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If anyone was a groovy Christian in the nineties they would have been familiar with the DC Talk song, ‘In The Light’. This is the passage from which that song was inspired, and it’s the next passage in our journey through John’s letters.

‘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. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.’ (1 John 1:5-10)

The analogy

The Bible is great at presenting analogies to help explain spiritual truths. Here, John uses the simple concept of light and darkness to explain righteousness and sin. It’s important we understand this – righteousness and sin are as different from one another as light and darkness. While this seems like we’re going back to nursery school, just take a moment to actually think about this. It is literally impossible for darkness and light to co-exist. A room cannot be both light and dark – either you can see, or you can’t. If you have that kind of mind it’s digital, either on or off.

And the spiritual spectrum of sin and righteousness is just as easy; we can either walk in righteousness, or in sin – there’s no half-way house! It’s often explained that repentance means turning around, and this is exactly right. If you are walking away from a bright light all you can see ahead is your own shadow, but if you turn around the light will ‘wash away’ all hints of darkness!

Hypocrisy

It is therefore simply illogical to present the idea that we can be a Christian yet still live in sin. John says it simply enough: ‘we lie’. Being born again means turning away from our sinful past, and running headlong towards the bright light, in which our darkness is blasted away. Therefore if we continue to live in sin, we are lying if we say we’re in fellowship with Jesus. If you like, our sin is the evidence that we don’t actually have faith. This is why James wrote ‘faith apart from works is dead’ (James 2:26) – if there’s no light, there is only darkness so ‘thinking’ we’re Christians isn’t enough!

So works are necessary?

It is confusing – having read these opening paragraphs, someone who has messed up their entire life and has sinned so badly that he is now on death row would likely feel quite condemned. They might say, ‘I know that everywhere I look in my life I see darkness.’ There was a guy who was exactly like that around at the same time that Jesus was. In fact, he was hanging on a cross right next to him, and when he looked at the light it was all he could do to effectively say, ‘shine your light on me’. By saying, ‘remember me’ (Luke 23:42) he was begging for some shred of mercy, some light to eliminate his darkness.

The beauty of this passage comes with that word, ‘confess’. Acknowledging that there is darkness in our lives is confession! By saying, ‘there is darkness’, we are confessing our sin. And our God is ‘faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). You see, confession is in itself a sign of light, a spot of righteousness. We can’t sin if we’re confessing because of the level of humility that it requires. That, therefore, enables us to turn toward the bright light, and it is therefore impossible for sin and its consequences to remain!

In writing this article I feel terribly convicted of the areas of darkness I’m so aware of in my own life – it ought to push us to question how genuine our relationship with Jesus is. But the truth of grace is so overwhelming. Do you know that turning towards the light guarantees your righteousness in Christ? Having turned to him, do you now see that it is impossible for any sin to remain? You have been set free from the darkness!

"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from Tom Kelley

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