Jesus came for judgment. We don’t like to think about it like that. Those aren’t words that easily roll of our tongues, but judgment is an integral reason (and result) of the incarnation.

Jesus is light, and He came into the world as “the true light which gives light to everyone” (John 1:9). Light reveals what is true, which is also the heart of judgment. You see, light also reveals what is untrue. It brings hidden things into the open. Light is the heart of judgment, because it reveals right and wrong; good and bad; truth and lie.

The amazing thing about Jesus, however, is that judgment is only part of His mission. He also came “to seek and to save the lost.” In other words, Jesus came to bring people who were in the darkness into the light. He came to open the eyes of the blind and open the ears of the deaf, so that they would experience something new. If they would just stand in the light He provided, without running for cover, He would show them something new. And those who ran for cover stayed in the darkness, stuck in their on blindness.

We are all responsible for the light we have seen. There is something beyond this darkness, and if you have so much as glimpsed it, you must decide – will I step into the light, as uncomfortable as that may be – or will I retreat into the darkness? Choose to step into the light, and trust Him with the consequences. His Grace is big enough for whatever is revealed in that moment.