Preached at Brampton Ash, Afternoon of the 10th Sunday after Trinity, August 24, 1862.
“If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”—1 St. John i, 8, 9.
You are used to these words. You hear them very often at the beginning of our morning or our evening prayers. This afternoon you heard them as they come in the course of St. John’s letter to his flock those whom he calls his little children—at Ephesus.
He had been telling them the message which he said he had heard from his master, Christ, and which was meant for them as much as for him. It was this: “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” St. John had been at that passover supper, of which I spoke to you this morning; he had been next to his Master. He was called the beloved disciple. He had lived many years since then. He had had visions of Christ in His own glory. And this was the best thing he could say when he was near the end of his pilgrimage on earth; the best blessing he could bestow on those whom he had known and loved; the best legacy he could leave to us—“I tell you God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
What! did not he know that before? Some one may ask ‘Did he fancy there was some darkness in God?’ I must answer yes to both questions, though it may seem as if they were just the contrary of each other. He did know that God was light, that He was all clear pure goodness, that and nothing else; he had been told so from his youth, and he believed it. But yet he did fancy there was darkness in God. When he grew up and saw how much darkness there was in the world, how much evil there was in the world, the temptation was very great to say Does not this come from God? Is not He the cause of it? But recollect what things St. John had been witness to. He had seen Jesus Christ his Lord put to death by the hands of wicked men; and his own brother James had been slain by the sword because he preached of Jesus Christ and of what He had done for men. St. Peter and most of the friends that were dearest to him had been cut off for the same reason. The city of Jerusalem, in which he had walked with his master, was about to fall, if it had not already fallen, for the wickedness of those who dwelt in it. Bad men seemed to have the upper hand; good men seemed as if they had no chance of making themselves heard. Must not the thought have often come to St. John, ’ Well, God allows all this to be. I do not know how it is, but must there not be some darkness in Him? Must He not have some hard thought to us? Can He be altogether light, that and that only?’
Yes, my friends, such thoughts do come to all men, and you must see that St. John had as much excuse for them as most men. And now let us consider how he fought his way out of these thoughts; how he came verily and indeed to believe that there is no darkness at all in God, let things look as dark as ever they may.
First, then, he stood firm on this ground. ‘Christ my Lord and Saviour has shown me what God is; He spoke of His Father; He showed us of His Father; we saw in Him the grace and glory of the only begotten Son. Now I know what sort of acts He did when He was upon earth; I know that He went about doing good—to men—to all manner of men, good and bad. And I know how it was with Him when all looked very dark indeed to Him; when the chief priests and rulers hated Him; when Pilate and the Roman soldiers were mocking and condemning Him; when His disciples fled from Him; when it seemed as if God His Father had deserted Him. I know that through all these things He held on; that He trusted, altogether trusted, in His Father’s goodness and truth; through all that darkness He trusted in Him because He knew Him, because He knew what His will was, because He was sure it was the same will always, even when He could not see it, even when it seemed to be crushing Him.’
The Apostle then could say boldly, ‘I mean to get my thoughts of the Eternal God from this Jesus Christ who has made Him known to us; from Him and from no one else, and from nothing else. Things may look very dark and black, but I am sure the darkness and blackness are not from God. What were all Christ’s acts, the works which He did in His Father’s name, which His Father sent Him to do, but works to vanquish the powers of darkness? What was His death? Death is the great darkness; all light seemed to be put out by it. It never was so dark as when it closed over the Son of Man, but He went through it; He despised it. His Father brought Him from the grave and hell. Therefore death and hell shall not be my teachers about God. I will gather no thoughts of Him from them. Christ, the conqueror of death and hell and the prince of darkness, is the only teacher about Him to me and to all people.’
