are not the same. Fulfill means to satisfy whereas ‘keeping’ means to copy. The law kills and shows one guilty whereas the cross justifies, pleads on our behalf, and makes us alive. Jesus is the holy garment which makes the OT ordinances obsolete. The laws concerning tabernacle worship and the Levitical priesthood are obsolete. The law says that priest must be a Levite. Jesus was not a Levite, therefore proving that the OT law is obsolete. The holy garment of the NT also enables the regenerate to fulfill the commandments concerning the holy days without him/her actually having to ‘keep’ them. Jesus is our Passover lamb, our unleavened bread, and so on.
Satan wants us to base salvation on how we feel. The more we fall prey to legalism (the keeping of 613 commandments of the law), the more we frustrate the grace of God. There is a big difference between legalism and mortifying our sin. I have been accused of being a legalist when I contend and say ‘no’ to things that would grieve the Lord. Resisting sin, corruption, and ungodliness often gets misinterpreted as legalism. Legalism is when a man’s flesh deceives him and he believes that he can please the Lord by his/her own efforts. A man is not under grace until he/she is crucified with Christ. Legalism makes a provision for the flesh.
You are very welcome Diane. My mother is back in the skilled nursing center. My sister told me today that she is very confused and is telling everyone she is done and is going home. However, I know that she is very hard to understand and so I’m not so sure she is communicating with them very well. I told my sister today that mother had better calm down or she is going to have another stroke… In any case, please continue to pray for both my mom and dad. Thanks!
Amen Josh!