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In this message we will continue to consider aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ as the Word of life.
First John 1:5-7a says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth; but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” The fellowship of the divine life brings the believers into God as light, which is the source of the truth. The message that John and the other early disciples heard was, undoubtedly, the word spoken by the Lord Jesus in John 8:12 and 9:5 — that He is the light. However, John said here that the message was that God is light. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is God, implying the essence of the Divine Trinity.
Expressions such as God is light, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and God is Spirit (John 4:24) are used not in a metaphoric sense but in a predicative sense. They denote and describe the nature of God. In His nature, God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit and Spirit is life. Within this life are love and light. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines on us, it becomes truth. John’s Gospel reveals that the Lord Jesus brought grace and truth to us (1:14, 17) that we might have the divine life (3:14-16), whereas John’s Epistle unveils that the fellowship of the divine life brings us to the very source of grace and truth, which are the divine love and the divine light. John’s Epistle is the continuation of his Gospel. In John’s Gospel it is God in the Son coming to us as grace and truth that we may become His children (1:12-13); in John’s Epistle it is we, the children, in the fellowship of the Father’s life, going to the Father to participate in His love and light. The former was God’s coming out to the outer court to meet our need at the altar (Lev. 4:28-31); the latter is our entering into the Holy of Holies to contact Him at the Ark (Exo. 25:22). This is further and deeper in the experience of the divine life. After receiving the divine life by believing into the Son in John’s Gospel, we should go on to enjoy this life through the fellowship of this life in John’s Epistle. The entire Epistle discloses to us this one thing, that is, the enjoyment of the divine life through our abiding in its fellowship.
In 1 John 1:7 we are told to walk in the light. The Greek word translated “walk” means to move, act, and have our being. As we remain in God, we should dwell in Him and have our being in Him. God is our true dwelling place, our home. Hence, wherever God goes, we should go with Him and in Him.
We need to know not only who God is but also what God is. First John 1:5 tells us that God is light and that in Him is no darkness at all. The God in whom we dwell is light. The primary aspect of the condition of maintaining our fellowship with God is to dwell in God as light. When the house in which we dwell is full of light, we also are in light, not in darkness. In a similar way, when we dwell in God, we dwell in light, for God is light. Light is God’s expression; it is God shining. Hence, when we dwell in God, who is the shining One, we are in light.
If we do not dwell in God, our fellowship with Him will immediately be broken. Whenever we do not dwell in God, we are out of the divine fellowship. However, our life relationship with God is not broken. For example, whether a child’s behavior is good or bad, he still has a relationship in life with his father. Whether a child stays at home or tries to run away, the relationship in life with his father remains unbroken. However, the child may not remain in fellowship with his father. There may be times when he does not want to be in the same room with his father or talk with him face to face. This is because the fellowship has been broken, although the life relationship remains. Likewise, our life relationship with God cannot be broken, but our fellowship with Him will be broken if we do not abide in Him as the divine light.
In verse 5 John says that in God there is no darkness at all. As light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satan in his evil works (3:8). Thank God that He has delivered us out of the satanic darkness into the divine light (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). The divine light is the divine life in the Son operating in us. This light shines in the darkness within us, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:4-5). When we follow this light, we will by no means walk in darkness (8:12), which, according to the context, is the darkness of sin (1 John 1:7-10).
Lying is of Satan, who is the father of liars (John 8:44). The satanic darkness is versus the divine light, and the satanic lie is versus the divine truth. As the divine truth is the expression of the divine light, so the satanic lie is the expression of the satanic darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with God, who is light, and walk in the darkness, we lie in the expression of the satanic darkness and do not practice the truth in the expression of the divine light.
First John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.” To have fellowship with God is to have an intimate and living contact with Him in the flow of the divine life according to the Spirit’s anointing in our spirit (2:27). This keeps us in the participation and enjoyment of the divine light and divine love.
In verse 6 of chapter 1 truth denotes the revealed reality of God in its aspect of the divine light. It is the issue and realization of the divine light mentioned in verse 5. The divine light is the source in God; truth is the issue and realization of the divine light in us (cf. John 3:19-21). When we abide in the divine light, which we enjoy in the fellowship of the divine life, we practice the truth — what we have realized in the divine light. When we abide in the source, its issue becomes our practice.
