MEDITATION ON JOHN 3:19-21

The true test of a follower of Christ is not necessarily shown by the absence of sin, but by a fierce love and commitment toward the light. A willingness - constantly recommitted, moment to moment, day to day - to submit every thought, word and deed to the cleansing power of the purest light in the universe, exposes that which was hidden, rendering it powerless. 

Through the simple act of lifting up my darkest thoughts, my worst words and my most selfish deeds into the light that is Christ, everything that does not reflect light loses it's power and cannot stand in opposition to the righteousness of God. The perfection that the apostle Paul talked about is not being without sin in and of itself, but in the voluntary process of submitting our darkness to the light until it is no more. 

"And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly  seen that his works have been carried out in God."

That's the conundrum. No one who does evil wants the light to hit those things. So the difference between a pure heart and an evil heart is not one who has no sin, but one, who by virtue of their will, chooses the light, which requires humility. Voluntarily exposing things that bring shame is and act of humility which leads to repentance; with true repentance coming in through the repetition of admission of it, submission of it to the light, which brings about the change of direction; effectively exchanging shame for joy, ashes for beauty, mourning for gladness. 

God takes what was once conceived in darkness, through the act of humility in repentance, and through the blood of Christ it is transformed into an act carried out in God. That's the truest picture of grace I can imagine. Taking the very ugliest of things in me and transforming them into His righteousness. But unless I change my mind - which is my acknowledgement of my need for his grace - and decide that I want to love his light and risk the humiliation of exposing my darkest things to it, then I render his grace powerless in my life.