“What Is A Christian? Part 20” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnDKD1NMH4
We are continuing in our current Series, "What Is A Christian?" The sub-topic that we are discussing is the contrast between Light and Darkness, and how that contrast impacts us as believers, and Christ-followers. Jesus, Himself, also made several statements about that contrast, and that will be our first stop, tonight. He said in John 12:44-46: “He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. 45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. 46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.”
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “The privileges and dignities of those that believe; this gives great encouragement to us to believe in Christ and to profess that faith. It is a thing of such a nature that we need not be shy either of doing it or of owning it; for,
1. By believing in Christ we are brought into an honourable acquaintance with God (John 12:44-45): He that believes on me, and so sees me, believes on him that sent me, and so sees him. He that believes on Christ, (1.) He does not believe in a mere man, such a one as he seemed to be, and was generally taken to be, but he believes in one that is the Son of God and equal in power and glory with the Father. Or rather,
(2.) His faith does not terminate in Christ, but through him it is carried out to the Father, that sent him, to whom, as our end, we come by Christ as our way. The doctrine of Christ is believed and received as the truth of God. The rest of a believing soul is in God through Christ as Mediator; for its resignation to Christ is in order to being presented to God. Christianity is made up, not of philosophy nor politics, but pure divinity.
This is illustrated in John 12:45. He that sees me (which is the same with believing in him, for faith is the eye of the soul) sees him that sent me; in getting an acquaintance with Christ, we come to the knowledge of God. For, [1.] God makes himself known in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6), who is the express image of his person, Hebrews 1:3.
[2.] All that have a believing sight of Christ are led by him to the knowledge of God, whom Christ has revealed to us by his word and Spirit. Christ, as God, was the image of his Father's person; but Christ, as Mediator, was his Father's representative in his relation to man, the divine light, law, and love, being communicated to us in and through him;
so that in seeing him (that is, in eying him as our Saviour, Prince, and Lord, in the right of redemption), we see and eye the Father as our owner, ruler, and benefactor, in the right of creation: for God is pleased to deal with fallen man by proxy.
2. We are hereby brought into a comfortable enjoyment of ourselves (John 12:46): I am come a light into the world, that whoever believes in me, Jew or Gentile, should not abide in darkness. Observe, (1.) The character of Christ: I am come a light into the world, to be a light to it.
This implies that he had a being, and a being as light, before he came into the world, as the sun is before it rises; the prophets and apostles were made lights to the world, but it was Christ only that came a light into this world, having before been a glorious light in the upper world, John 3:19.
(2.) The comfort of Christians: They do not abide in darkness. [1.] They do not continue in that dark condition in which they were by nature; they are light in the Lord. They are without any true comfort, or joy, or hope, but do not continue in that condition; light is sown for them.
[2.] Whatever darkness of affliction, disquietment, or fear, they may afterwards be in, provision is made that they may not long abide in it. [3.] They are delivered from that darkness which is perpetual, and which abideth for ever, that utter darkness where there is not the least gleam of light nor hope of it.”
The Apostle Paul speaks of our common past in darkness before coming into the Light of Christ: He writes, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:12-13).
Matthew Henry provides us with an insightful commentary, incorporating a variety of Light / Darkness references: “Here is a summary of the doctrine of the gospel concerning the great work of our redemption by Christ. It comes in here not as the matter of a sermon, but as the matter of a thanksgiving; for our salvation by Christ furnishes us with abundant matter of thanksgiving in every view of it: Giving thanks unto the Father, Colossians_1:12.
He does not discourse of the work of redemption in the natural order of it; for then he would speak of the purchase of it first, and afterwards of the application of it. But here he inverts the order, because, in our sense and feeling of it, the application goes before the purchase. We first find the benefits of redemption in our hearts, and then are led by those streams to the original and fountain-head. The order and connection of the apostle's discourse may be considered in the following manner:
I. He speaks concerning the operations of the Spirit of grace upon us. We must give thanks for them, because by these we are qualified for an interest in the mediation of the Son: Giving thanks to the Father, etc., Colossians_1:12-13. It is spoken of as the work of the Father, because the Spirit of grace is the Spirit of the Father, and the Father works in us by his Spirit.