We walk in the light, but God is in the light because He is light. Henry Alford says, “The light is the element in which God dwells: compare 1 Tim. 6:16....this walking in the light, as He is in the light, is no mere imitation of God, but is an identity in the essential element of our daily walk with the essential element of God’s eternal being: not imitation, but coincidence and identity of the very atmosphere of life.” When we walk and live in the light of God, we have the joint enjoyment of the Triune God and the joint participation in His divine purpose. The fellowship of the divine life brings us the divine light, and the divine light keeps us in the fellowship, that is, in the joint enjoyment of God and the joint participation in His purpose.
To walk in the divine light is not merely to dwell in this light; it is to live, move, act, do things, and have our being in the divine light, the light which is actually God Himself. When we dwell, live, and have our being in God, we walk in the divine light, which is the expression of God.
When the divine light shines, we see all the different truths, and these truths are realities. But when we do not have the divine light but are rather in darkness, we have the sense that everything is vanity and emptiness. When you are in the divine light, you can see the truth, the reality. For example, when you are in the light, God is a reality to you, and the divine life is also a reality. Furthermore, God’s holiness, love, and grace are all realities to you. When we walk in the light, we see one reality after another. However, when we are in darkness, nothing is real to us. On the contrary, everything is empty and vain. When we are in darkness, we do not have any reality, because we do not see anything. Instead of the sense of reality, we have the sense of emptiness and vanity.
When we dwell in God, we are in the fellowship. When we are in this fellowship, we are in light. Then as we walk in the light, Christ, the Spirit, the church, the Body, and the members of the Body are all real to us. We see Christ, the Spirit, the church, the Body, and the ground of the church, and they are all real to us.
It is when we are in the light that we see the truth. If we are in the light, whatever we do will be real. Not only will we practice what is right and proper; we will do what is real. This means that whatever we do is a reality. Habitually and automatically, we will practice the truth, the reality. If we do this, we will keep ourselves in the divine fellowship.
As believers, we all have some apprehension of the truth, but only a small number of believers may be in the light. Light is in God and is God Himself. Until we are brought into God Himself, we may be under the shining of the light but not in the light. To be under the shining of the light is one thing; to be in the light is another. Although under the shining we may have the truth, or the realization, we are not in the light until we are in God Himself. Then every hidden thing will be exposed. From the time that we were saved, we have been under the shining, coming to certain realizations and understandings. But some day we will be willing for this inner fellowship to bring us into God. In Him we will not merely be under the shining but also in the light. Today many Christians are in darkness, but some are under the shining. Very few, however, are in the light. Probably a good number of us have occasionally had experiences in which we were brought into God and recognized that we were in the light.
Suppose you become annoyed with another brother. You are not yet in the light, but under the shining you sense that your attitude was poor. You go to that brother and apologize that your attitude earlier was wrong. Some Christians who are fully in darkness would not even admit that they were wrong to be annoyed with a brother. When you allow the inner fellowship to bring you into God, however, you will be in the light. Under its glare you will tremble, realizing not only that your attitude toward your brother should be condemned but also that you yourself in every part are sinful, fully contaminated, and thoroughly unclean. In the light there is no excuse or escape. You may weep, repent, and take hours to confess.
In this fellowship with the Father we have light, and in this light we have fellowship (1 John 1:3, 5, 7). The result of being in the light is the recognition that we are utterly sinful, that every member of our body is sinful, and that every relationship with others is sinful. Because we are in the old creation, nothing about us is clean; we are polluted and condemned. Everything within us — our feelings, our intentions, our decisions, our concepts, our ideas — is sinful. As human beings we are full of sin. The reason we do not have this conviction is that we are not in the light. When Isaiah was brought into the glory of God, he said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). We have some amount of truth, knowing that we should do this and be like that, but such a realization is not light; it is only truth. If we are willing to abide in the fellowship, it will bring us into God. Then we will be thoroughly exposed by this light from which nothing can be hidden.
First John 1:7b says, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” When we live in the divine light, we are under its enlightenment, and it exposes, according to God’s divine nature and through God’s nature in us, all our sins, trespasses, failures, and defects, which contradict His pure light, perfect love, absolute holiness, and excelling righteousness. At such a time we sense in our enlightened conscience the need of the cleansing of the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus, and it cleanses us in our conscience from all sins that our fellowship with God and with one another may be maintained. Our relationship with God is unbreakable, yet our fellowship with Him can be interrupted. The former is of life, whereas the latter is based on our living, though it also is of life. One is unconditional; the other is conditional. Our fellowship, which is conditional, needs to be maintained by the constant cleansing of the Lord’s blood.
