How does the Lord Jesus set us free from sin? He does it by coming into us as the light of life. This light is not outside of us; it is in us. When we received the Lord, He entered into us as our life. This indwelling life now shines within us. That is light. Gradually and spontaneously, this shining of the indwelling life sets us free. To be set free from the bondage of sin is not an overnight matter; it takes time. Although you may be enlivened in one second, it is not so simple to be freed from sin.
We may use our temper as an illustration. Everyone has a temper. If you do not have a temper, you are not a human being. A table has no temper. Regardless of how much you pound on a table, it will never lose its temper because it has no temper to lose. But how about you? Every person has a certain amount of temper, and this temper is the first expression of our serpentine nature. The primary expression of Satan in us is our temper. Whenever a person loses his temper, he has the appearance of a serpent. No one looks like an angel when he loses his temper. When you lose your temper at your wife, you look like a demon. When a kind mother loses her temper toward her child, the child will be frightened because his mother looks like a demon. When we lose our temper, the serpentine nature is expressed. Our temper bothers us very much; it besets us all the time. During the fifty years that I have been a seeking Christian, nothing has bothered me more than my temper. How difficult it is to be freed from our temper! From my experience I can testify that since the day the Lord Jesus came into me He has been my life. This life has been shining within me continually. The more Jesus shines within me, the more I am set free from my temper. Sometimes when I was losing my temper, this light shone strongly. Have you not experienced this as well? While you are losing your temper at your wife, the light shines. The more unbelievers lose their temper, the more temper they have to lose. However, when we, the seeking Christians, begin to lose our temper, we find that we have less and less temper to lose. Sometimes a brother or sister is stopped by the inward shining while he is losing his temper. Something inward shines over him, killing the serpentine nature. After fifty years of experience, I can say that now it is difficult for me to lose my temper. For fifty years the heavenly radium has been killing the serpentine nature of temper.
Radium treatment is given for certain diseases. The patient sits under the radium, and its rays are transfused into him. We have a heavenly radium within us, and this radium kills the serpentine nature. This is the light of life which sets us free from the slavery of sin.
We are set free from sin not only by the shining of the light of life, but also by the Son as reality (8:32, 36). The reality is not the so-called truth of doctrine; it is the reality of the truth which is the Lord Himself (14:6; 1:14, 17). In 8:32 we are told that “the reality shall set you free.” In 8:36 we are told that “the Son shall set you free.” This proves that the Son, the Lord Himself, is the reality. Since the Lord is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), He is the reality of what God is. Hence, reality is the very divine element of God realized by us. When the Lord as the great I Am comes into us as life, He shines within us as light, which brings the divine element as reality into us. This reality, which is the divine element imparted into us and realized by us, sets us free from the bondage of sin by the divine life as the light of man. The Son of God as the very fullness of the Godhead is the reality. While He shines in us as life, He works His reality, His divine element, into our being. This is not merely shining; it is a shining that brings the reality of what God is into our being. Eventually, day after day, and year after year, this divine element will be accumulated in our being. Thus, within our being there will be a certain amount of divine reality. No one can deny this.
I have been a seeking Christian for over fifty years. I do not say that I cannot fall or be stumbled. Perhaps tomorrow I shall be stumbled by my dear wife or by one of the brothers. Nevertheless, regardless of how much I may be stumbled, the divine element that has been wrought into my being during the past fifty years can never be lost. Even if I stumble, I will stumble with a great deal of the divine element.
By the shining of the inner life and by the working of the divine element in our very being, we are set free from the slavery of sin. This resembles the medical treatment designed to cure diseases in our blood. It is very difficult to eliminate the disease from our blood. We need medicine. If I take the medicine several times a day, the medicine will, on the one hand, destroy the germs and, on the other hand, add a positive element into my body organically. This positive element will supply nourishment to the tissues of my body. Eventually, the disease will be swallowed up. By such a metabolic process, the old element is discharged and replaced by a new element. This is the way that the divine life sets us free from the bondage of sin. It is not a matter of reckoning yourself dead according to Romans 6. Many of us have tried this in the past and found that it does not work. No, you must experience the living Jesus in you as the shining light and as the divine element that works inwardly. Eventually, the heavenly, divine element will be added into your being. This is our salvation.
How can the Lord keep us from sinning anymore? How can He set us free from the slavery and bondage of sin? Simply because the great I Am has become our life, and this life is the light of life. When we received Him, He became our life, and this life becomes the very light that brings us out of the darkness of sin. Only the light of life can set us free from the bondage and slavery of sin. The Lord could forgive us because He is the Son of Man who died for us by being lifted up on the cross. Now the Lord can deliver us and set us free from the bondage of sin because He is the great I Am living within us. He now becomes the life that is the light within us. This light of life can set us free from the bondage of sin and deliver us out of the darkness of sin. We must realize, therefore, that we are set free only by Christ becoming our life and light. Furthermore, this life and light will also bring us into the truth, that is, into the reality. After you receive and enjoy the Lord Jesus as your life and light, you will find that this very divine life and light will bring you into reality. After you are brought into reality, you will be delivered from falsehood. The reason why people easily commit sin is that they were born in falsehood. Since they were born of the devil, the enemy of God, they were all born liars. The devil, the father of liars, is the greatest liar. Hence, the father of liars has brought all sinners into the darkness of falsehood. The devilish life has brought them into darkness, and darkness has brought them into falsehood. Thus, it is very easy for people to commit sin as long as they are in falsehood. But, praise the Lord, we now have received the Lord within us as our life and light. This life and light bring us into reality, which will free us from the bondage and slavery of sin.
In this passage there is the comparison between two fathers. One is the father of liars, the father of falsehood, murder, and adultery. Originally, we were born of this father. We should not think that we were merely born of our parents. On the one hand, we were born of our parents, but on the other hand, we were born of the evil father of lies. He is the greatest liar, and we, the smaller liars, were all born liars. “You are of your father the devil” (8:44). We were born of this father of lies. Consequently, we were born sons of lies. We should not think that we were born Americans or Chinese, for each one of us was born a liar.
Praise the Lord that there is another father, the heavenly Father, the Father of light and truth. He is the great I Am, who became incarnated as a man. As the Son of Man, He was lifted up on the cross for our sin and died for us. Now, if we believe in Him and in what He has done for us, He, as the great I Am, the Father of life, will come into us to be our life and light. Then He will deliver us from falsehood into reality and from darkness into the kingdom of light, where we will be set free from the bondage and slavery of sin.