Again and again in the New Testament, the gospel is called a word; and it is of the greatest interest to see the various connections in which this term is used.
(1) More often than anything else, the gospel message is called the word of God (Acts 4:31, 6:2, 6:7, 11:1, 13:5, 13:7, 13:44, 16:32; Philippians 1:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 13:7; Revelation 1:2, 1:9, 6:9, 20:4). It is not a human discovery; it comes from God. It is news of God which men and women could not have discovered for themselves.
(2) Frequently, the gospel message is called the word of the Lord (Acts 8:25, 12:24, 13:49, 15:35; 1 Thessalonians 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). It is not always certain whether the Lord is God or Jesus, but more often than not it is Jesus who is meant. The gospel is, therefore, the message which God could have sent to men and women in no other way than through his Son.
(3) Twice, the gospel message is called the word of hearing (logos akoēs) (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 4:2). That is to say, it depends on two things – on a voice ready to speak it and an ear ready to hear it.
(4) The gospel message is the word of the kingdom (Matthew 13:19). It is the announcement of the kingship of God and the summons to render to God the obedience which will make us citizens of that kingdom.
(5) The gospel message is the word of the gospel (Acts 15:7; Colossians 1:5). Gospel means good news; and the gospel is essentially the good news about God.
(6) The gospel is the word of grace (Acts 14:3, 20:32). It is the good news of God’s generous and undeserved love for all; it is the news that we are not saddled with the impossible task of earning God’s love but are freely offered it.
(7) The gospel is the word of salvation (Acts 13:26). It is the offer of forgiveness for past sin and of power to overcome sin in the future.
(8) The gospel is the word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19). It is the message that the lost relationship between human beings and God is restored in Jesus Christ, who has broken down the barrier which sin had erected.
(9) The gospel is the word of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18). At the heart of the gospel is the cross, on which is shown to all the final proof of the forgiving, sacrificing, seeking love of God.
(10) The gospel is the word of truth (2 Corinthians 6:7; Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:15). With the coming of the gospel, it is no longer necessary to guess and feel our way in life, for Jesus Christ has brought to us the truth about God.
(11) The gospel is the word of righteousness (Hebrews 5:13). It is by the power of the gospel that we are enabled to break from the power of evil and to rise to the righteousness which is pleasing in the sight of God.
(12) The gospel is the health-giving word (2 Timothy 1:13, 2:8). It is the antidote which cures the poison of sin and the medicine which defeats the disease of evil.
(13) The gospel is the word of life (Philippians 2:16). It is through its power that we are delivered from death and enabled to enter into life at its best.
GOD IS LIGHT
1 John 1:5
And this is the message which we have heard from him and which we pass on to you, that God is light, and there is no darkness in him.
IT is certainly the case that our individual characters will be determined by the character of the god whom we worship; and, therefore, John begins by laying down the nature of the God and Father of Jesus Christ whom Christians worship. God, he says, is light, and there is no darkness in him. What does this statement tell us about God?
(1) It tells us that he is splendour and glory. There is nothing so glorious as a blaze of light piercing the darkness. To say that God is light tells us of his sheer splendour.
(2) It tells us that God is self-revealing. Above all things, light is seen; and it lights up the darkness round about it. To say that God is light is to say that there is nothing secretive or furtive about him. He wishes to be seen and to be known.
(3) It tells us of God’s purity and holiness. In God, there is none of the darkness which cloaks hidden evil. That he is light speaks to us of his white purity and stainless holiness.
(4) It tells us of the guidance of God. It is one of the great functions of light to show the way. The road that is lit is the road that can be seen clearly. To say that God is light is to say that he offers his guidance for the path we must tread.
(5) It tells us of the revealing quality in the presence of God. Light is the great revealer. Flaws and stains which are hidden in the shade are obvious in the light. Light reveals the imperfections in any piece of work or material. So, the imperfections of life are seen in the presence of God. As the poet and hymn-writer J. G. Whittier wrote,
Our thoughts lie open to thy sight;
And naked to thy glance;
Our secret sins are in the light
Of thy pure countenance.
We can never know either the depth to which life has fallen or the height to which it may rise until we see it in the revealing light of God.
THE HOSTILE DARK
1 John 1:5 (contd)
IN God, says John, there is no darkness at all. Throughout the New Testament, darkness stands for the very opposite of the Christian life.
(1) Darkness stands for the Christless life. It represents the life that people lived before they met Christ or the life that they live if they stray away from him. John writes to his people that, now that Christ has come, the darkness is past and the true light shines (1 John 2:8). Paul writes to his Christian friends that once they were darkness but now they are light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8). God has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13). Christians are not in darkness, for they are children of the day (1 Thessalonians 5:4–5). Those who follow Christ shall not walk in darkness, as others must, but they will have the light of life (John 8:12). God has called the Christians out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).
(2) The dark is hostile to the light. In the prologue to his gospel, John writes that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5). It is a picture of the darkness seeking to obliterate the light – but unable to overpower it. The dark and the light are natural enemies.
(3) The darkness stands for the ignorance of life apart from Christ. Jesus summons his friends to walk in the light so that the darkness does not overtake them, for those who walk in the darkness do not know where they are going (John 12:35). Jesus is the light, and he has come that those who believe in him should not walk in darkness (John 12:46). The dark stands for the essential lostness of life without Christ.
(4) The darkness stands for the chaos of life without God. God, says Paul, thinking of the first act of creation, commanded his light to shine out of the darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6). Without God’s light, the world is a chaos in which life has neither order nor sense.
(5) The darkness stands for the immorality of the Christless life. It is Paul’s appeal to men and women that they should cast off the works of darkness (Romans 13:12). Because their deeds were evil, people loved the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19). The darkness stands for the way that the Christless life is filled with things which seek the shadows because they cannot stand the light.
(6) The darkness is characteristically unfruitful. Paul speaks of the unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11). If growing things are deprived of the light, their growth is arrested. The darkness is the Christless atmosphere in which no fruit of the Spirit will ever grow.
(7) The darkness is connected with lovelessness and hate. If people hate one another, it is a sign that they walk in darkness (1 John 2:9–11). Love is sunshine, and hatred is the dark.
(8) The dark is the home of the enemies of Christ and the final goal of those who will not accept