“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.” – 1 John 1:6-7
God has revealed of Himself that He is Light; in Him there is no darkness. (1 John 1:5)
Through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, God invites us into fellowship with Him.
What is fellowship? It is the purest exchange of social intimacy with a Holy God and His people.
The word fellowship is the Greek word “koinonia”. It is used to describe the participation we have in a communion relationship with God the Father. It is God, pouring out His heart in the most intimate of ways through His sacrificial gift of Jesus Christ, our Savior; and it is us, responding in faith to His loving invitation with surrender, trust, honesty, repentance, dependence, and worship.
We give Him our sin, brokenness, shame, and rebellion, and He, in passionate exchange, gives us adoption as His own: forgiveness, acceptance, a new identity, an eternal destiny, a transformed life, and infinitely more! All the riches of Heaven belong to those who belong to God in Christ. The undeserved gifts of God are far beyond what we can even begin to imagine, understand, or define with human words!
“If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (vs 6)
It is impossible for Light and dark to co-exist in a state of relational intimacy. Where Light is, darkness has to flee. We cannot claim to be in relationship with God, (Who is Light) and at the same time, live a life that pridefully pursues the darkness of sin and its pleasures. Anyone who is not rightly related to God, trusting in the atoning blood of Christ, is still living in an identity of death and darkness.
In John’s Gospel, chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus states,
“I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the Light of Life.”
Walking in His Light is not about our performance, but rather, it is about resting in the completed sacrifice of His perfect blood and the redemption He purchased for us on Calvary! Christ, in love, absorbed all of the righteous wrath of God against our sin in order that we would not receive the just penalty for our rebellion.
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” -1 Peter 2:24
To follow Him means to walk very closely with Jesus – abiding in the light of His Presence and living out the spiritual healing He has given us through His blood. It means to keep in step with Him and to join Him on His Way. This relational nearness to Christ results in a life that is filled with His Light as we become His disciples and learn to live like Him. He redeemed us in order that we would live in the light of His redemption and share that light through Gospel-centered words and works.
There is a reality that Jesus is also declaring in John 8:12: if we choose to reject Christ’s invitation to repent and receive Him by faith for salvation, then we are still walking in darkness and death. It is not our own morality or good works that provide entrance into Christ’s presence; It is His blood alone that opens the door to walk in His Light and Life.
Evidence of a life in living in the darkness can be found by looking at what we love:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life-is not from the Father but is from the world.
And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” -1 John 2:15-17
We must pause and ask ourselves, “Is this me? What love stirs my desires and motivates my choices?”
A life that has been truly encountered by the love of God, will learn to love what He loves as His grace is at work to change us. As soon as we receive His gift of redemption by faith in Christ and surrender to His Lordship, His Spirit begins the transforming work of Love; a Love that changes our fleshly desires at the very core because He has given us a new identity!
In following after Christ, we become partakers of His Life-Giving Light and we are set free to walk in a new, eternal perspective- saying no to temporary pleasures! We are no longer slaves to wasting time on things that will not matter in eternity. We know our destiny, because we know Him Who is our King. He gives us eyes for the eternal.
To walk in His Light is to walk in humility and freedom! As we follow Him and His Light illuminates our lives, He reveals the pride that fetters our feet and trips us up. His kindness to reveal our sins of self-promotion leads us to repentance and restoration with Him. He gently restores our souls as we humbly confess our arrogance in pursuing our own ways instead of His.
We cannot walk two paths at the same time. We must choose one or the other. We will either choose to receive Christ’s invitation of love to follow after Him, surrender to His leading, accept His grace, rest in His sufficiency, and walk in His Light, or we will continue to walk in the darkness of our sin. Both paths lead to a destination; The path of surrender leads to eternal Life and Light with Christ; the path of rejecting Him leads to eternal darkness and death. We cannot have both.
The invitation to follow Him is most clearly seen at the Cross of Calvary. Through the cross God is shouting His redemptive heart. His holy character is displayed in justice as sin is punished and paid for with His all-sufficient blood. His perfect love is shown through His sacrificial death on our behalf- providing atonement for us. His forgiveness flowed freely as Christ’s life was poured out for you, for me, for the world. His invitation to turn to Him in faith and repentance is given as Christ rose in victory and Life – conquering death and the grave forever!
In following Christ, Who is the Light of the World, we walk in and with the very Light of God’s Presence. His Light is the Life-giving Source for all who place their trust in Him. When we walk in the Light of Christ, His transforming love changes our identity! By His all-sufficient power in grace, we become His children – heirs of His Life when we receive Him by faith and commit our lives to walk in relationship with Him! We go from death to life; from darkness, to light! From bound, to free! From lost, to found! From blindness to sight! From hopeless to overflowing joy! From an identity of death and darkness, to a reborn, new creation in Christ (1 Cor. 5:17).
This is our new identity: Born-again, child of God, child of Light.
Forgiven and free.
Beloved, let us walk with Him.