"This is the Testimony"

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 3 - Heavenly Light

"When I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5).

"Ye are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14).

"Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).

"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not" (John 1:4-5).

"Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, even so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).

"I saw seven golden lampstands... the seven lampstands are seven churches" (Rev. 1:12,20).

"Do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy lampstand out of its place" (Rev. 2:5).

"Ye shall be My witnesses" (Acts 1:8).

A further quite simple word on the testimony as Light, this is the testimony: "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." "I am the light." "Ye are the light." "Let your light shine." "The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness overcame it not" (ASV margin). "As He is, so are we in this world."

The Absolute Supremacy of Heavenly Light

The first thing that comes to us out of those portions, and one in particular, is the absolute supremacy of heavenly Light. "The light shines in the darkness; and the darkness overcame it not." When you think of all that is gathered into that word 'darkness', not only the state of man, not only the state of the world, not only the attitude of that state as positively antagonistic, but all that encompassing, encircling realm, it is significant that when we speak about the powers of evil, we do not usually speak of them as the powers of death or the powers of hatred. It is far more usual to speak of them as the powers of darkness. That is foremost in our thought when we think of the evil powers, combining all that goes to make up the darkness of the human heart, of the world and its blindness, and of the evil, of darkness that encompasses, encircles and wraps around. There comes into the very heart of it all One in whom there is Light, and the declaration is that darkness overcame it not. Of course, that must be said positively - the Light overcame the darkness - the absolute supremacy of heavenly Light.

And if it is true that as He is, so are we in this world, if it is true that He being the Light of the world we also are the Light of the world, then our presence ought to make it impossible for things to be the same as they were before we arrived on the scene, wherever that scene may be. Our coming anywhere, our being anywhere, ought to have this effect: that things can never be the same again. This world kingdom can never be the same again since the Lord Jesus came into it. This world kingdom can never be the same since believers came into being, since the church was born. An altogether new situation has been precipitated in the whole realm and range of darkness.

Of course, that is proved by the absolute necessity for that realm of intelligent darkness to take action, recognising that things cannot be the same. Something has happened, they have to take account of it and take measures in relation to it, they cannot afford to be passive. This is the testimony, and quite briefly it does amount to this, that our presence anywhere, as those who are in vital relationship with the Lord Jesus, should result in a difference which cannot be undone; perhaps not the difference that we would like to come about, but a difference.

Wherever the Lord Jesus went, His presence, before He said anything, made a disturbance; the things of darkness began to show themselves. Men who were sinners began to confess their sin before He said anything about it. Zacchaeus will begin to talk about himself and his wrong-doing and what a bad fellow he is, and the Lord has not said anything about him. He has simply said, "Today I must abide at thy house" (Luke 19:1-10). Demons on His arrival, before He said anything, began to cry out, "What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" (Matt. 8:29). He might have said, "I did not say anything, what are you shouting about?" Ah, but He was there. It is a test, you see, as well as the testimony.

The presence of the Light cannot leave things as they were. Heavenly Light is supreme. You cannot have the sun shining in its strength and not feel it, not know it. It is a test of our Christian life. John in his letter was seeking to identify the great factors which make up Christianity, to bring them again into full view at the end, for an end-time. "This is...", "this is..." - so many times, as we noted, identifying what Christianity really is, "And this is the testimony, that God is Light, and ye are the Light."

The Essential Inwardness of Heavenly Light

But then the next thing about this is the essential inwardness of heavenly Light. Neither we individually, nor the church, are a dead body reflecting light like the moon. What John goes on with in this connection in principle in the testimony is this: "As He is, so are we in this world." "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). The Lord always spoke of the Light as being 'in you'. "If the light that is in you..." (Matt. 6:23). It is intrinsic Light. Paul wrote, "It is God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

What I am wanting to get at is this: God is not wanting retailers of truth, second-hand dealers in doctrine, professional or amateur missionaries. He is wanting men, He is wanting women, He is wanting people. Man is a Divine law and principle, as well as a Divine idea. Man is fundamental to the Divine method in this world. If God just wanted certain truths announced, which were absolutely true and right, He would have sent angels, they would have done it very well - they always fulfil their ministry very well indeed. If He had just wanted things to be known in the way of information, He could have had recordings made in heaven, and dropped a few recording machines to reproduce announcers. That is not God's principle and law. God's law is incarnation. It is a method, it is a basic principle, it is mankind.