Now what is it which is wrought for us in the application of redemption? 1. “He hath delivered us from the power of darkness. He has rescued us from the state of heathenish darkness and wickedness. He hath saved us from the dominion of sin, which is darkness (1 John_1:6), from the dominion of Satan, who is the prince of darkness (Ephesians_6:12), and from the damnation of hell, which is utter darkness,” Matthew_25:30. They are called out of darkness, 1 Peter_2:9.
2. “He hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, brought us into the gospel-state, and made us members of the church of Christ, which is a state of light and purity.” You were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord, Ephesians_5:8.
Who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Peter_2:9. Those were made willing subjects of Christ who were the slaves of Satan. The conversion of a sinner is the translation of a soul into the kingdom of Christ out of the kingdom of the devil. The power of sin is shaken off, and the power of Christ submitted to.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes them free from the law of sin and death; and it is the kingdom of his dear Son, or the Son of his peculiar love, his beloved Son (Matthew_3:17), and eminently the beloved, Ephesians_1:6. 3. “He hath not only done this, but hath made us meet to partake of the inheritance of the saints in light, Colossians_1:12. God gives grace and glory, and we are here told what they both are.
(1.) What that glory is. It is the inheritance of the saints in light. It is an inheritance, and belongs to them as children, which is the best security and the sweetest tenure: If children, then heirs, Romans_8:17. And it is an inheritance of the saints-proper to sanctified souls... And it is an inheritance in light; the perfection of knowledge, holiness, and joy, by communion with God, who is light, and the Father of lights, James_1:17; Johh_1:5.
(2.) What this grace is. It is a meetness for the inheritance: “He hath made us meet to be partakers, that is, suited and fitted us for the heavenly state by a proper temper and habit of soul; and he makes us meet by the powerful influence of his Spirit.” It is the effect of the divine power to change the heart, and make it heavenly...
Those who have the inheritance of sons have the education of sons and the disposition of sons: they have the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15. And, because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, Galatians_4:6... Those who are sanctified shall be glorified (Romans_8:30), and will be for ever indebted to the grace of God, which hath sanctified them.”
Matthew Henry mentioned briefly that we were called out of darkness. The Apostle Paul warned the Church at Ephesus to forsake their sins, still being committed by the unconverted and unregenerate. In his epistle to them he wrote, “Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:” (Ephesians 5:7-8).
Of this, The Preacher's Homiletical also comments on our past in darkness, and our being brought into the Light of the Gospel: It says, “THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT: The contrast between the Christian and heathen way of life is now, finally, to be set forth under St. Paul’s familiar figure of the light and the darkness. He bids his Gentile readers not to be "jointpartakers with them"-with the sons of disobedience upon whom God’s wrath is coming (Ephesians_5:6) -for he has hailed them already, in Ephesians 3:6, as "joint-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."
"Once" indeed they shared in the lot of the disobedient; but for them the darkness has past, and the true light now shineth. In wrath or promise, in hope of life eternal or in the fearful looking for of judgment they, and we, must partake. This future participation depends upon present character. "Do not," the apostle entreats, "cast in your lot again with the unclean and covetous. Their ways you have renounced, and their doom you have exchanged for the heritage of the saints.
Let no vain words deceive you into supposing that you may keep your new inheritance, and yet return to your old sins. Show yourselves worthy of your calling. Walk as children of the light, and you will possess the eternal kingdom." Each man carries with him into the next state of being the entail of his past life.
That heritage depends on his own choice; yet not upon his individual will working by itself, but on the grace and will of God working with him, as that grace is accepted or rejected. He has light: he must walk in it; and he will reach the realm of light. Thus the apostle, in Ephesians_5:7-8, concludes his warning against relapse into heathen sin.
Ephesians_5:8-10 delineates the character of the children of the light:” These verses read as follows: “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”
I. "The fruit of the light" (not of the Spirit) is the true text of Ephesians_5:9, as it stands in the older Greek copies, Versions, and Fathers. Calvin showed his judgment and independence in preferring this reading to that of the received Greek text. The clause is an epitome, in five words, of Christian virtue, whose qualities, origin, and method are all defined.
