WE have completed Chapter 26 in our study of the The complete Green Letters by Miles Stanford. Before we start with the next chapter, here is a rundown of what we’ve reviewed in each of the previous chapters:
Position Defined and Illustrated
Justification and Assurance
Reconciliation and Acceptance
Completeness and Security
Sanctification and Consecration
Identification and Growth
Sin and Purged Conscience
Sins and Conscience
OUR writer opens this next chapter titled Sins and Light once again with 1John.
I REALLY want to comment on what is presented here. But I think our time would be better spent getting right into our consideration with this simple reminder: These commentaries are meant to teach, encourage, advocate, and mentor you, the readers, in your Christian walk and spiritual growth.
IN the joy of the Lord,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
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Chapter 27—Sins and Light
“But if we [really] are living and walking in the Light as He [Himself] is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt…” (1 John 1:7, Amp.).
What is this light in which we have been placed, in which we are to live and walk? “And this is the message … which we have heard from Him and now are reporting to you: God is Light and there is no darkness in Him at all—no, not in any way” (1 John 1:5, Amp.). Since our Father is Light, our Lord Jesus is Light also. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).
While here on earth, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Nevertheless, the full extent of that light was kept almost totally obscured by His humanity. For a brief moment, while on the Mount of Transfiguration, He allowed the true light within to be manifested. “And [He] was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light” (Matt. 17:2). Peter wrote later that he and the others “were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16). At present, our Lord Jesus is in glory, “on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). It is in His light that we are to abide and walk, for “now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).
Every Christian is positionally in the light, but until he learns to abide and walk in that light he can only struggle on in the darkness of sin and self. “For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord… For the fruit—the effect, the product—of the Light … [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart and trueness of life” (Eph. 5:8, 9, Amp.). Our blood-bought position is in the light of our Father’s presence.
Condition
The healthy babe in Christ begins well, whether or not he knows anything at all concerning his position in the light. Being a child spiritually, he is handled as such by the Father. He feels that the Lord Jesus is very close to him and is leading him by the hand. He is filled with the joy of the Lord, and loves Him with all his heart. Although he is looking to the Lord Jesus, he is still self-centered because of ignorance regarding his position in Him. He is taken up mainly with what Christ has done, is doing, and will do for him; he is, in turn, seeking to live and work for the Lord. For the most part, he is emotionally motivated and therefore affected by his condition rather than his position.
Later, during the believer’s spiritual adolescence, the Lord begins His reversal of all this. The emphasis in the life is to be shifted from dwelling on what Christ has done to rejoicing in who, what and where He is; from being happy and active, to being like Him; from living and working for Christ, to living in and working through Him; from what the believer is in himself, to what he is in Christ and what He is in the believer. From condition to position—“not I, but Christ. “
Of necessity, the transitional process from a condition-centered to a position-centered life is extremely painful. “Now no chastening [child-training] for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth…” (Heb. 12:6 kjv). …….to be continued
