There is, however, a people who have been saved out of the despair of sin and from the eternal and righteous judgment of God. Those people are one people called the Church. We are a people who have accepted the apostolic witness of Christ and in the enlightenment of the Spirit of God have heard and believed the good news of Jesus. This is the good news that Jesus Christ has given himself for our sin to rescue us from this present evil age. Yes, there is a victory over evil, but it is not or ever will be our doing. It is Christ’s alone on our behalf.

In 1 John 5-7 we read something about this precious fellowship that we have with the apostles as the believing church. “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.”

In the previous verses, John had told us that the apostles witnessed Jesus in a physically experiential way. They had touched Jesus and seen Jesus and heard him speak with their own eyes, ears and hands. John says that in the true revelation of Jesus Christ they have fellowship with the Father and the Son. They have a vertical relationship with God because of their faith in the one and only Messiah. In verses 5-7 we find that our fellowship as believers is directly connected to that of the apostles as we walk in the same truth in faithfulness in our life.

There is one characteristic about our Christian fellowship that we must all accept. It is a fellowship based on light. That light is God himself and in God there is no darkness at all. In the Scriptures it is very apparent that the entire world is in darkness due to the comprehensive power of sin. This darkness has no truth and this darkness has no holiness or hope. If we are those who love the world, we are those who love darkness. If we claim to believe upon the apostolic witness of Jesus, then we must trust that reconciliation with God in Christ brings us out of darkness into the light. We are no longer those who desire to walk in the darkness. We are no longer those who call darkness light.

Walking in the light of Christ and not in the darkness of the world confirms our claim of fellowship with one another. As we do so, we can look forward to the day when Jesus will finally cleanse us entirely of sin and the darkness will be eternally eradicated.