Therefore, when we come to that particular function of which we were speaking - the prophetic function - or even before we get the prophetic function, which lies a long way before ever a man was called a prophet, it is the custodianship of Light, the Light of God's thought, God's mind. When you get the prophetic function, and later the prophetic office as the outcome of the function, you find that the prophet is a man who has not just things to say, but through whose very being those things have been passed into and in which he himself has been placed in deep and terrible experience. If he were one who had things to say only, he could have done it. He might have been taking great risks and putting himself into peril, but he would have done it. But you find the prophets were men of travail and agony, because they themselves had to live their message, the thing had to go through them and they were constituted according to the thing which they had to give. They were the messengers in the message (Hag. 1:13).

That is a familiar truth to us. It may have lost much of its edge, but let us remember that, when it comes to Light, it is not something that is to be passed on in the way of information, of truth, of teaching, of study, themes and subjects in the Word of God and what is here in the Book just gathered together and organised and then reproduced in addresses and lectures. It is the outshining of the Son of God, and that can only be when the thing is wrought into us, has become a part of us. It is our innermost being and life, and we cannot part with that; we cannot change our position in this, we cannot withdraw from this truth. If our ministry, if what we say, is something that we can go back upon, it is simply something which we have taken up. But a true messenger of God, a true prophet, is one in whom the person and the message have become so much one that nothing in heaven, earth, or hell can separate the two; they go with their message to the end. When the Light is inward, you are involved yourself. It is no use just giving something that is objective and detached; you have to give yourself, and you are giving yourself when you are a true servant of the Lord. It is inward and a part of us.

The Outshining of Inward Light

The primary thing about a lamp is that it shines, and we are lights; the churches are the lamps. You can have lots of sorts of lamps, very elegant lamps, very beautiful lamps, very artistic lamps, very valuable lamps, so far as their material is concerned, but the point, after all, is: does it do the job, does it fulfil its purpose? We are here just for a purpose, and that purpose is to shine.

So the Lord comes to these seven churches in the Revelation, and His challenge is not, 'Have you got a lot of good things to be said about you?' "I can say quite a number of things about you. I know your faith, your patience, your labour, and so on, but that is not good enough." He begins with Ephesus. "I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love... repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy lampstand out of its place" (Rev. 2:4,5). The only justification for your continuing as a vessel of the testimony of Jesus is not whether there are all sorts of good things about you, but are you doing the main thing? That is, is the darkness broken into and overcome? Are you witnessing against the darkness by what you do and by what you are, more than by what you say?

Now, listen, young friends. You think of service; maybe you are thinking in terms of missionary service or some other form of service to the Lord, that you mentally conceive is the work of the Lord, and you think of it in certain established traditional terms and senses - being a missionary, a minister, or some other designated Christian worker, a servant of God. I do want to say to you that, in the first place, that is not what God is after at all, and the Lord will never give anyone any kind of real service and opportunity to serve Him in any larger, fuller way, until just where they are, they shine. They may not be able to talk very much, but they shine. They do talk very loudly without saying a word.

Do not take that and hide behind it and say, "Alright, I like that, that comforts me a lot; I need not bother about testifying or saying anything, I will just try and be a Christian." That would be a wrong application of what I am saying. I am saying that, in the first place, our presence has got to speak, it is that about us which matters. Do not forget that the Lord calls upon you to confess Him with your mouth; I would not make light of that, however, the point is: are you shining where you are? Are you really registering anything where you are? Until that is true, there is no hope whatever of any enlargement of sphere or opportunity.

The Effect of Light

What about the effect of this? The effect of light is that it discriminates, it makes for contrasts. Light can never be neutral, light is always positive, and this discriminating power and effect of light has to do firstly with the absolute: that is, where there are no shadows, where it is light or darkness, where it is Christ or the devil, where it is one thing or the other. The Light discriminates there and draws a clear line between what is Christ and what is not Christ. You are denying the very thing for which you are in this world as a child of God if there is not the clear and unmistakable definition of Light and darkness where you are concerned. This belongs to this and that belongs to that, and there is no bringing of those things together. Light does that as to the absolute position.

