1 John 1:5-7
Where does the believer walk? The answer is, In the light, and nowhere else. The unbeliever walks in darkness and nowhere else. The believer walks in the light. In 1 John 1:5-7 the apostle John is not occupied with what is abnormal. He is not taken up with how the believer walks, but where he walks.
What then is meant by walking in the light? It undoubtedly hinges on what is meant by God being in the light. Verse 7 begins, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light.” In the Old Testament God dwelt in thick darkness. He was unrevealed in His fulness. Something was known of God, but full revelation waited for the coming of Christ. Now God is revealed. He is in the light. He, “Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach to; whom no man has seen, nor can see” (1 Tim. 6:16) has been pleased to reveal Himself as Father, Son and Holy Ghost—one God.
“No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). God is in the light and believers come into the light of the revelation of God in Christ. The believer is brought into a realm of knowledge that is completely hidden from the unbeliever.
In that realm of knowledge (the ability to enter into it lying in the new nature communicated by God in sovereign grace and wisdom) believers have fellowship one with the other.
The “if” of verse 7—“if we walk in the light as He is in the light”—is the “if” of argument, and not of doubt. I say, If it is fine tomorrow we will go for a country walk. That is the “if” of doubt. Our going for a walk depends upon the weather, which is very uncertain. A father says to his son, “If you are my son, you will behave yourself in a way that is creditable.” He is casting no doubt on the relationship, but using it as an undoubted fact and as a lever whereby to exhort his son to better ways. So in our verse. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light,” there follows an undoubted consequence, believers have fellowship one with another.
Then follows a wonderful statement. How can believers be in the light? How can they arrive there? How can they be maintained there? The answer is, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” That is to say, the precious blood of Christ cleanses the believer from the guilt of sin once and for ever.
It may be urged, How can sins be cleansed away before they are committed? Should not the believer fly daily to the blood for daily cleansing? Does not the very form of the verb, cleanses, point to this?
This form of the verb is very common in John’s writings. Take as an example, “He that comes from above is above all” (John 3:31). This does not mean that Christ is coming, coming, coming day by day; but that He is characterized as the One, who came from above. “He that believes … has everlasting life” (John 3:36). This does not set forth a series of daily believings, but rather that a man is characterized once and for all time as believing. So with our word, “cleanses.” It sets forth the characteristic power of the precious blood, that it cleanses, not piecemeal day by day, but rather “from ALL sin,” once and for ever.
This gives a believer a safe standing in the presence of God. Righteousness is for ever satisfied. But on the other hand, if walking “in the light as He is in the light” is intended to set forth how the believer walks, we can well ask the question, what believer walks in the light as God is in the light? What believer can walk or does walk up to that standard? Surely none. If it were a question of how the believer walks, not one would live to take two steps in God’s awful presence. But God is love as well as light, and the precious blood sets forth the demand of light, since it is the provision of love meeting that demand.
And surely the greatest incentive and encouragement to walking according to the light is the knowledge that we walk in the light, and have fellowship one with the other, on the solid righteous foundation of the precious blood, settling once and for ever for the believer the demand of that light.
But though these words set forth where we walk rather than how we walk, may we be more concerned as to how we walk in the light. Thank God, the believer never walks in the darkness. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).