0821 WALKING IN THE LIGHT

AUGUST 21 = 1 JOHN 1

WALKING IN THE LIGHT

The apostle John wrote starting with the big picture and then got to the particular details. Peter sort of wrote the other way around, starting with the practical application and then providing the big context to explain the WHY behind the WHAT. But John, his gospel begins with “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God and the word was God.” It doesn’t get more big picture than that.

John’s first epistle opens in quite a similar way:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

And soon John is declaring the big picture gospel. 

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

‭‭What does this mean that God is light? Remember back at creation, before it all started, darkness (which is a lack of light) hung over the face of the earth. Then God spoke, “Let there be light.” And light became, and God saw that the light was good, and he sided with the light. He identifies himself with the light, rather than the lack of light known as darkness. 

Light then has to do with purity. Knowledge. Clear motives. Holiness. Truth. This is where God dwells. With whom there is no darkness at all. 

“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”

‭‭You cannot walk with God and have secrets, live a lie, be impure, give way to temptation, or any other human impurity, because God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

There are some who claim to know God. But their personal lives are filled with things that they would be ashamed of if they were to stand before the judgment seat of God.

“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, purifies us from all sin.”

‭‭This single verse of Scripture is one of the most packed verses in the Bible. Several details from this verse:

1. We are to walk in the light, as he is in the light. Openness, faith, holiness, truth, and love. This is our calling. Don’t pretend you are already there, and so deceive yourself.
2. Now, what does it mean to walk in the light? Does it mean that you live a perfect, sinless life? No. I’m afraid we still live on a fallen planet. It can be illustrated this way: walking IN the light really means you are walking TOWARD the light. On the moon, did you know that your shadow is absolute, because there is no atmosphere to dissipate light there. So if you are walking on the moon, make sure you are not walking toward your shadow at any given moment, because you will not be able to see whatever obstacles might be in your way. Instead, you always walk away from your shadow and toward the sun. I say this to say that walking in the darkness is not just a matter of being on the wrong side of the planet; it is facing the wrong direction wherever you are. So what’s the solution to walking in the darkness? Turn around! Walk in the direction of the light. The Bible word for turn around is REPENT! That’s what it means to walk in the light.
3. We have fellowship with one another. Our relationships with each other are a major benefit of belonging to Christ. He teaches us by his spirit to love perfectly.
4. And the blood of Jesus purifies us. Take note: we are not brought into right standing with God by the ethical teachings of Jesus, or by trying to imitate and follow him, or by his everlasting love. We are brought into relationship with the Father through the blood. 
5. Jesus’ blood purifies us from all sin. Well, not all sin, of course. No? Really? ALL sin? We’re not 85% clean before the Lord? A B+ in holiness this week.
6.  And notice this: his blood PURIFIES us. That is a present tense verb, which in Greek is a continuous action participle. In other words, a better translation of this would be “the blood of Jesus is continually purifying us from every kind of sin.” I’m saying that as a Christian you can’t stack two sins back to back, because as soon as you do the first, it is already forgiven. THAT’S good news!

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We are back to the denial stage of repentance. Rather than turning around as we walk away from the light, we simply deny that we have a shadow, or that there are obstacles in our way. I’m good enough, we say. That’s because we compare ourselves to other people we know, and we think we stack up pretty well. But if we begin to think or to say that we have no sin in our lives, we are lying to ourselves. Instead, we must do as verse 9 says:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It’s another of those exceedingly rich verses, packed with meaning.

1. We confess our sins. Not just we realize we are not without sin. No, we say it. Out loud. To someone. This is a time for humble confession, not generalizations. 
2. What’s more, we confess our own sins. Not someone else’s. And no excuses. I sinned, because someone made it hard for me, or I accidentally made a misjudgment, or I was angry and so I did something wrong. I sinned.
3. Also notice that we confess SINS not just a sin. Our many sins we begin to list, starting with the worst ones that bring you the most shame. Go ahead and start your list. God has all the time in the world.
4. God is faithful and just. He is both of those qualities, which is important. He is faithful to you. He will not turn away from you because that particular sin was too bad for him. No. He is faithful to you. He is also just, meaning that he always does what is right, rather than ignoring justice. And a just God sees the blood of Jesus, not an unforgivable sin. And the blood covers every sin. Every one. Therefore, God holds no grudges and never has a bad day.
5. He forgives us our sins. It is forgiven. Forgotten. Tomorrow you do the same sin again, and you come to him and say, “Remember that sin I did yesterday? I did it again.” And God replies, “what sin?” 
6. And as before notice he forgives our SINS, not just the one that we are confessing at the moment. He doesn’t have some checklist to say I’ll forgive the first three, but not that next one.
7. And he will purify us from all unrighteousness. Remember how just two verses ago the word “purify” was in present tense, being a continuous action? This time we see the word purify, but it is in aorist tense. We don’t really have aorist tense in English, but that tense is like a snapshot that happens right now—oops! Now it is in past tense. As the present tense becomes past tense, it has this moment. We are passing a sign on the highway…right…NOW…now we have passed it and it is behind us. This is a marvelous distinction for us, as great as the last continuous purifies us was good news. In this case, God will purify us. He’s doing it…now it’s done. Never to be done again. It is always past. You are purified before God. And NOW you are still purified. And NOW…same thing. It is not a long process. It is a snapshot.
8. And need I point out that the purification is of ALL unrighteousness? There is no sin too bad to be purified. No sin. We need not be ashamed; once we have confessed and the blood of Jesus has covered us, we are clean of even the worst of the worst. Amen.