But then it also applies to the comparative or the relative. I do not mean as to sin, but when we come to the Lord, there are good things and there are better things and there are the best things, even with the Lord. There are things which go so far, there is nothing wrong with them, there is no darkness in them so far as they go, but they only go so far, and the Lord would have something more. You go on and if you are walking in the Light, the result, the effect, of walking in the Light is that you begin to see that this is good as far as it goes, but it only goes so far; there is something more the Lord is after. I am seeing more, so that the more, while it may not indicate that that was wrong, creates a comparison, a discrimination, and you feel you are walking less in the Light than you might do. The Light does that.

As we walk in the Light we come from time to time to see that the Lord has still something more, and we have to go on, because, if we refuse more Light, the Light that is in us may become darkness, may lose its brightness, its clearness. The point is that Light is quite uncompromising; it never compromises at any point, it makes an absolute demand.

The result is, of course, that Light brings enemies out - not makes enemies, but brings them out, they are there. If we are here on this earth in relation to our Lord Jesus in the same capacity as He was here - as Light - that fact will bring enemies out against us and will manifest enemy factors and enemy forces around us. You will not have to say anything at all. Your presence will bring that which is antagonistic out in a positive way.

Do not think you can be here as a true child of God, in true relationship with the Lord, and not make enemies, or bring enemies out. It is impossible in this world, such as it is, to be a true Christian and not have enemies. "Woe unto you when all men speak well of you" (Luke 6:26). When you are in good standing with everybody, no matter what kind of people they are, that is not the testimony. I am not suggesting to you that you go out and try to make enemies to prove that you are a good Christian. There are always perils about things like this, but I am sure you will not misunderstand me. The inherent Light, the intrinsic Light, is bound to bring out what is antagonistic to it.

The Lord Himself knew this. It was not because He was antagonistic to people, it was not that He was always criticising, always setting Himself upon a pedestal, always deliberately giving the impression that He was something different and better and higher up - not at all, nothing like that. But His very presence drew out what was antagonistic, and so He found Himself, as He went on, surrounded by enemies, and His enemies were increasing all the time simply because they were in the darkness and they were not prepared to come out of the darkness and face the Light. They were not prepared to accept the judgment on their position which the light brought, they were not prepared to accept that they were in the wrong. So they had to do something about it. We shall never know any other experience than that if we are in the Light, and therefore if it is not by reason of your foolishness, your lack of wisdom, your own responsibility in the way that you behave. If it is purely and simply because of your walk with your Lord that you have enemies, take comfort. Do not think it is all wrong, that it ought not to be. It is bound to be; accept it as the Lord's own seal upon your witness.

I believe that the enemy himself very often acts in a complimentary way to the truth. What I mean is this. I do not know where we should be if the devil never got up on his hind legs and began to scheme, because when God has something of value in view, the devil anticipates it with a terrific attempt at frustration and spoliation. So we say, 'There is something worthwhile.' The enemy is very often a compliment. If you have enemies as the result of your walk with the Lord, take courage, it is alright, it means that something is happening. Do not try by any means to make it otherwise, only on the ground that they come to the Lord; not to your position, to your argument, to your theory, but to the Lord. It is the only place where enemies can become friends. This is the testimony.

Light is Vocational

One closing word. Light is always vocational; that is, Light is a mission, Light is a work in itself. How beneficent Light is! What a mission light fulfils in the natural realm. Light is always a vocation, always a mission, a Divine work, so that the churches are here represented through John as fulfilling a vocation on the simple basis that they possess Light.

Do you want to serve the Lord, do you want to be of use to the Lord? If you are in the Light and the Light is in you, you cannot help it. You need not put a badge on and wear a special kind of uniform. You need not have any kind of rite performed over you to make you something. You are the servant of the Lord. To be possessed of the Light and to possess the Light is vocational; it is bound to work out like that. Have a little company of the Lord's people anywhere who are in the Light, in whom the Light is, where the Light is shining, and they cannot be hid - that serves the Lord's purpose.

I believe that first of all the Lord's object is to have Light centres so that those who want the Light will know where to find it and those who do not want the Light will know that they cannot get on quite so easily in their darkness as they could before that Light centre was placed in their midst. Is that not the whole idea of churches in the New Testament - Light centres?

What is true of the churches is true of individual believers, and then of course, it is true of the Church. As we have seen, the Holy Spirit shows us the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, her Light like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal - "and the nations shall walk in the light thereof". That is vocational. So the Lord is dealing with us in order to make us His servants in the sense that, where we are, darkness cannot go on unchallenged. The Lord make us true witnesses in this way.