Light takes away all our cover-ups; it penetrates every hiding place. It so exposes us that we cry out, “Woe is me! I am unclean!” At that moment the blood cleanses. Verse 7 clearly tells us that if we are in the light, the blood follows the light to cleanse us. There is no requirement on our part to apply the blood. To apply the blood means that we have the realization that we are sinful but have not yet had our sins exposed in the light. Whatever the light exposes, the blood cleanses. We should praise the Lord for His provision.
The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every sin. The name Jesus denotes the Lord’s humanity, which is needed for the shedding of the redeeming blood, and the title His Son denotes the Lord’s divinity, which is needed for the eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Thus, the blood of Jesus His Son indicates that this blood is the proper blood of a genuine man shed for the redeeming of God’s fallen creatures, with the divine surety as its eternal efficacy, an efficacy that is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time.
No other verse in the New Testament uses the expression Jesus His Son. Jesus was a true man, a genuine human being, and the blood of Jesus was the blood of a real man. Because we are human beings, we need to be redeemed by human blood. In the Old Testament the blood for atonement was of animals, and was a type of the blood of Christ. However, animal blood could not actually redeem us, because we are human beings, not animals. As human beings, we need the efficacious blood of Jesus, the blood of a genuine man.
The Lord’s divinity indicated by the words His Son is a guarantee, a surety, that the efficacy of the blood of Jesus will remain forever. The Lord’s humanity qualifies Him to have the blood to shed for our redemption, and His divinity insures the efficacy of the power of this redeeming blood. The efficacy of the cleansing blood of Jesus is insured forever by His divinity.
The tense of this verb cleanses in Greek is present and denotes continuous action, indicating that the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses us all the time, continuously and constantly. Cleansing here refers to the instant cleansing of the Lord’s blood in our conscience. Before God, the redeeming blood of the Lord has cleansed us once for all eternally (Heb. 9:12, 14), and the efficacy of that cleansing lasts forever before God, so that that cleansing need not be repeated. However, in our conscience we need the instant application of the constant cleansing of the Lord’s blood again and again whenever our conscience is enlightened by the divine light in our fellowship with God.
On the one hand, the Lord’s blood washes our sin and sins in the presence of God. According to the typology in the Old Testament, the blood of the sacrifice was brought into the tabernacle and sprinkled in the Holy of Holies in the presence of God. This signifies the once-for-all washing of our sin and sins in the presence of God. On the other hand, the Lord’s blood washes our sin and sins in our conscience. This instant cleansing is typified by the purification with the water of impurity mixed with the ashes of the heifer (Num. 19:2-10). The cleansing in 1 John 1:7 is not the eternal cleansing before God; rather, it is the continuous cleansing in our conscience. As we abide in the light, we are cleansed continually by the blood of Jesus.
The New Testament deals with the problem of sin by using both the word sin (singular) and the word sins (plural). Sin refers to the indwelling sin, which came through Adam into mankind from Satan (Rom. 5:12). It is dealt with in the second section of Romans, 5:12—8:13 (with the exception of 7:5, where sins is mentioned). Sins refers to the sinful deeds, the fruits of the indwelling sin, which are dealt with in the first section of Romans, 1:18—5:11. However, in 1 John 1:7 sin in the singular, used with the adjective every, does not denote the indwelling sin but every single sin we commit (v. 10) after we are regenerated; each such sin defiles our purged conscience and needs to be cleansed away by the blood of the Lord in our fellowship with God.
Our sin, the indwelling sin in our nature (Rom. 7:17), has been dealt with by Christ as our sin offering (Lev. 4; Isa. 53:10; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26). Our sins, our trespasses, have been dealt with by Christ as our trespass offering (Lev. 5; Isa. 53:11; 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28). However, after our regeneration we still need to take Christ as our sin offering for the sin in our nature as indicated in 1 John 1:8, and as our trespass offering for the sins in our conduct as indicated in verse 9.
In 1 John 1 there is a cycle in our spiritual life, a cycle formed of four crucial things — the eternal life, the fellowship of the eternal life, the divine light, and the blood of Jesus the Son of God. Eternal life issues in its fellowship, the fellowship of eternal life brings in the divine light, and the divine light increases the need for the blood of Jesus the Son of God that we may have more eternal life. The more we have of eternal life, the more of its fellowship it brings to us. The more fellowship of the divine life we enjoy, the more divine light we receive. The more divine light we receive, the more we participate in the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Such a cycle brings us onward in the growth of the divine life until we reach the maturity of life.
