Living In The Light

I John 1:1-2:2

Our Scripture passage today is from the first letter the Apostle John wrote to the early, first century Christians.  There are three major points that the Apostle makes in these opening verses. The first point was to verify to the readers that Jesus truly did come in the flesh to this world.  The second was to contrast the light of God with the darkness of sin that is in the world. The third point in these verses is that we are all sinners, but with Jesus there is forgiveness.

Have you ever had someone deny the truth of something that you were a first-hand eyewitness to?  John did, and he had to counter that, as we see this in the opening verses of our passage (vs. 1-4). Very early in the church age a false teaching started circulating that denied Jesus’ humanity. Simply put, they denied that Jesus’ physical body was real, but only seemed to be real.  They denied that Jesus was both truly God and truly human. This heresy is known as Docetism. John clearly refuted this false belief. He had seen Jesus with his own eyes, touched Him, and knew that He was real.  This is important, because if Jesus wasn’t both truly God and truly man then His death on the cross would be meaningless, and He could not atone for our sins. John, however, knew for a fact that Jesus did truly come in the flesh.

Walking in the dark is not a safe thing to do.  Stumbling around the house in darkness can bring many stubbed toes or worse.  As a teenager I once ended up at the bottom of very steep stairs because I didn’t have a light.  Spiritual darkness is even worse as John tells us in verses 5-7, contrasting light and darkness. Light is Biblical truth. Darkness is error and falsehood. Light is holiness and purity. Darkness is sin and wrongdoing. God is truth, holiness, and absolute perfection.  Darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, nor can sin exist in the presence of a holy God. There is nothing sinful or imperfect in God’s character.

When we have a relationship with God, we must put away our sinful way of living.  To claim salvation and then go out and deliberately sin is hypocrisy. One cannot claim to be a Christian and live in evil and immorality, continuing to willingly walk in deliberate sin. Habitual, deliberate sin is not practicing the truth of God.  A true Christian desires to walk in the light, following Jesus, not following darkness.

However, John knows that even though believers have accepted Jesus as their Savior we all continue to sin.  Anyone who says that they do not sin anymore, or have never sinned, are liars (vs. 8-10). There are two types of confession that are needed in our life.  The first is the confession that we are sinners, and we ask Jesus to save us. That is only done once. If someone never admits that they are a sinner, then salvation cannot occur.  The second type of confession is a regular coming to God, confessing the sins that we all do each day. “Confess” means to say the same thing about sin as God does, to have His perspective about it.  Failure to do that will build up a barrier between us and God. We don’t lose our salvation, but we can hinder the fellowship we have with God. We all need to make a practice of confessing our sins to God.

Becoming a follower of Jesus doesn’t automatically make us perfect and sin-free.  The devil, however, frequently will attack us with guilt and make us believe that if we fall into sin we are lost and cannot be forgiven.  John ends our Scripture passage in verses 1-2 of Chapter 2, with a word of good news and hope for us when we see we have sinned. I’ve enjoyed watching the old-time courtroom drama TV shows Perry Mason and Matlock.  Satan is our prosecuting attorney, bringing up to God everything we’ve done wrong. Having a lousy attorney can be very devastating. John tells us we have the best advocate or defense attorney, better than any TV one.  Jesus, truly, has never lost a case for one of His children. Not only is He our Advocate, but He is our High Priest. Propitiation means appeasement or satisfaction.  Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross satisfied the demands of God’s holiness. Jesus guarantees an acquittal for us! Let us be sure that when we are in the courtroom of heaven, standing before God the Judge, we have taken as our Advocate or Defense Attorney, the Lord Jesus Christ!