You Have Come From Darkness to Light
Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV)
…for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Dear fellow redeemed: There are some things that are definitely before/after, then/now, on/off, light/dark. Paul uses that imagery here to great effect to talk about us, and the distinct difference between what we were and what we are, which is also the difference between those cut off from God in unbelief and those living in the light of faith.
The world likes things in shades of gray, but spiritual life is black and white, dark and light, damnation and salvation, eternal death and eternal life. Paul hammers home the reality that …
YOU HAVE COME FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
I. Then You Were of the Darkness
II. Now You Are of the Light
III. See the Difference?
IV. To Live Is to Live of the Light
I. Then You Were of the Darkness
Now it is important to stress this because in our age it is easy to “go gray” and forget where we came from. It’s easy to forget that we were born in darkness, “having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 2:12 esv) We were all born on a trajectory from darkness into darkness. Even if we were brought up in the Christian faith, it is easy to neglect God’s word, become mired in the worries, riches, and pleasures of life so that we forsake a life of daily repentance and reflection on the gospel Peter reminds us, 2 Peter 1:9 (ESV) For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
And because the darkness of this world is spiritual darkness, it is easy to forget that people we know live in darkness. Paul described the darkness from whence the Ephesians came: Ephesians 4:18–19 (ESV) They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
In the modern context, these are people who are indifferent to the Bible, get their theology from movies like The Shack, or people like Joel Osteen or Pope Francis, care nothing for the death of the unborn, see the world through an evolutionary lens, and live the casual immorality of the sit-com. Now that you are in the light, you see that as darkness – as death. for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
II. Now You Are of the Light
Now unless you have somehow started to glow, you realize that you are in the light because of the light that shines on you, as Paul says, (probably) quoting a baptismal hymn of the time
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
You aren’t in the light because you have decided to walk in the light
Open your eyes! In your faith, understand that it is because the light has come to you that you are in the light. Believe me, we haven’t started to glow. We live in the light of Christ. but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).
This is far more counter-cultural than you might realize. When we tell people to stand up for their faith, they usually think of doing the right thing when others do wrong. That’s a good thing, but that is just morality, and every civilization is for that. Again, standing up for civilized morality isn’t the light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. This is why Western Christian civilization is so under attack, because it is (as are other Christian cultures) an embodiment, a living-out-in-life of the gospel.
It goes far beyond morality, but to an everlasting hope. What is good and right and true certainly includes morality. Virtues of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ,” honesty, sobriety, self-discipline, modesty, humility, courage, etc. are all good and right and true.
But to walk as a child of the light is to live this way because of Christ, out of love for Christ, out of obedience to Christ, in gratitude to Christ, because of the righteousness he has given us, because of the Light that He Himself has shown on us. It isn’t the mastery of rules, but to try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, because it is the Lord who has saved us.
III. See the Difference?
Living in the light means living in the hope of the gospel, living as people to whom faith, forgiveness, life, and salvation have been given. It is for this reason that we live in the light and the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And what is that?
It is a family where forgiveness and grace predominate, and respect and honor of parents lives. It is a marriage in which there is love in the good times and the more difficult ones. It is in a life lived with an appreciation of beauty and truth. It is in a disciplined mind, discerning truth from lies and light from darkness.
It is a theology of the cross, in which we understand this world as a broken world in which Christ shares our sufferings and death to defeat and destroy death and to deliver us into eternal life. It is a world that doesn’t pit one group against another, as though one group of people is good and another oppressive – men/women, rich/poor, white/black, native/immigrant – but understands that faith, vice and virtue are individual.
It is a worldview in which God, not chance, is glorified for what is good, and beautifully mysterious, grand and majestic. It is a worldview in which the life of an immortal soul is understood as categorically different from that of an animal.
To live in the light is to have light for all seasons. It is to live in the light when things go well, when we are in the spring of our lives and are growing in strength, confidence, ability and knowledge. It is to live in the light in the summer of life, when hopes mature and are fulfilled. It is to live in the light in the fall of life, when most of our days are behind us, when some dreams will clearly be unfulfilled, and we grow weary. It is to live in the light in the winter of our lives, when death is but a step away, and we have no sense of another day, much less what another day will hold. (H/T to Chad Bird.) What hope can be for all seasons but the hope of Christ’s righteousness and everlasting life.
To live in the light of all seasons is to have what is good in all times of life, what is right in all times of life, and what is true in all times of life. Faith first of all, and therefore the righteousness of Christ. Hope of God’s grace in daily life that is as much for a young person as one who is aged. The gospel that Christ has entered our world from heaven, died to kill death and is risen from the dead gives light to every day.
To live in the light is also to avoid what hides in the darkness. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
Think of a lighthouse. It can be seen, often brightly, even in the dark. But by its position and sometimes by its beam it reveals the rocks. The light reveals the false gospels, the false theologies, false religions, that dominate education, media, and popular culture and give birth to the works of darkness. What is, in darkness, heralded as modern, free, unfettered, bold, daring, human, or “a right,” is revealed as old and discredited lies, as licentious and corrupt, as without restraint, as tyrannical, reckless, demonic, as a usurpation of power, and eternally condemned. What in darkness is heralded as human freedom, is revealed as death.
Remember (as I taught in the Ash Wednesday sermon) the danger of sin, the work of darkness, is not just that we commit a sin, but that we are led into impenitence and unbelief.
IV. To Live Is to Live of the Light
So we want to live in the light, do we not? We want to diligently pay attention to Christ who is the Light of the World, and who gives us that light through His word. We want to live in the light that shines on us with His righteousness, and shows both the bright and lonely way to heaven and the dark shoals of impenitence and unbelief.
Once we were darkness, but no more. Once we had only death before us, but now we already have an eternal life that has no end. Once we stumbled around unable to please God, because we didn’t know him, now there is no condemnation upon us, for we are in Christ Jesus.
When you walk in the light, our prayer is answered, “Hallowed be thy Name,” for by life and by teaching Christ is known. When you walk in the light, you are an honor to Christ and a blessing to other. When you walk in the light, you live the life of the blessed, with a blessing and happiness that has no end, for we live in the light of Christ. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
How can we but walk in ?
AMEN.
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