God is Light

Graham Phillips

1 John • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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What does John mean by the statement 'God is light'. He means His excellency, His beauty, His holiness and purity. The idea of light elsewhere in John's writings and in the old testament is linked to revelation, to truth. There is no darkness in Him. What is meant by darkness? Unholiness, deceit, impurity, mixture.

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God is Light

Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 28th Edition Chapter 1

5 Καὶ ⸉ἔστιν αὕτη⸊ ἡ ⸀ἀγγελία ἣν ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀναγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν,* ὅτι ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν καὶ σκοτία ⸉1ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν⸊ οὐδεμία.* 6 Ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετʼ* αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατῶμεν,* ψευδόμεθα καὶ οὐ ποιοῦμεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν·* 7 ἐὰν* ♦⸆ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν,* ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί, κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετʼ ἀλλήλων,* καὶ τὸ αἷμα ⸂Ἰησοῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ⸃ ⸀καθαρίζει ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 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 cleanses us from all sin.

OPENING REMARKS

This Sunday we move out of John’s introduction and into one of His main arguments.

Robert Yarbrough adds the following observation concerning John’s letters:

If 1-3 John leaves the disciple who studies them with any single lasting impression, it is the grandeur and centrality of God.… Part of this is the sheer volume of references to him. There is hardly a verse or even clause anywhere that does not name a person of the Godhead (Trinity), a divine attribute, or a divine work (like a command that has come from God). These letters are not simply theological, as one might say ale is alcoholic; they are rather theology distillate, analogous to highest-proof grain alcohol that is highly flammable and intoxicating in even small amounts. God—mainly Father and Son, but occasionally also Holy Spirit—suffuses every situation John envisions, each piece of counsel he issues, every sentiment he conveys, each affirmation he sets forth.

We heard last week about how this epistle was likely written to a group of house churches located in modern day Turkey that had been getting their ears tickled by some false teachers. These false teachers didn’t believe that Jesus had actually come in the flesh, that He only appeared human but actually wasn’t. They were teaching that Jesus was certainly from God but that He wasn’t God Himself, therefore they denied the trinity. John is writing to them to remind them of the gospel which they had first believed, which came from the apostles, who had physically been with Jesus Himself. We heard also last week about koinonia being built upon agreement to the truth, where there is no agreement upon the gospel there is no koinonia, no fellowship, no unity.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Whenever we read the Bible we have to be aware that this book is like no other book. It has one Author, but many scribes. All of scripture is God breathed (2 Tim 3:16) there isn’t any verse in the whole canon of scripture which escapes this truth, there are no lesser books, no merely human passages. However, God chose to use people in the writing of the holy scriptures, fallible men used by the infallible God to create an infallible result. So when we approach scripture it is important to remember that it has both divine and human qualities, in many ways a parralel of the Word of God Himself, Jesus who is both fully man and fully God. Each scribe, John included, has their own very human idiosyncracies, their own style of writing, their own unique method of communication. The apostle Paul is widely considered to be one of the greatest thinkers of antiquity, developing monstrous, complex arguments through employing all sorts of logical and literary devices. This is why if you only dip in and out of books like Romans you can totally miss what Romans is actually saying. The apostle John is another fascinating writer, instead of using linear arguments like Paul he uses another well known ancient technique called ‘amplification’ to get his ideas across. Amplification involves taking several main themes and then circling around them multiple times, coming at them from a slightly different angle each time. John’s themes include truth, love, life and here today the theme of light. Understanding the human side of the scriptures helps us get closer to the message God wants us to hear from them.

This is the message...

Again verse 5 begins emphatically, in the original language ‘And this is the message we have heard from him’. John connects this section with what he has said in verses 1-4. This is what we have heard from the one whom we have heard, seen, touched with our hands; Jesus. The apostles proclaim what they heard from the Son, the Son only does what He sees the Father doing. The true apostles of Christ saw that their job was to faithfully preach what had already been given to them, not to go seeking fresh revelation. This was the distinction between the true apostles and these false apostles spreading their false teaching; the false apostles always had ‘fresh revelation’ they were attempting to peddle, whereas the true apostles fought to preserve the gospel that they had received from Jesus. Always be wary of teaching that presents itself as ‘fresh revelation’, ‘new teaching’ a ‘new way’. These ‘new teachings’ are always just rebadged old heresies.

God is light...

It this is the reason why those false teachers ought to be afraid; God is light. This is perhaps the most beautiful and simultaneously terrifying things we know of God. He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. He is all truth and no lie, He is perfectly holy and without the slightest spot or even hint of imperfection.