Ephesians_5:11-14 set forth their influence upon the surrounding darkness. Into these two divisions the exposition of this paragraph naturally falls. These verses are, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”
It sums up exquisitely the moral teaching of the epistle. Galatians_5:22-23 (the fruit of the Spirit) and Philippians_4:8 (Whatsoever things are true, etc.) are parallel to this passage, as Pauline definitions, equally perfect, of the virtues of a Christian man. This has the advantage of the others in brevity and epigrammatic point.
"You are light in the Lord," the apostle said; "walk as children of the light." But his readers might ask: "What does this mean? It is poetry: let us have it translated into plain prose. How shall we walk as children of the light? Show us the path."-"I will tell you," the apostle answers: "the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Walk in these ways; let your life bear this fruit; and you will be true children of the light of God.
So living, you will find out what it is that pleases God, and how joyful a thing it is to please Him (Ephesians_5:10). Your life wilt then be free from all complicity with the works of darkness. It will shine with a brightness clear and penetrating, that will put to shame the works of darkness and transform the darkness itself.
It will speak with a voice that all must hear, bidding them awake from the sleep of sin to see in Christ their light of life." Such is the setting in which this delightful definition stands. But it is more than a definition.
While this sentence declares what Christian virtue is, it signifies also whence it comes, how it is generated and maintained. It asserts the connection that exists between Christian character and Christian faith. The fruit cannot be grown without the tree, any more than the tree can grow soundly without yielding its proper fruit. Right is the fruit of light.”
I would like to go back and zoom in on a verse that we just saw, but briefly. It is one that powerfully presents a Light / Darkness contrast. It was written by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:11: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
Of this, Alexander MacLaren writes, “UNFRUITFUL WORKS OF DARKNESS: We have seen in a former sermon that ‘the fruit,’ or outcome, ‘of the Light’ is a comprehensive perfection, consisting in all sorts and degrees of goodness and righteousness and truth. Therefore, the commandment, ‘Walk as children of the light,’ sums up all Christian morality.
Is there need, then, for any additional precept? Yes; for Christian people do not live in an empty world. If there were no evil round them, and no proclivity to evil within them, it would be amply sufficient to say to them, ‘Be true to the light which you behold.’
But since both these things are, the commandment of my text is further necessary. We do not work in vacuo, and therefore friction and atmosphere have to be taken account of; and an essential part of ‘walking as children of the light’ is to know how to behave ourselves when confronted with ‘the works of darkness.’
These Ephesian Christians lived in a state of society honeycombed with hideous immorality, the centre of which was the temple, which was their city’s glory and shame. It was all but impossible for them to have nothing to do with the works of evil, unless, indeed, they went out of the world.
But the difficulty of obedience does not affect the duty of obedience, nor slacken in the smallest degree the stringency of a command. This obligation lies upon us as fully as it did upon them, and the discharge of it by professing Christians would bring new life to moribund {or, stagnant} churches.
I. Let me ask you to note with me, first, the fruitlessness inherent in all the works of darkness. You may remember that I pointed out, in a former discourse on the context, that the Apostle, here and elsewhere, draws a very significant distinction between ‘works’ and ‘fruit,’ and that distinction is put very strikingly in the words of my text.
There are works which are barren. It is a grim thought that there may be abundant activity which, in the eyes of God, comes to just nothing; and that pages and pages of laborious calculations, when all summed up, have for result a great round 0. Men are busy, and hosts of them are doing what the old fairy stories tell us that evil spirits were condemned to do-spinning ropes out of sea-sand; and their life-work is nought when they come to reckon it up.
I have no time to dwell upon this thought, but I wish, just for a moment or two, to illustrate it. All godless life is fruitless, inasmuch as it has no permanent results. Permanent results of a sort, indeed, follow everything that men do, for all our actions tend to make character, and they all have a share in fixing that which depends upon character-viz. destiny, both here and yonder.
And thus the most fleeting of our deeds, which in one aspect is as transitory as the snow upon the great plains when the sun rises, leaves everlasting traces upon ourselves and upon our condition. But yet acts concerned with transitory things may have permanent fruit, or may be as transient as the things with which they are concerned. And the difference depends on the spirit in which they are done.
