Hello, dear reader, I hope you're doing well by God's grace. I am blessed to interact with you this day as we consider a very important and timely message. This message will be short but brief. The topic shall be taken from the epistle of first John. The bible said,
1 John 1:5-7 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
This passage points out something important about our God and Savior Jesus Christ. He is Light. This is very key if we are going to understand what it means to walk in God's way. Everything we do as Christians must be supported by the idea that God is light.
As matter of fact, it's "the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you", a one on one deduction from the life of the one whom we have had interaction with when he lived on earth. This message we have read from John is not a fable but the truth and the proof is not found in any other man but he himself.
"1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life--"
Having the proof of the authenticity of this message, let's also consider the proclamation of it and how that affects our lives. In God, there is no darkness at all. There is no corruption. Whether in the form of flesh or Spirit, he is infinitely perfect in all his doings. He has no connection with sin. He has nothing in him that belongs to Satan. That's a great contradiction between God and man.
Man is totally depraved. There is no man without sin and darkness. So Paul lamented on his depravity in Romans 7:24 "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?". That is key in every Christians life. To a knowledge, our depravity and humble ourselves before the cross even after our salvation because the old nature, the Adamic indwelling sin still reside in the saved man.
So we are not light as used to express the nature of God. We cannot say that we are light. We are fallible and depend on the righteousness of Jesus for right standing with God. This reality debunks any attempt of man to be self-righteous. As John Charles Ryle rightly puts it,
"the true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge".
If we get a deep understanding of who how fallen we are, we will truly appreciate the Light of God.
To walk in The light of God does not mean one should necessarily live an infallible life. That's the goal and we are all striving to attain to that perfection where we will be like Jesus and see him as he is, but that's not the context of this passage. What it's saying is that we are sinners and if we remain in the Light, our true self is going to be brought to light and we will repent and ask for forgiveness. See what he said after that,
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin".
Now we can clearly see the connection of the light with the man. The Light shines in the heart of the man, exposes his true sinful nature and he is filled with repentance and comes to the cross for forgiveness. That's why only Christians love to be in the light. The world hates the light. Why? Because it's not going to fail to reveal what is done in secrets. That's why they shun the Gospel.
This Gospel alone has the power to reveal the sinfulness of man. It's through the preaching of the Gospel that a man comes to a true understanding of his or her original nature. Every man appears good in their own eyes, but in the light of the word of God, everything is shattered, he sees himself in the true spectacle and is broken.
Let's stay in the light, and like the Psalmist ask God to search our hearts for secret sins lurking within. To the preachers, let's not shun biblical exposition of the Gospel, it's only through it that we can have a sense of repentance. The more we view ourselves in the light of God, the more we are broken and the more repentant we become.
God bless you for your time. I pray that God will keep us stay in his Light even when it shows our sinfulness so that we will repent and ask for forgiveness.
