Something’s wrong in the world today. You can feel the darkness encroaching on every side. Many feel powerless to stop it. Worse still, too many don’t even know what to call the darkness. As followers of Christ, we recognize the problem as sin, but we are facing a generation who have grown up not understanding what the word even means.
For those who are a little older and grew up in a time when there was still a biblical foundation in our culture, it seems unfathomable that anyone would not understand what sin is. And yet, this is the world in which we find ourselves. The foundation of God’s Word and God’s laws have been stripped away, leaving us both ignorant and vulnerable to the darkness pervading our world.
For the sake of anyone reading this who might be unclear what sin is, let me offer a definition for you. Sin is anything that denies the reality of God, violates God’s law, rejects God’s Word, minimizes God’s holiness, or exalts itself above God’s authority. Anything short of God’s perfection is sin. It is why every one of us needs a Savior. Each of us has sinned; there are no exceptions (Romans 3:23).
A holy God cannot look on a sinful people (Habakkuk 1:13), therefore a sacrifice was required to cover our sinfulness with holy and righteous blood. Jesus Christ, the fully human and fully divine Son of God, provided the blood and sacrifice when He surrendered His life on the cross. There is no other way for us to be made right with God (John 14:6), and the consequence of us remaining in our sins is eternal death and punishment (John 3:18; Matthew 25:41; Matthew 25:46). Don’t blame God for that. He left the choice to accept or reject Him up to us.
As long as we are living in sin, we are walking in darkness. The apostle John points out that those who love walk in the light, but those who don’t are trapped in the darkness (1 John 2:8-10). Can anyone deny this world is locked into a darkness you can almost feel? We can only escape the darkness by bringing light into it. Light comes from love, and all love comes from God (1 John 4:7). If we want to escape the darkness, we must throw ourselves into the love of God.
Satan has blinded the eyes of those who live in this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). They walk in darkness. We can bring light to their lives and sight to their eyes. As we spread the love of Christ, the darkness in our world will have no choice but to flee. We can’t fight against the evil swirling around us with physical or political weaponry. Our only option is to fight a spiritual battle with spiritual weapons (2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:13-18). If we want to turn back the darkness, we’re going to have to grow deeper into God’s Word, become far more diligent in the time we spend in prayer, and allow the love of Christ to permeate every corner of our lives. We must be the light for those who have no light. We must block out the darkness by shining like stars in the heavens (Philippians 2:14-15).
A life spent in the light requires a total surrender to Jesus. So long as we are holding onto the things in the dark, we will continue to walk in darkness and allow its steady advance in our world. We must reject sin and darkness at every turn. We must choose the love and light of Jesus if we are to survive these dark days. Our world is in darkness. Perhaps you’re living there as well. The only antidote is to fill it with the light of Christ. It is our duty as followers of Jesus, and it is the only hope for this world.