SON OF HIS LOVE

Our reading today speaks of two kingdoms and they are diametrically opposed to one another. One is the kingdom of darkness while the other is the kingdom of the Son of His love. Each person in the world today is in one of these two kingdoms.

The kingdom of darkness is ruled by one who is a deceiver and a liar from the very beginning. The ruler of this kingdom deceived Eve in the garden and ever since then the world has been under the authority of this one to whom she surrendered her allegiance. The history of this world is filled with the reality of our intellectual darkness, Eph. 4.18, thus our wills have been in darkness as well, Rom. 1.21. In this state we changed the glory of God, Rom. 1. 23, and the truth of God, Rom. 1. 25, and, finally, did not like to retain God in our knowledge, Rom. 1. 28. As a result of this darkness in which we lived, we came to love darkness, John 3.19. In this pitiful condition we were in bondage to the fear of death, Heb. 2. 15.

Into this terrible scene of darkness came the Son of God, the Beloved One of the Father. He came to deliver us out of that dominion to which we were slaves. The only way we could escape from this terrible condition was that one would pay the price exacted by God’s holy righteousness, and that was death. The Son of His love paid the price of our sin and thus He could bring us into a new kingdom, one of life, and love, and light. The good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep and therefore we can have abundant life, John 10. 10. He came to demonstrate the Father’s love and did so by his death at Calvary, Rom. 5. 8. As we receive Him as our Lord and Saviour, we come into fellowship with Him and the Father. We now walk in the light for He is in the light, 1 John 1. 3-7. As Jesus Himself said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’, John 14. 6.

One kingdom is full of darkness, fear, and death, while the other kingdom is full of light, love and life. The message of how each child of God came to be transferred from one kingdom into the other is a message this world needs to hear afresh and with conviction. It is a matter of life and death.