A Thought For The Week Of December 28, 2015

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ..." (Ephesians 5:8) Transformation is - or at least should be - at the heart of the Christian faith. There is surely no worse witness to Christ than a "disciple" who claims the faith but shows no evidence of the faith in their lives. Every Christian would agree with that. The disagreements would probably arise in identifying what changes are necessary. Ephesians 5:8 mentions one things very specifically - as people who have chosen to be disciples of Jesus we have moved from darkness into light. In some ways it's difficult to identify what's meant by that. Light and darkness seem somewhat vague concepts. But at the very least we can say two things: (1) the shift from darkness to light means being transformed from people who have no knowledge or awareness of God to being people who live with God as the centre of our existence; and (2) the shift from darkness to light means moving from having no real concept of sin to being acutely aware of sin. These two things combined have a huge impact on a person's life. We become aware of our failure to be what God wants us to be and we have to accept responsibility for the ways we turn away from God. We can't lay blame elsewhere. "The devil" didn't make me do it. I chose. So moving from darkness to light means taking responsibility for my life and my choices. This transformation gives us hope. Taking responsibility alone could simply fill us with guilt - but that's not the impact of Christian faith. Christian faith is a constant reminder of the grace of God. And the grace of God - while it doesn't give me license - does give me assurance. I can't just do whatever I want. I have to strive to follow God. But I can have the peace of trying my best to follow God rather than the fear of having to perfectly follow God. The former offers assurance; the latter offers only condemnation, because if I have to be perfect then I'm struck with the fact that I can't be perfect. Ultimately the move from darkness to light must include these two things: knowledge of God and knowledge of sin, both of which then work together to bring assurance to the believer.