If the roots are only in the surface-skin of soil, when that is pared off the plant goes. A life that is to be eternal must strike its roots through all the superficial humus down to the very heart of things. When its roots twine themselves round God then the deeds which blossom from them will blossom unfading for ever.
Think of men going empty-handed into another world, and saying, ‘O Lord! I made a big fortune in Manchester when I lived there, and I left it all behind me’; or, ‘I mastered a science, and one gleam of the light of eternity has antiquated it’; or, ‘I gained prizes, won my aims, and they have all dropped from my hands, and here I stand, having to say in the most tragic sense:
Nothing in my hands I bring.’ And another man dies in the Lord, and his ‘works do follow’ him. It is not every vintage that bears exportation. Some wines are mellowed by crossing the ocean; some are turned into vinegar. The works of darkness are unfruitful because they are transient.
And they are unfruitful because, whilst they last, they yield no real satisfaction. The Apostle could say to another Church with a certainty as to what the answer would be, ‘What fruit had ye then’-when ye were doing them-’in the things whereof ye are now ashamed?’ And the answer is ‘None!’ Of course, it is true that men do bad things because they like them better than good.
Of course, it is true that the misery of mankind is that they have no appetite in the general for the only real satisfaction. But it is also true that no man who feeds his heart and mind on anything short of God is really at rest in anything that he does or possesses. Occasional twinges of conscience, dim perceptions that after all they are walking in a vain show;
II. And now, secondly, notice the plain Christian duty of abstinence. ‘Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.’ Now, the text, as it stands in our version, seems to suggest that these dark works are personified as companions whom a good man ought to avoid; and that, therefore, the bearing of the exhortation is, ‘Have nothing to do, in your own individual lives, with evil things that one man can commit.’
But I take it that, important as that injunction and prohibition is, the Apostle’s meaning is somewhat different, and that my text would perhaps be more accurately translated if another word were substituted for ‘have no fellowship with.’ The original expression seems rather to mean, ‘Do not go partners with other people in works of darkness, which it takes more than one to commit.’
Or, to put it into another language, the Apostle is regarding Christian people here as members of society, and exhorting them to a certain course of conduct in reference to plain and palpable existing evils around them. And such an exhortation to the duty of plain abstinence from things that the opinion of the world around us has no objection to, but which are contrary to the light, is addressed to all Christian people.
The need of it I do not require to illustrate at any length. But let me remind you that the devil has no more cunning way of securing a long lease of life for any evil than getting Christian people and Christian Churches to give it their sanction. What was it that kept slavery alive for centuries? Largely, that Christian men solemnly declared that it was a divine institution...
And that is it that preserves the crying evils of our community, the immoralities, the drunkenness, the trade dishonesty, and all the other things that I do not need to remind you of in the pulpit? Largely this, that professing Christians are mixed up with them.
If only the whole body of those who profess and call themselves Christians would shake their hands clear of all complicity with such things, they could not last. Individual responsibility for collective action needs to be far more solemnly laid to heart by professing Christians than ever it has been.
Nor need I remind you, I suppose, with what fatal effects on the Gospel and the Church itself all such complicity is attended. Even the companions of wrongdoers despise, whilst they fraternise with, the professing Christian who has no higher standard than their own… And so, brethren, I would say to you… ‘Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.’
But how is this to be done? Well, of course, there is only one way of abstaining, and that is, to abstain. But there are a great many different ways of abstaining. Light is not fire. And the more that Christian people feel themselves bound to stand aloof from common evils, the more are they bound to see that they do it in the spirit of the Master, which is meekness. It is always an {unfavorable} position to take up.
And if we take it up with any heat and temper, with any lack of moderation, with any look of ostentation of superior righteousness, or with any trace of the Boanerges spirit which says, ‘Let us call down fire from heaven and consume them,’ our testimony will be weakened, and the world will have a right to say to us, ‘Jesus we know, and Paul we know; but who are ye?’ ‘Who made this man a judge and a divider over us?’ ‘In meekness instructing them that oppose themselves.’
