epignosis2-6

�GOD IS LIGHT:� (I John 1:5)

{*54} �In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.� Light, in the physical and human world, is the great carrier of information. Jesus, the Word, brings us information about Heaven, being {*52} �the brightness of His (the Father�s) glory and the express image of His Person.� C.S. Lewis wrote, �I believe in Christianity the way I believe in the sun. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.� Through the Lord and the Holy Spirit, we see, know, understand and experience that part of creation which physical light does not reveal to us. And Jesus said of those born again of the Spirit, �Ye are the light of the world.� We have the task, and the God given capacity , to radiate spiritual truth to the rest of the world.

�GOD IS LOVE:� (I John 4:16)

{*55} �God is love; and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him.� Jesus, the Light of the world, the express image of the Father, came because {*56} �God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son...� Light also carries energy. Perhaps Love is the spiritual dynamic, the motive force in the Heavenlies. And we share this divine attribute because {*57) �the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.�

Is all of this analogizing too much? Well, yes, if we make it too much. But we may remember that {*56} �since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.�

�GOD IS HOLY:" {*59} �Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts:�
From one {*D} dictionary we draw these concepts of holiness: �Perfect in righteousness and divine love; infinitely good; spiritually whole, sound: unimpaired innocence.�
Interestingly, we can only define holiness in terms of other words. It is good, it is love (whatever that is); but what is goodness etc? Without reading any long-winded treatise we all know what goodness is. We know by experience because we see goodness in other people and even in ourselves. Infinite goodness, or holiness, we know by extension, as those who have walked a mile �know� that it is ninety million miles to the sun. (Does anyone really know what 90,000,000 miles means?) Are we also to try on this coat? {*60} �but as He who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, {*61} �Be holy, for I am holy.�� Notice that we are to be holy �in our conduct;� holiness, as all of God attributes, is dynamic, living. And can we be this? {*62} �Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him face to face.�

3) THE LIVING WORD:

{*63} �God.. has in these last days spoken to us by His Son,.. who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person..� Yes, the highest peak of the Father�s revelation of Himself is in Jesus Christ, {*64} �which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled.� Oh, the familiarity that the Lord has granted us, and yet, {*65} �He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.� Jesus is seen to be all that the written word reveals of the Father: Spirit, Love, Light, Holy; but {*66} �He came unto His own and His own received Him not.� Nevertheless, {*67} �we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.� Again, we are to be like Him, for, {*68} �of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.�

So then, what can we say as pertaining to the Divine Nature? Nothing! If there is anything that can be said, scripture has already said it. The creature cannot study the Creator; but, as with the sun, we can live in, and by, the outflowing of His effulgence. And, still more wonderfully, {*69} �We all.. are being transformed into the same image.., by the Spirit of the Lord.�

-------------------- end - the divine nature --------------------

HAVING ESCAPED: We do not want to pass over these seemingly innocuous words without realizing their pivotal stance. Most of these four verses are positive. We are to have grace and peace, all things that pertain, glory and virtue. The antithesis is, "having escaped!" Having escaped the opposite of glory and virtue, "corruption." And we are also told the origin of that corruption.

CORRUPTION.. IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUST: Let us deal first with the word "lust," which in practice is the precursor coming before the result, corruption. The {*C} dicitonary agrees with the normal use of the word in its connection with sexual desire, but gives the general meaning as, "as any overwhelming desire or craving."

There is also a negative connection; lust is either an unnatural desire, or a natural desire gone to excess. Now what is lust for one "Born again of the Spirit" except the desire to do ones own carnal, (fleshly) will instead of the will of his Creator? Paul makes this division, {*70} "( I ) could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ;" and the carnal mind, we are told, is {*71} "enmity against God." {*72} "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." The progess is put succinctly for us by James, {*73} "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (KJV) And what is death but corruption? So then, truly, corruption is in the world through lust. And we need to {*74} "Put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him." For those who wish to look it up, there follows in the next three verses seven guilde lines to that end.