REVISITING THE BELIEVER'S POSITIONAL RICHES IN CHRIST

Part XXVIII: Applying The Truth That Believers Are Light In The Lord

I. Introduction

A. A great push exists in Christendom for all professing Christians "to put aside their differences and unite as brethren" in supposed alignment with Christ's prayer in John 17:20-21 that His flock might be "one."

B. Yet, the lost world is not part of that fold, for in the same prayer at John 17:9, 14, Jesus said, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me . . . they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Indeed, only those believers in Christ who "walk in the light" have fellowship with one another, 1 John 1:1-7!

C. Heeding one of the 33 positional truths the believer possesses when he trusts in Christ provides a correct application of this subject, that truth being that believers are "light in the Lord." (Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. III, "Soteriology," p. 262). We view that truth for our insight and edification:

II. Applying The Truth That Believers Are Light In The Lord.

A. When people trust in Christ as Savior from sin and hell, they are positionally situated to be "light in the Lord" so that they are obliged to "walk as children of light," Ephesians 5:8 with Ephesians 2:1, 8-10.

B. This "walk" by those who are "light in the Lord" is to be conducted with a focus on the believers' living separate in fellowship from those who live in the spiritual darkness of error and sin, Ephesians 5:7, 9-13:

1. Just before revealing that Christians are "light in the Lord" so that they should "walk as children of light" in Ephesians 5:8, Paul in Ephesians 5:3-6 called believers not to partner with the lost who live sinful lives in immorality, covetousness and evil speech, nor to partner with those who seek to deceive them with empty words that condone or gloss over the evil of such sins that elicit God's wrath.

2. Then, just after revealing that Christians are "light in the Lord" so that they should "walk as children of light" in Ephesians 5:8, Paul in Ephesians 5:9-11 ESV called them to prove what was acceptable unto God while having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even to expose them.

3. Accordingly, to "walk as children of light" because one is positionally situated in Christ as "light in the Lord" means to live righteously so as to expose to others one's stand for truth versus the error and righteousness versus the sin that exists in the ungodly. We explain this from other Scriptures as follows:

a. In contrast to the people of ancient Israel who looked to spiritists and mediums for spiritual insight, what activity actually kept them floundering in spiritual darkness and defeat due to the evil and deception of such evil spirits of Satan, God called Israel's people to look to the Word of God, Isaiah 8:19-20. Failure to seek insight from Scripture kept the people of Israel in debilitating spiritual darkness, Isaiah 8:21-22.

b. To counter this national drift from Scripture's insight into debilitating spiritual darkness, God graciously sent His Son, Jesus, the Great Light Who revealed God's truth and exposed error and sin, and He sent Him into a realm of great darkness, the apostate territory of Galilee, Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:12-16. In the start of that strategic ministry, Christ was busy even as the sun was setting casting out demons from people in the area because it was so spiritually dark, destitute and needy, Mark 1:21-34.

c. In application, we who trust in Christ are positionally "children of light" who by our lives are to reflect God's Scripture truth and righteousness and expose error and sin in the world, Ephesians 5:8b. We are to let God's truth and righteousness shine out in our lives and not let our witness be compromised by heeding or uniting with those who are committed to error and sin in spiritual darkness, Matthew 5:13-16.

Lesson: When we trust in Christ as our personal Savior from sin, we are POSITIONALLY made "light in the Lord" so that we might "shine out" in practice God's truth and righteousness OPPOSITE the sin and error that is around us, Ephesians 5:8; Matthew 5:13-16.

Application: (1) Though Christ wants all of His true flock of believers in the true Church to be united, (2) there ALSO exists (a) a false flock of "tares" as Matthew 13:25, 38-39 predicted (b) along with people of God's true flock who live in carnality marked by various degrees of sin and error. (3) Thus, our "unity" must of necessity be a SELECTIVE unity that CONTRASTS with and EXPOSES all error and sin around us (as follows): (a) we must focus on Scripture truth about walking in the light (Isaiah 8:20) so as to (b) apply that Word in the Holy Spirit's power (Galatians 5:19) to think and act in truth and righteousness as effective "lights." (c) This means we must be (i) totally separate in fellowship from lost apostates who reject Christ (2 John 9-10), (ii) partially separate from sinful believers (2 Thessalonians 3:6) and (iii) fully united with the godly who walk in the light (1 John 1:5-7).