Imagine the brightest light you can think of. Think of that type of light so strong that it that burns your retina when you look directly at it, like the sun. The sun is 93 million miles away, it would take you 19 years to fly there by jumbo jet, if that were even possible. Yet the light from the sun is so strong it can be seen right across the solar system even as far as pluto. It’s power dictates the pattern of life on earth, when we wake, when we sleep, how we see. It creates power when it’s energy is harnessed, it creates so much heat that it can burn us from 93 million miles and yet even that light is polluted by imperfection. Even the sun itself has dark spots, even it’s light eventually tails off the further you get from it. But in God there is NO darkness. God is a light which is perfect, pure, holy, without any decay, without any blemish or darkness at all. As Paul wrote, He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16) . A light so strong that finite eyes can’t look at it, that mortal bodies can’t approach it, that sinful humanity cannot stand in it’s presence.

To the children of God, His light is entrancing, beautiful. To the sinner it is terrible, an inescapable horror.

What does John mean by this light?

“Light is pure. It cannot be defiled. So it is the fit emblem of holiness. God is absolute holiness.” Hodge

To me this is one of the most precious and treasured things about our God; He is pure, absolutely pure. He is all goodness, all perfection, all righteousness. There’s not even a shadow of impurity in all that He is. Wow! There’s no one like our God in all creation, and it’s His absolute holiness as Hodge puts it that is His glory.

It’s His holiness above every other attribute that is sung about in heaven. “ And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come!”

None is sounded out so loftily, with such solemnity, and so frequently by angels that stand before his throne, as this. Where do you find any other attribute trebled in the praises of it, as this? Isa, 6:3, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory;’ and Rev. 4:8, ‘The four beasts rest not day and night saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,’ &c. His power of sovereignty as Lord of hosts, is but once mentioned, but with a ternal repetition of his holiness. Do you hear in any angelical song any other perfection of the divine nature thrice repeated? Where do we read of the crying out Eternal, eternal, eternal; or Faithful, faithful, faithful, Lord God of hosts! - Stephen Charnock

“Holiness is a glorious perfection belonging to the nature of God, hence he is in Scripture styled often the Holy One, the Holy One of Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, and oftener entitled Holy than Almighty, and set forth by this part of his dignity more than by any other. This is more affixed as an epithet to his name than any other; you never find it expressed, his mighty name or his wise name, but his great name, and most of all his holy name. This is his greatest title of honour; in this doth the majesty and venerableness of his name appear” - SC

The holiness of God is his glory, as his grace is his riches; holiness is his crown, and his mercy is his treasure. - SC

“He that sees the beauty of holiness sees the greatest and most important thing in the world. Unless this is seen, nothing is seen that is worth the seeing.” Jonathan Edwards

As Children of God we come to love His holiness, and we want to imitate it. We allow His holy light to shine on us and expose the darkness in us. We actually glory in not only the positive side of God’s holiness; that He loves all things that are pure and righteous but also that He of necessity hates all ungodliness and unrighteousness (Rom 1:18). Thats the sign of a true believer, that we worship God in His holiness and not just in His mercy. We agree with all of His judgements, we praise Him in them even when they cut us!

Wheras the false believer loves God in His mercy, they delight in His love but they hate His holiness, they hate that they can’t control it, that it doesn’t fit with their own ideas about what or who God should show mercy to. They hate His freedom in His holiness, His absolute freedom to excercise His holiness, they want to make Him all love and a little less than holy.

“There are some attributes of God we prefer, because of our interest in them, and the relation they bear to us; as we esteem his goodness before his power, and his mercy, whereby he relieves us, before his justice, whereby he punisheth us.” - SC

The “god” which the vast majority of professing Christians “love” is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the “indiscretions” of youth. But the Word says, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psa 5:5). And again, “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psa 7:11). But men refuse to believe in this God, and gnash their teeth when His hatred of sin is faithfully pressed upon their attention. No, sinful man was no more likely to devise a holy God than to create the Lake of Fire in which he will be tormented for ever and ever. - AW Pink

Walk in the light...

God is light, He dwells in the light, but we are to walk in it. None of us walk perfectly in the light, but in our conscience our steps are guided by His word and by holiness (Psalm 119:105), (1 Pet 1:16).

It’s by this walking on the two legs of truth and holiness that we please God and have fellowship with one another. If we do this the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin!

The point being, even when we attempt to walk in holiness to the best of our abilities we still need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from sin! There is no recognition of sinless perfectionism here but a simple obeyeance to follow God in the light of His holiness to the best of our imperfect ability.

This cleansing from sin happens as we walk. The blood of Jesus cleanses our past, future and our present. We know that His blood didn’t only deal with our sins up to conversion, but continues to cleanse us as we walk with God. As the old Hymn goes, the steadfast love of the lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning.

Conclusion

Lets glory in God’s holiness. In His absolute moral perfection, in His love of all things good, in His hatred of all evil and mixture. And as we do, lets encourage one another to walk in His light. To have our lives ordered by a pursuit of holiness in all things and to be open and honest with one another about our walk with God. Light keeps no secrets.