Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The Finality of The Cross P28 (10-11-21)
Darkness and Light Refers to Lost and Saved in Scripture
Much of the so-called Christian community have been taught that you can be in and out of fellowship with God, either meaning that you can lose your salvation or you can lose fellowship with God when you sin, and when you lose fellowship, you have to confess those sins in order to get back in fellowship. But let us focus in on this one passage of scripture, where light and darkness are used.
1 John 1:5-7
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 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, purifies us from all sin.
In this passage in 1 John, there is this contrast between light and darkness, and whenever you see light and darkness in the scriptures, it refers to saved and lost, respectively. To convince you of that, and you can verify this through searching the scriptures, but here is a list of passages to convince you of that.
Acts 26:17-18
17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light [salvation], and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Ephesians 5:8
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
1 Thessalonians 5:4-9
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:12-14
12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have [past tense] redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
1 Peter 2:9
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
2 Corinthians 6:14-16
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”[Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 37:27]
Luke 16:8
8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.
John 3:19-21
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Ephesians 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Romans 1:21-23
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 13:12-14
12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”[Genesis 1:3] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
John 8:12
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 12:35-36
35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
Ephesians 4:17-18
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
Job 12: 23-25
23 He makes nations great, and destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
24 He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason;
he makes them wander in a trackless waste.
25 They grope in darkness with no light;
he makes them stagger like drunkards.
Job 24:13-17
13 “There are those who rebel against the light,
who do not know its ways
or stay in its paths.
14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,
kills the poor and needy,
and in the night steals forth like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk;
he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’
and he keeps his face concealed.
16 In the dark, thieves break into houses,
but by day they shut themselves in;
they want nothing to do with the light.
17 For all of them, midnight is their morning;
they make friends with the terrors of darkness.
Luke 11:33-36
33 “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
1 Timothy 6:15-16
15 … God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
Now, look back at this one passage in 1 John 1:5-7. Every passage in scripture is about lost and saved when using light and darkness.
1 John 1:5
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
If you claim, I claim, you or anyone else claims, to have fellowship with God yet walk in darkness, we are lost, yet are claiming we have fellowship with God. What kind of examples do we have of that? Did the Pharisees claim to have fellowship with God? Yes, as religious as can be. Do people who do not know the Lord from a lamp post claim to have fellowship with God? Yes. Does every cult member claim to have fellowship with God? Of course, otherwise how would they get a following if they did not?
1 John 1:6-7
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness [then we are lost], we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we [who are saved] walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Who is in the Light? Jesus, who is full of light. In God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we are in the light, then you and I have fellowship with one another. There is a result that takes place as a result of being in the light. In Him you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Are you in Him? Then you are in the light. If you are in the light, you have fellowship with Him and the blood of Jesus His Son keeps on cleansing and purifying you of every sin imaginable. Where does that purification and cleansing come from? Being in the light. Whose function is it to do that? His. Did you have anything to do with it? No. It is as a result of being in Him. That is not being in fellowship because of what you do. That is being in fellowship because you are in the fellowship with Christ. He is the one who called you into fellowship with God through His Lord Jesus Christ.
So he is talking to people who think they are in fellowship but they are not. They are not in fellowship with me, the apostle, and I am in fellowship with God. If you are not in fellowship with me and I am in fellowship with God, you are not in fellowship with God. You are not dealing with an in and out of fellowship mentality which has been perpetuated upon the Christian community through one verse of scripture, and thereby negating the entirety of the completion of the cross.
