Walking in the Light

As we confess our sins daily the redeeming blood of Jesus cleanses us, giving us access to the fellowship of God.

Sermon Notes:

1. God the Son was manifested to the world in human flesh; John testifies that the apostles saw and touched Him.
2. The eternal life of God is opened up to us and we are then brought into the fellowship of God Himself.
3. As we confess our sins daily the redeeming blood of Jesus cleanses us, giving us access to the fellowship of God.
4. The gospel is primarily a message about God: “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 Jn. 1:5).
5. Light refers (1) to the transcendence of God (cf. 1 Tim. 6:16); (2) to God’s glory, which is His saving presence in the midst of darkness (cf. Ex 13:21-22); and (3) to God as the source of life (Ps. 36:9).
6. Confession of sin is one of the foremost ways that we walk in the light.
7. Those who walk in darkness may claim to walk in light, but if our profession doesn’t line up with our walk we are liars.
8. If we walk in the light we have fellowship with God and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
9. Maintaining fellowship with fellow Christians is an aspect of walking in the light.
10. Propitiation means to appease or to pacify. Pagans sought to appease the gods. In Scripture, propitiation refers to the satisfaction of God’s justice and wrath though the work of Jesus (cf. 1 Jn. 4:8-10).
11. The wrath of God against man’s rebellion is God’s jealous love; Jesus in His death on the cross satisfies God’s justice and wrath against our sin.
12. Propitiation is a covering for our sin. He died as a cover for us, taking on our sin.
13. He bore our sin; we have been forgiven. The covering of Christ is effective because he’s taken our punishment (cf. Ps. 103:8-12).
14. Christ is our advocate who pleads for us, declaring that we are covered by His propitiation (cf. Heb. 7:25).
15. Paul speaks of God cancelling our record of debt at the cross (Col. 2:13-14).
16. Having forgiven us all our trespasses, Jesus erased our record of debt. The legal demand for breaking God’s law – death, has been canceled.
17. We are now free from the burden of debt. Our conscience should be pricked, but we do not need to feel condemned for our sin.
18. If we deny that we are sinners, we reject the cleansing of Christ, we are liars, and we remain in darkness.
19. Those who walk in the light recognize their own sin exposed by the light and so they confess their sins.
20. To confess our sins means to confess our specific sins daily. A vague confession is a way of hiding our sin. To confess is to speak the explicit, specific truth about our guilt before God.
21. In our specific confession, we find that we have an advocate in heaven who covers us. We need to be a people who are repenting and confessing our sin.
22. Our fellowship is one of repenting sinners. We have fellowship with the One who covers us with His blood.
23. Confessing our sins explicitly before God, we find a confidence in God’s cleansing forgiveness.

Application Questions:

1. How is it that we who are sinners can share in the eternal life of the Trinity?
2. What does John mean when he writes that God is light? 
3. What is the effect of light upon the darkness?
4. What is propitiation?
5. How does Jesus, God’s Son, cleanse us from all sin?
6. What should characterize our confession of sins?

Sermon Notes