The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in 1 John 1:6-7,
“If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 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.”
I will be the first to admit that I struggle with sin at times in my life. I believe we all do as believers. The reason for it is that we still have active sin natures, even as redeemed children of God. The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:17, “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” As believers God has given us the Holy Spirit who dwells within each of us and the Holy Spirit is in conflict with the sinful nature which also continues to reside within us. At our deaths we leave the sinful nature behind but the Holy Spirit remains with us. When resurrection day comes, Paul says in Romans 8:10-11, “But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”
But this is not the whole of it. There is an aspect of our salvation that seems to get very little press in sermons, radio talk shows and the commentaries we often read. If we go back to 1 John 1:6-7 and read carefully we notice that John is not exhorting us to not sin, to not “walk in the darkness”. He will exhort us to not do so later in the letter, 1 John 2:1. His point here is to look at our lives to see how we have been living and that tells us something. If we have been and are walking in darkness we don’t have the fellowship, if we have been and are walking in the light we have the fellowship and are purified from all sin. Very simply put, our lifestyle demonstrates whether we are a child of God or not.
John’s point is the same Jesus made in his sermon on the mount. Matthew 7:15-20, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
The aspect of our salvation that at times we hear little of is that we become a changed people. You might say that “bona fide saved people” have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them and they no longer live as they used to. A changed life tells the story. So, if we go back to Paul’s comments in Galatians 5:16 we read, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” And if we go back and look at the previous verse in Romans 8:9 we read, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” He even goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” John himself tells us in 1 John 3:6, “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”
Here is what gets the little press from my perception and should be shouted from the mountain tops: when we embrace Jesus Christ in faith the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us permanently and as a result we become changed people. It isn’t that there is now no conflict within us or that we may not occasionally sin, but the lifestyle has changed, the priorities change, we no longer live to satisfy our sinful cravings. When we slip and stumble and disappoint God and ourselves, we find ourselves before God, confessing and grieving over the sin.
The reason I feel it should be shouted from the mountain tops is that it is God who does this within us! He has given us his Spirit! He enables us to live lives that are pleasing to him! He is worthy of our praise and our worship as it is he who does wonderful things within our lives! I have every obligation to recognize the wonderful things he does within me and thank him and worship him for them!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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