1/ "Arise,shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 2/ For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee."
ISAIAH 60: 1-2
Someone told me recently, a pastor I believe, that to escape the power of sin, while we live with a flesh component, is impossible. According to him we cannot help but commit sin because of the carnal nature that entraps us. Then, I replied, it was useless and ineffective for the Son of God to come, in the flesh, to redeem us all from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13).
This is the problem with humanity. He has lived with this darkness for so long, all of his civilization, that it is inconceivable for him to even contemplate living beyond this bondage. This is the gross darkness that Isaiah spoke about in the above scripture. It is the carnal nature of man that maintains enmity against Divinity and makes it impossible for him to serve God through any intimate means. God is Light and therefore the darkness of us cannot in any way relate to or even approach the Truth and Love that the Creator is.
This darkness has enslaved us for so long so that it has become and has defined who we are. We live as darkness, our beings are characterized by the manifestations of darkness. Herein lies the dilemma. How can mankind escape from himself. How can he be freed from his nature that gives him a sense of belonging, in his mind. Even his mind has not escaped this deception of believing this is what makes "me" alive and gives me my unique existence and individuality. Thus mankind has evolved to live within the trappings of his ego and at the same time, "serve" God throught the inadequacy of himself.
But there is hope. As Isaiah put it..."ARISE, SHINE"....Put another way, come out of that despondency, despair and defeat we live by, in our minds, and look towards the solution that God, our Father, has provided for all of us. Almighty God sent His Son, who is our Light, (John 1:4), so that we, the sons of men can live above the power of darkness and independent of the ungodly culture of the worldly spirit.
The notion that there is no way we can escape the clutches of the carnal nature has been negated by the Son of God, coming in the flesh, mingling within darkness and not having His being contaminated. Therefore the solution is the Son.
By giving our lives...our hearts and minds to the Spirit of the Son...brings about a transformation that makes us become Light , as He is. We are not only IN HIM, we become OF HIM. As He is, the Son of God, we become sons of God joined with Him, through the same nature and mind of Divinity. In this way, the glory that is the Father and the Son is translated to us..("but, the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon us").
In this way, we, as sons of God can live in the darkness of this world (the nature, culture and system of carnality) and be unaffected by that unholy way of life. We have been transformed into Light, as the Father and the Son is (oneness) and as light cannot be mixed with darkness, there is no way we who born again can be subjected to the effects of sin, nor can we even contemplate sin (1 John 3:9). It is the Spirit of God that creates the newness and reality of this transformation. It is not us trying to force this rebirth, through religious works. We must lose ourselves, which is steeped in the nature of darkness, to the purity of Divine Spirit, to make the change-over real and true.
Therefore, we live as light, in the midst of darkness, as a natural consequence of who we become. It is not a religious enforcement, nor is it a constant struggle to stay out of sin. Light is naturally light and within our enlightened beings, we shine exposing the darkness of this deceptive world (including religion) and influence others to come into the Light....So we reach out to the uttermost parts of the earth by...
"LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN, THAT MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS, AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN"
MATTHEW 5:16