Light and Darkness

(1 John 1:5-10)

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ 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. ⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

An astounding passage that has always been there, but oftentimes not comprehended properly.  An awe-inspiring thought that in HIM there is no darkness or even the remotest possibility of co-existent sin. God is light, and to think that in the brilliance of His light that even a shred of darkness could co-exist is unthinkable.  How far removed from us Christians who though born of the Spirit, born of the light, so often entertain and indulge the thoughts of sin alongside of our new creation nature which is born of God!  What a dichotomy!

The bottom line is that we cannot claim to have fellowship with Him when we entertain any form of sin in our lives.  The text above says; if we think we can do this, we lie! Both light and darkness are as mutually exclusive as sin and holiness. But if we confess our sins – which means if we agree with God in acknowledging that we have sinned, then He remains faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 above)

Very often we commit the blunder of confessing our sins, but secretly not giving up that one “delight”, that one particular sin that we refuse to let go of. The letter to the Hebrews refers to this as a clinging sin (Heb 12:1) which acts like a weight that will pull us down eventually. Here is altogether the common mistake made by most. Leaving even one other sin unrepented and unconfessed, leaves the door open for future failure.  The secret: Every known sin needs to be repented of, confessed and forsaken in obedience.

So what is the key to this complete deliverance?  Paul shows us this in (Romans 6:5-6).  He says; if we know this, that the old man (wherein all sin originates from) has been crucified with Christ and buried with Him into His death, then we are free from the dominion [power] of sin. It is clear from this verse that God does not deal with us – one sin at a time, but He has in fact, dealt with the totality of our sin nature and all that it can produce in one fell swoop. Hence, it follows, that all sin, each and every known sin prevalent at any moment in our lives needs to be individually and collectively repented of, confessed and forsaken (in totality) in order to see the true fruit of our deliverance wrought on Calvary’s cross.

Application: And it does not end there, if we are free from sin’s power, then we are also free to reside in our new natures, in the Spirit!  So Paul continues to state in (Romans 6:11), “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus”.  We do this by faith in God’s Word .  We trust God that what He says He has done, is true and we believe it with all our hearts and appropriate it for ourselves by faith!