Are you “of the truth?”  How do you know?  Can you even know?  Many people believe in the doctrine “once saved, always saved,” and, of course, that is true because the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus died for the sins of all.  Just read Romans 5 if you doubt this.  Five is the number of grace and Paul makes it clear five times there that all men are saved by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  I will try to write about the salvation of all mankind in the near future, but for now, if you do not understand or doubt this essential doctrine, please read the book The Restitution of All Things by Andrew Jukes.

Today the question is, how can one become and know he is “of the truth?”  John holds the key:

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  [6] If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  [7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  [8] If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  [10] If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10 (ESV) 

I have noticed a strange thing in my later years.  Christians who are connected to the Harlot Babylon, the church made by men’s hands which buys and sells religion, do not repent of their sins.  For some strange reason they seem to think that they do not sin, or if they do actually recognize a sin from time to time, they believe that the forgiveness of Jesus preempts their need to repent.  As the wise man said, such thinking is baloney!

John says that anyone who walks in darkness, yet says he fellowships with Jesus (that is, he says he is a Christian, a Methodist, an Episcopal, a Baptist, a Catholic, a charismatic, etc.) lies and does not practice the truth.  Again, anyone who claims to believe in Jesus and yet walks in darkness lies and does not practice the truth.

What does it mean to walk in darkness?  It is the opposite of walking the the light.  Isaiah best defines it, I think: 

    Woe to those who call evil good
        and good evil,
    who put darkness for light
        and light for darkness,
    who put bitter for sweet
        and sweet for bitter!   Isaiah 5:20 (ESV)  

To walk in darkness is to walk in evil ways instead of good ways.  It is to partake of evil instead of good.  It is to call evil good and good evil.  Jesus said, “It is written, ’Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “   Immerse yourself, wash yourself, in God’s Word.  Remember, ”all of God’s words added together reveal God’s truth” (Ps. 119:160). 

So, learn God’s truth, which is God’s light.  When you do not walk in that truth and light, you walk in darkness.  John and Paul teach us that no one can walk perfectly in God’s light unless they do one thing.  They must practice righteousness by repenting of their failures to walk in that light, that is, they must repent of their sins.  In this way they remain in the light.  I could learn and know all of the Bible and yet still not practice righteousness.  Do not simply read the Bible each day, or all of it each year, but do what it says.  You do what it says by actually doing it and, when you fail to do it, by repenting of your failure.  If the Word of God does not affect your life, for example, if you still even partake of “course jesting” (you know, if you watch and laugh at late-night talk shows, today’s sit-coms, movies, or tell off-color jokes yourself), then you are walking in darkness and do not practice the truth.  Then you are not “of the truth.”

The truth dwells within each person who practices righteousness.  2 John.  This one, and only this one at present, is the son of God who is “of the truth.”  All the rest are sons of the devil.  I ask again, are you of the truth?

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:1-4 KJ2000)

God.  We can’t see him, but we can come to know him.  Men know things primarily through using words to describe perceived reality.  God created the seen world and cosmos by, through, and with his Word.  God said and behold, it was!  The revelation of God’s Word begins at the beginning and continues through all of Scripture.  Through his Word he reveals himself to the patriarchs, Moses, Samuel, David, the prophets, and finally to all mankind in the Word Himself, Jesus Christ.  Two thousand years ago the Word became flesh and dwelt for awhile among men.  That Word was the man Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God in the flesh.

But the revelation of God did not begin with the name Jesus.  It began with his first revealed name to man in Genesis 1:1 in the name Elohim which we simply translate as God.  This name Elohim is the only name used to reveal God in all the first chapter of Genesis.  Genesis 1 reveals God who speaks to a formless and void creation, intimating a ruined creation through the disobedience and rebellion of Satan, and brings this void creation into a new creation that is “very good.”

Genesis 1:2 depicts in starkest form man without God.  Here we see that when man lives devoid of God, darkness dwells on the face of the deep, upon the face of his very soul.  Who can describe the deep waters of a man or the drive and despair that compels him ever deeper into sin’s darkness and the hell of his own making?  But, does not the Word say that even if one makes his bed in hell, you, oh God, are there?

Yes, the Spirit of Elohim hovers over the deep, dark waters of man’s soul, inexorably, inexplicably, until somewhere at some appointed time he will say to each soul, “Let there be light!” and there will be light.  Then Elohim will begin to separate the darkness of man’s soul from that light until, finally, the man becomes nothing but light, with no darkness at all.

The first four verses of the Bible thus introduce us briefly to the grandest concepts of creation.  First, God reveals himself as Elohim.  Second, he reveals himself brooding, hovering over the dark soul of man.  Third, he brings light to that darkened soul.  Fourth, he separates the darkness from the light.  In four short verses God takes us from creation to sanctification, being set apart for and to him.

“Let there be light!” Elohim said, and there was light.  And so, we give thanks unto the Father, who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light because we are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. (John 7:17)

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

The essence of salvation is that man’s will be conformed to God’s will. It is only when a man wills, by the exercise of his own free will, to walk in God’s will that he conforms to God’s image. Thus we see that salvation and creation mean one and the same thing. I am no more fully saved than I am fully created. Adam was made in the image of God, but his initial creation did not complete him. He must fall, he must sin, so that the process of creation can continue. He must learn to discern good and evil and choose the good or else never become complete.

In man God re-creates himself. He could not program man to be inherently perfect, having no ability to sin, because then the man would not be “like God” and “made in His image.” No, to be like God, man had to be able to sin if he wanted to, but ultimately choose not to. When man learns to will the will of God perfectly then, and only then, he becomes one with God, just as Jesus and the Father are one.

Jesus is the personification of the Father as a man. Jesus is God become flesh. Jesus is the perfect image of God. Jesus is the goal and summation of creation. Jesus is the pattern of perfection who teaches us to lay aside our own will for God’s will. He teaches us to say no to the things of the world and yes to the things of God.

This is what the reconciliation of man with God is all about. The path of man is one of being born in darkness, that is, of first being a son of Satan. Then the man in darkness begins to perceive light and that he is darkness and not light. Later he learns that light is better than darkness and begins to repent of his darkness, his sins. He learns that Jesus prepared a way to come into that light, and that that way is through Jesus Himself. He learns that the light is really the Kingdom of God. Thus he hears the prophet say, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Repentance is the first step one takes when he begins to follow God. But one can repent only when he begins to believe that truth exists and there really is a right way and a wrong way.

Elohim are light bearers who reveal the light to God’s creation by speaking the truth in love.