III. Lastly, note the still harder Christian duty of vigorous protest. The further duty beyond abstinence which the text enjoins is inadequately represented by our version, ‘but rather reprove them.’ For the word rendered in our version ‘reprove’ is the same which our Lord employed when He spoke of the mission of the Comforter as being to ‘convince (or convict) the world of sin.’ And it does not merely mean ‘reprove,’ but so to reprove as to produce the conviction which is the object of the reproof.
This task is laid on the shoulders of all professing Christians. A silent abstinence is not enough. No doubt, the best way, in some circumstances, to convict the darkness is to shine. Our holiness will convict sin of its ugliness. Our light will reveal the gloom. The presentation of a Christian life is the Christian man’s mightiest weapon in his conflict with the world’s evil.
But that is not all. And if Christian people think that they have done all their duty, in regard to clamant and common iniquities, by simply abstaining from them and presenting a nobler example, they have yet to learn one very important chapter of their duty. A dumb Church is a dying Church, and it ought to be; for Christ has sent us here in order, amongst other things, that we may bring Christian principles to bear upon the actions of the community; and not be afraid to speak when we are called upon by conscience to do so.
Now I am not going to dwell upon this matter, but I want just to point out to you how, in the context here, there are two or three very important principles glanced at which bear upon it. And one of them is this, that one reason for speaking out is the very fact that the evils are so evil that a man is ashamed to speak about them.
Did you ever notice this context, in which the Apostle, in the next verse to my text, gives the reason for his commandment to ‘reprove’ thus-’For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret’? Did you ever hear of a fantastic tenderness for morality so very sensitive that it is not at all shocked when the immoral things are done, but glows with virtuous indignation when a Christian man speaks out about them?
There are plenty of people nowadays who tell us that it is ‘indelicate’ and ‘indecent’ and ‘improper,’ and I do not know how much else, for a Christian teacher or minister to say a word about certain moral scandals. But they do not say anything about the immorality and the indelicacy and the indecency of doing them.
Let us have done with that hypocrisy, brethren. I am arguing for no disregard for proprieties; I want all fitting reticence observed, and I do not wish indiscriminate rebukes to be flung at foul things; but it is too much to require that, by reason of the very inky cloud of filth that they fling up like cuttlefish, they should escape censure. Let us remember Paul’s exhortation, and reprove because the things are too bad to be spoken about.
Further, note in the context the thought that the conviction of the darkness comes from the flashing upon it of the light. ‘All things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light.’ Which, being translated into other words, is this:-Be strong in your brave protest, because it only needs that the thing should be seen as it is, and called by its right name, in order to be condemned.
And do not forget the other final principle here, which is imperfectly represented by our translation. We ought to read, ‘Whatever is made manifest is light.’ Yes. In the physical world when light falls upon a thing, you see it because there is on it a surface of light. And in the moral world the intention of all this conviction is that the thing disclosed to be darkness should, in the very disclosure, cease to be dark, should forsake its nature and be transformed into light.
Such transformation is not always the case. Alas! There are evil deeds on which the light falls, and it does nothing. But the purpose in all cases should be, and the issue in many will be, that the merciful conviction by the light will be followed by the conversion of darkness into light.
And so, dear brethren, I bring this text to your hearts, and lay it upon your consciences. We may not all be called upon to speak; we are all called upon to be. You can shine, and by shining show how dark the darkness is. The obligation is laid upon us all; the commandment still comes to every Christian which was given to the old prophet, ‘Declare unto My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sin.’
A quaint old writer says that the presence of a saint ‘hinders the devil of elbow room to do his tricks.’ We can all rebuke sin by our righteousness, and by our shining reveal the darkness to itself. We do not walk as children of the light unless we keep ourselves from all connivance with works of darkness, and by all means at our disposal reprove and convict them. ‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch no unclean thing, saith the Lord.’”
The Word of God presents many more citings of the differentiation between Light and Darkness. In the coming weeks I plan to further review and examine these citings, in an effort to bring all of us to a clearer understanding of God's definition of what a Christian is, so that we can better reflect that definition. In invite all of you hearing or reading my words to join me at this same place and time.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “What Is A Christian? Part 20.”
This Discussion was presented “live” on June 12th, 2024.
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