The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day. (Proverbs 4:18)

This is really a New Covenant promise. We know that a person is righteous only when he comes to faith in Christ, when his sins are forgiven and he's declared righteous by God, justified with the righteousness of Christ clothing him. But then, it's not God's will that his life should be only like the sunrise. It says, "The path of the righteous is like the sunrise..." But you know when the sun rises, there's light, but the sun is still not at its brightest. Think of the sun rising in the sky; this light shines brighter and brighter and brighter until the noonday position, when there is perfect brightness. We can say the shadows decrease as the sun rises; the shadow of our self-life keeps on decreasing, decreasing, decreasing, decreasing, and finally the sun is overhead where the shadow disappears altogether. And that is God's will for us. From the time we are born again, it is not God's will that any child of His should have an up and down experience.

Now, most Christians have an up and down experience, and when we hear that other people have up and down experiences, and some preacher has an up and down experience, then we are comforted in our defeat. We get our standard from some carnal believer or some carnal preacher instead of from the word of God, which says that the path of the righteous is not up and down. It's not bright and then dark, and then bright again and then dark again. On top of the mountain, then down in the dumps. Praising the Lord and rejoicing, then gloomy and miserable the next day. If that's our experience, I just want to say that's not God's will. That is not the path of the righteous. If a person is walking that way, we can clearly say he is not walking the path of the righteous.

The path of the righteous is called, in the New Testament, "The New and Living Way." It's not a doctrine to understand; it's the path of the righteous. Now, we hear of people who believe in the New and Living Way. I got a letter this week about someone who spoke about "New and Living Way brothers and sisters." What is a New and Living Way brother or sister? Not somebody who sits in Christian Fellowship Church. Not someone who understands the doctrine, but someone who is not going up and down. A person who is going up and down is not in the New and Living Way; that's the old dead way. The New and Living Way is brighter, brighter, brighter, brighter. That is the ONLY New and Living Way the New Testament speaks about: The path of the righteous. This "down in the dumps" business only proves that we have understood the doctrine, but we haven't gotten onto the actual way at all.

The path of the righteous is like the sunrise that shines brighter and brighter; and the sun doesn't go back and forth. It doesn't change its mind suddenly. It just keeps going steadily, and that is God's will for our lives, brothers and sisters. That is the will of God that it becomes better and better and better and better. That means I get more and more light on what dwells in my flesh. I get light on what dwells in my flesh now which I did not know 6 months ago. If we are not in that condition, we are not on the path of the righteous. Let's learn that very clearly so that we don't deceive ourselves by just understanding some doctrine. No; it is the path where the light gets brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter, where I get more and more light on my flesh. Or like 1 John 1:7 says, "If we walk in the light as God is in the light..." God is light, and if I walk in that light, the closer I get to God; the light is getting brighter and brighter. That means I'm getting more and more light on what dwells in my flesh. I'm able to put more and more to death in my life and I'm becoming wiser. That is how Jesus grew in wisdom: he walked the New and Living Way. It says in Luke 2:52 that he grew in wisdom. And that's what Solomon is saying here (in Prov. 4:18), inspired by the Holy Spirit.

It says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that the Holy Spirit shows us the glory of Jesus. That glory is a light, and it becomes brighter and brighter in our life as the Holy Spirit changes us into that same likeness from glory to glory. Proverbs 4:18 is the Old Testament verse which corresponds to 2 Corinthians 3:18. If you want to understand this verse, you have to turn to the corresponding verse in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 3:18, and see there, "...from glory to glory to glory to glory."

We wish you all a very blessed Year 2026 - as the Holy Spirit changes you into the likeness Jesus from glory to glory.