July 15, 2025 - Ephesians 5:8 - "From Darkness to Light"

Ephesians 5:8

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:"

Here we see the glorious contrast between what we were by nature and what we now are by God's saving grace in Christ. In ourselves, we were not merely in darkness—we were darkness. But by the effectual work of Christ and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, we are made light in the LORD. This is not our doing, but His mercy. May we behold the sovereign transforming grace of God in Christ, Who calls His redeemed to walk in the light of His Righteousness, no longer defined by sin and its condemnation, but by union with Him Who is the Light of the world.

By God’s Grace, all regenerated children of God have this one testimony. “Whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). All of the elect children of God have been redeemed by the blood of the LORD Jesus, shed unto death. When they are taught of Him, they will look back on their lives—up to that moment when the Spirit of Christ entered in—and wonder how they could have lived in such darkness and blindness, without ever seeing Christ or longing for Him and the Salvation found in Him. The reason is this: being spiritually dead and blind, they could not see, nor would they have seen, were it not for the gracious Spirit of the LORD Who gave them eyes to see and ears to hear.

“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.” (Proverbs 20:12) 

Just as children love to hear of how they were born and welcomed into their family, so God’s children never tire of hearing, not only the story of their election in Christ but how He redeemed them, how the Father once and forever justified them by Christ’s shed blood unto death and how the Spirt of God gave them life in Him, (John 3:3-8).  When we that are the objects of such Amazing Grace look back on what we were in our lost deplorable deceitful state, we can only ascribe praise to the LORD for having raised us out of the dust and lifted our needy souls from the dunghill to set us with the princes of His people (Psalm 113:7-8).     

There is a “ye were,’"and a “you are,” in the salvation story of every child of God. “YE WERE”: “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” (Ephesians 4:18) But now: “YE ARE washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the LORD Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11) 

    What Grace, not only to be enlightened BY the LORD, to have Light FROM the LORD, and to have Light IN the LORD. Praise HIM, to have HIM Who is THE LIGHT and eyes and ears to see HIM as all our: “...Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). As children OF the Light (Christ Jesus) born of His Spirit, we, therefore, walk as children of Light (Christ Jesus). He is for us, not only the Light of Life (John 8:12) but the very Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2) in Whose life and perfection we walk. That light, life, and righteousness are in Him and not inherent in us.    

    Those who are children of the Light, see the very Glory of the Father shining in the face of Jesus Christ and behold Him: all Grace and Truth with all of God’s precious promises fulfilled in Him and by Him. Here is one of those precious promises: “And if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleansers from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7).