Walking In The Light
This is for people who feel lost in the darkness and coldness of sin, but long for the warm sun of the light, fellowship with God.
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. -1st John 1:7
Distorted reality
I was recently reading in The Magicians Nephew, from C.S. Lewis. In it, Digory and Polly traveled to a world that was dark and muted. In the dim light of the “tired sun”, the Queen looked strikingly beautiful. She had charm, power, and allure. They knew she wasn’t good news, but Digory felt quite drawn in. Something about her captivated him.
All of this is happening in the world that is dark. Darkness distorts. Is this not true for our own lives? Anyone who has followed sin to it’s furthest conclusions knows that once you get to the end, once you “have your sin” and it’s over. A striking reality comes into focus. What captivated you in the dark, is ugly in the light.
A world of light
In a moment of clarity as Digory, Polly, and the Queen travel back to a different world, one that is “in the light”. A forest with green greens, afternoon shade, and a restful atmosphere, the queen looked… ugly.
That’s what living in the light is like. It helps you see reality. We would all say that in the darkness of sin everything is muted except for the sin that is alluring you. But when you get back into the light, that sin looks silly. Ugly. We see it as the beast that it is.
This is often, though, when most of us feel immense shame. It is when we see how stupid sin is. When we see how much we traded for such a weak pleasure. When we see Jesus as the one we betrayed for another lover (sin), that we, like Peter, weep bitterly. Because in the clarity we see how foolish we have been.
It is not enough to know that sin is distorted in the dark and that the light is good and beautiful. The question that meets us in the complexity of life is, how do we transition from the darkness to the light? And what do we do with our shame?
The entrance
You may ask: “I’ve been walking in sin for so long, all I know is darkness, how do I walk into the light” ?
Remember the words of 1st John 1:6-7:
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. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
What is the pathway from the world of dark to the world of light? Repentance and confession.
It is precisely in repentance and confession that you find the entrance to the light, because in this entrance, you are met with something so powerful and good, that it takes your shame.
The blood of Jesus to cleanse you.
Marvel at that. The text says that the blood of Jesus “cleanses us from all sin”. All. There is no sin in your life that is not covered by the blood of Christ. Which means, Christ knows all of you, to the depth of your core. He knows how jacked up you are. He cleanses the depths, the parts of your heart you section off because they seem too dirty, too sinful.
This is why the light is both scary and beautiful. Scary: because we are exposed. Beautiful: because when we are exposed and seen as who we truly are, that is when we feel most loved. By one who sees us, spiritually naked, with all of our warts and deformities and says “I love you”.
Fellowship with God
God, desiring better for us, offers us avenues into the light through repentance and confession. And in that light, in that warmth, in that truth, we gain not only the ability to see rightly, the ability to order our lives properly that leads to flourishing… but we get fellowship with God. Because if we walk in the light, He is in the light.
Works based?
At first glance, that might seem like it’s a work-based religion. “If you walk in the light, you get God!” But we miss a needed reminder if that’s how we think of it. If you are in the darkness of sin and you desire the warm sun of the light, but you feel stuck and unsure of how to get out. Remember the words of Jesus in John 12:46 -
I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
Light invades the darkness. If you are lost, look to Jesus. Look to Him in the scriptures. Walking in the light to have a deeper fellowship with God is not works based religion because God meets us in the darkness and brings us into the light through His son, not our works.
It is not too late for you to walk into the light.
I promise you, as someone who has traveled in the coldness of the dark, following sin. The darkness is only cold, murky, and hollow pleasures. In the light? In the light there is a peace, and a warmth, and a deep pleasure of fellowship with Jesus that is unrivaled.
I know that may sound crazy because sin can be so captivating, but learn from the children’s story of Polly and Digory:
Now that you saw her in the wood [the new world], Queen Jadis looked different. She was much paler than she had been; so pale that hardly any of her beauty was left.
-The Magicians Nephew | Pg 65-66
Sin may seem captivating, but when you get into the light “hardly any of her beauty will be left”.
Longing for more of the light,
Josh.
