Jesus cried the words aloud in intense desire that people receive truth and live. They were part of His last lessons to His disciples just before His betrayal and death, words the Holy Spirit as the promised Comforter would bring to their remembrance. He speaks them now at the very close of earth's history to every soul as one who reads hearts.
To see Jesus is to see the Father who sent Him, and to believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father who sent Him. Christ makes God known and reveals the Father, and His unity with God makes His words and works a revelation of God. Receiving Christ and His words is therefore receiving God's message, while rejecting the light and message Christ brings is rejecting God. Continued rejection hardens the heart and leads into darkness, while shutting the eyes and senses to Christ eclipses God from the mind.
In its surrounding words, the verse belongs to Christ's call to leave darkness for light, for He came as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in Him will not remain in darkness. He came not to judge the world but to save it, and does not judge one who hears His words and does not believe. Yet the one who rejects Him and does not receive His words has a judge in the word He spoke, which will judge him in the last day. He did not speak from Himself but exactly what the Father commanded Him to say and speak, which is life everlasting.
The cry was directed to those under conviction who resist light, follow their own inclinations, and love human praise more than God's praise. So it was with the many chief rulers who believed in Him yet would not confess Him for fear of being put out of the synagogue. By hiding belief to keep place they lost the opportunity to stand openly on God's side and the strength available through fellowship with God.
Seeing Him brings responsibility for the light He gives, for people are not accountable for light that never came to them. Devoted Christians who died keeping Sunday without light on the Sabbath are therefore not condemned and their piety is not demerited. With greater light now given through searching the Scriptures as truth constantly unfolds, to be accepted people must improve the privileges and opportunities of clearer light. They must advance step by step with Jesus, walk in the light shining on their pathway as faithful fathers walked in the light shining on theirs, and follow on to know the Lord. Refusing increased light on the Sabbath because fathers did not see it leaves no cloak for sin.
The verse calls for self-surrender and self-denial, following Christ where He is instead of planning to benefit self and following the impulse of the natural heart. Every jot and tittle of capability lent in trust is to be used in sacred service to honor God, accepting discipline and captivity to Christ which is the freedom of the sons of God. Choosing one's own way and will and serving God at will while working away from Christ when it suits inclination is serving two masters and costs loss of the soul. Willing subjects of Christ's kingdom saved in God's appointed way are the elect, chosen of God and precious, honored by the Father for serving and following Christ.
Each person has an individual need to come to the light and to keep in the channel of light. Belief in Christ cannot be separated from present truth, the special message given to the world even the third angel's message with its vast field and heavenly treasures. No one can truly preach Christ and present the truth as it is in Jesus without presenting the truths to come before the people at the present time amid important developments. Seeing Christ means seeing Him by living faith, losing sight of self and human ideas and beholding Him in order to be reconverted and transformed into His likeness. Those who thus see Him abide in Him and submit to His sanctifying work, becoming patient, kind, forbearing and compassionate, and receive power to work miracles for His glory.
Jesus cried the words aloud in intense desire that people receive truth and live. They were part of His last lessons to His disciples just before His betrayal and death, words the Holy Spirit as the promised Comforter would bring to their remembrance. He speaks them now at the very close of earth's history to every soul as one who reads hearts.
To see Jesus is to see the Father who sent Him, and to believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father who sent Him. Christ makes God known and reveals the Father, and His unity with God makes His words and works a revelation of God. Receiving Christ and His words is therefore receiving God's message, while rejecting the light and message Christ brings is rejecting God. Continued rejection hardens the heart and leads into darkness, while shutting the eyes and senses to Christ eclipses God from the mind.
In its surrounding words, the verse belongs to Christ's call to leave darkness for light, for He came as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in Him will not remain in darkness. He came not to judge the world but to save it, and does not judge one who hears His words and does not believe. Yet the one who rejects Him and does not receive His words has a judge in the word He spoke, which will judge him in the last day. He did not speak from Himself but exactly what the Father commanded Him to say and speak, which is life everlasting.
The cry was directed to those under conviction who resist light, follow their own inclinations, and love human praise more than God's praise. So it was with the many chief rulers who believed in Him yet would not confess Him for fear of being put out of the synagogue. By hiding belief to keep place they lost the opportunity to stand openly on God's side and the strength available through fellowship with God.
Seeing Him brings responsibility for the light He gives, for people are not accountable for light that never came to them. Devoted Christians who died keeping Sunday without light on the Sabbath are therefore not condemned and their piety is not demerited. With greater light now given through searching the Scriptures as truth constantly unfolds, to be accepted people must improve the privileges and opportunities of clearer light. They must advance step by step with Jesus, walk in the light shining on their pathway as faithful fathers walked in the light shining on theirs, and follow on to know the Lord. Refusing increased light on the Sabbath because fathers did not see it leaves no cloak for sin.
The verse calls for self-surrender and self-denial, following Christ where He is instead of planning to benefit self and following the impulse of the natural heart. Every jot and tittle of capability lent in trust is to be used in sacred service to honor God, accepting discipline and captivity to Christ which is the freedom of the sons of God. Choosing one's own way and will and serving God at will while working away from Christ when it suits inclination is serving two masters and costs loss of the soul. Willing subjects of Christ's kingdom saved in God's appointed way are the elect, chosen of God and precious, honored by the Father for serving and following Christ.
Each person has an individual need to come to the light and to keep in the channel of light. Belief in Christ cannot be separated from present truth, the special message given to the world even the third angel's message with its vast field and heavenly treasures. No one can truly preach Christ and present the truth as it is in Jesus without presenting the truths to come before the people at the present time amid important developments. Seeing Christ means seeing Him by living faith, losing sight of self and human ideas and beholding Him in order to be reconverted and transformed into His likeness. Those who thus see Him abide in Him and submit to His sanctifying work, becoming patient, kind, forbearing and compassionate, and receive power to work miracles for His glory.