But now I come to the second point. Is there then no darkness? Do not I really find evil and death in the world about me? Yes, I cannot deceive myself about that. It is true. I feel it, I know it, and, what is worse, it is in me. If I say that I have no sin, I deceive myself, and the truth is not in me. There is light about me—God’s own pure and blessed light—and that light comes to me. It shows me everything that is worth seeing; all beautiful things, all kind and gracious and loving things. But it shows me also many ugly things; many ungracious and unbelieving things. It shows me the bad that is in me. It makes me know how far I have gone wrong; how little I have loved those that are nearest to me; how ungrateful I have been; how hardhearted I have been. And it shows me that this unlovingness and ingratitude and hardness of heart are always in me, always ready to spring out on me and get the better of me. I cannot deny that. The truth is not in me if I deny it; for the truth that is in me shows me the untruth that is in me; God’s light shows me my darkness.
If He was not light, if He did not send His light in me, I should not perceive the darkness; it could not torment me as it does. Christ, who is the perfect image of God, the true light of the world, is making me understand what a dark creature I am without Him, what I should become and what the world would become if He withdrew His light.
But though there is much in this, St. John would still have been very ill content if he had been obliged to stop there. He goes on: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
That is to say, no doubt the light is here, and the darkness is here, but which is stronger? Which can drive out the other? I will try that. I will arise, and go to Him who is light, and tell Him of my darkness. I will ask Him if He cannot raise me out of it; and I find that He can. I tell Him of the sin that is in me, and He forgives it; He lifts me out of it; He owns me as His child. He not only puts away the sins that I have committed, but He cleanses me from all unrighteousness. So I know for myself that He is light, and that there is no darkness in Him, and that He means to scatter all darkness.
For observe, though I have told you truly that what St. John says he says of himself, I should speak falsely if I said he spoke it of himself more than of any other man. He says we all deceive ourselves if we say that we have no sin. He says the truth is not in us if we will not own the testimony it bears to our sin. And so he says of us all, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I showed you this morning how the apostles were cured of setting themselves one above another or above any man. All our Lord’s lessons were to bring them down, to show them that they were just like other people; that they had the same evil as all others, and that they were to proclaim to all the same deliverance from the evil which they had found. So we are not wrong in reading out these words in the morning and evening service to all men and women, though we know nothing of what they have been thinking or doing. They must be true for everyone if they were true for St. John and the Ephesians.
And what words they are! Let me repeat them to you. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now a man often says, ‘Oh, I hope and trust God will be merciful to me and forgive me my sins.’ But can he ask God because He is just to forgive him? That depends on the forgiveness which he is seeking. Suppose he desires God to overlook his sins; to let him go on in them, not to let him be punished for them, he certainly cannot expect that God in His justice and faithfulness will do that. This he would expect from a judge who is not just and faithful, but could that judge be merciful? I think not. There is no mercy in letting a man go on in a course of villany; there is no mercy in letting him get worse and worse, and therefore more and more miserable—that is cruelty. A father who does that to his children is a cruel father; a ruler who does that to his subjects is a cruel ruler. And, therefore, if we mean by forgiveness what God means by it; if we mean that he should put our sins as far from us as the east is from the west; that He should give us clean hearts and a right spirit; that He should bring us out of darkness into His blessed and wonderful light; He is not only merciful and just, He is faithful and just to do that for us. He loves righteousness and hates iniquity, therefore He is ready to deliver us from iniquity, and to make us partakers of His righteousness. It was infinite mercy of the Father to send His Son to save those who regarded Him as their enemy; it was infinite mercy of the Son to take our nature upon Him, and to die the death of those who slew Him. It is infinite mercy of the Holy Spirit to come to strive with us when we are most untrue and rebellious and ready to give ourselves to the evil spirit. But all this mercy is because it is the purpose of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, to set righteousness and truth upon the earth, and to drive all unrighteousness and untruth out of it. It is because God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Therefore, we may arise and say boldly, ‘Oh, God, I have walked in dark and evil ways; I confess to Thee that I have. I shall go on walking in them if Thou dost not forgive me my sins, and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. But I trust and am sure Thou wilt because Thou art faithful and just; because Thou hast manifested Thy righteousness in Thy dear Son for the forgiveness of sins; because Thou hast promised us strength to confess them, and turn from them, and to walk in Thy own right way.’