MYRA D. COLGATE
CHEROKEE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH
“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you. God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
“So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.
“But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
1 John 1:5-7 (NLT)
“This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.
“If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark,
we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we are not living what we claim.
“But if we walk in the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificial blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.”
1 John 1:5-7 (MSG)
In Scripture, ‘light’ represents for us our personal education in all that is true, good, pure and holy and is trustworthy. ‘Darkness’ is understood to mean anything which is sinful and evil. In the sentence ‘God is light’ means to us that He is perfectly holy and true and so, it stands to reason, only He can lead us out of the darkness of sin. Light can also be said to reveal truth in that it exposes whatever exists and also shows us whether it is good or bad. In the dark, good and evil can look the same, in the light they can be clearly seen for what they really are. As darkness cannot remain in the presence of light, sin cannot remain in the Presence of a Holy God. If there is a desire to have a relationship with God, a person must put away sin and any of their ways of sinful living, as all would be subject to exposure. It would be the height of hypocrisy to claim that we belong to Him if we are still living anyway we choose, especially if our way could be considered as sinful. It would automatically be exposed in the ‘light’ for what it is—sinful.
How is it that the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from all sin? In the Old Testament, the believers would symbolically enact the transferring of their sins to an animal which they would have brought to be sacrificed. (See Leviticus 4.) Note: The priest would examine the animal to make sure it had no spot or blemish—but did not examine the person bringing the animal, because it was only the ‘sacrifice’ that had to be perfect. The animal died in their place to pay for their sinning and to allow them to continue to live in God’s favor. God graciously forgave them because of their faith in Him and because they honored Him by obeying His commandments concerning the sacrifice.
Those sacrifices were a foreshadowing of the day when the Messiah would completely pay for and remove all sin. Only the Perfect Son of God, Jesus Christ could bring the real cleansing of sin, as Jesus was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1: 29). Sin brings only death. Jesus did not die for His own sins, He had none. He died for the sins of the whole world—past, present and future. “When we commit our life to Christ and identify ourselves with Him, His death becomes ours. He has paid the penalty for our sins, and His Blood has purified us. Just as Christ rose from the grave, we rise to a new life of fellowship with Him. (Romans 6:4).
“God wants to forgive us. He allowed His beloved Son to die just so He could offer us pardon. When we come to Christ, He forgives all the sins we have committed or will ever commit. We don’t need to confess the sins of the past all over again, and we don’t need to fear that God will reject us if we don’t keep our slate perfectly clean. Of course we should continue to confess our sins, but not because failure to do so will make us lose our salvation. Our relationship with Christ is secure. Instead, we should confess so that we can enjoy maximum fellowship and joy with Him.” (NLT Life Application Study Bible).
