WE ARE SO VERY well aware of the limitations on our spiritual development and expression. The wounds and brokenness, toxic bitterness, and missing pieces that are the earth-bound reality of our existence hold painful corporeal power over our desires for unbounded lightness of being. They are the gravity that holds us unwillingly to the realm of darkness.
There is a breathtaking description of God from the Apostle John that draws us, yearning inwards and straining upwards, to the promise of one day dwelling with him forever. It is the supernatural response of the created to the creator—the magnetic elemental force of union that exists in both positive and negative polarity between the realm below and the realm above. “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) God is aware of darkness in the form evil, but is untouched by it; he is absolutely pure. Darkness cannot exist where he is, and this is a conundrum of immense tension for us. The light within us is drawn to him, but the existential darkness that surrounds and is part of us is repulses this magnetic force.
That which was conceived in darkness produces, akin to the seed principles of Genesis (CF. Gen. 1:11-12), a state of being that is permeated by the darkness. It does little good to ask why this is, though the bible explains this in the story of the Fall from Grace. (cf. Gen. 3:1-24) Bewailing the fact does not negate the issue. We are aware of both darkness and light, having eaten “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:17), and are not just touched by, but are in thrall to evil.
We understand this as mankind, for we are mankind; we understand this most bitterly as individual man and woman. We lament our bondage to darkness, and are in a lost condition in it. But great joy begins within us when the seed of the kingdom of heaven takes root in the dark soul of our inmost being. This begins with the light that is Jesus. “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:5) Matthew, quoting prophetic fulfillment of Isaiah, says “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Matt. 4:16, Isa. 9:1) And so it is for us. The Son of God and the word of God have become “a lamp for our feet, a light on our path.” (Psa. 119:105)
The desire for unfettered flight of soul, for spiritual union with God—a oneness without limitations—is universal, and not fully possible in this realm. The Greek legend of Daedalus and Icarus warns of the danger of flying too close to the sun. Icarus defied both nature, and human nature, and plunged to his death when his ascent to the sun melted the wax in his artificial wings. John, speaking of God’s absolute purity, says “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.” (1 John 1:6) The warning is well-advised. Sin is the darkness within, permeating nature and producing malpractice, the fruit born of the flourishing seed of evil. John adds, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)
John’s discussion of purity, God’s and our’s, fortunately does not conclude with dire warning and stern exhortation, but with a promise and with hope. The remediating balm of repentance is made available to us by and through God’s unmerited and abundant grace. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) And this grace brings union with our brothers and sisters in the faith as well as with God. “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, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)
Our potential for union with God, that aching desire to be fully free of human bondage and the bondage of being human, is something that both is and is not possible in linear time. From birth to death we live in a body that depends on its existence from the resources of this earth, and this world. Our soul and spirit are formed in this realm, and cannot exist otherwise. This organic nurture of body and soul keep us in thrall to this form of existence for now, but not forever.
Our spirit, however, is currently set free from the bondage to sin within the constraints of grace and mercy, repentance and faith, and is being formed in the image of Jesus. This is, he is, our hope and current liberation, and one day in him our ultimate desire for freedom will be eternally realized. “Dear friends,” says John, “now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” And John adds this exhortation: “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)
Q. Am I fully trusting in his grace this hour?