Day 3 - Crime Scene Reconstruction
Part 1
Scripture Passage: 1 John 1:5-10
Focal Verse(s): This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. ~ 1 John 1:5 (CSB)
Crime scene reconstruction is a fascinating thing. Essentially, it boils down to a few simple, yet seemingly miraculous, steps. First, the forensic expert or detective examines the evidence at the crime scene. Then, they examine the same evidence in a lab or an autopsy suite. They put that evidence together with what they ‘know’ about a particular crime and then use their imagination and experience to mentally picture the events that transpired that makes the most sense to their observations concerning the aforementioned evidence.
I see it all the time during autopsies. I often participate in it (it’s one of my favorite aspects of the job, really).
Basically, the interaction goes something like this. The medical examiner determines the trajectory of a bullet’s path through a decedent. It might be at an odd angle. Maybe at the scene it was assumed they were shot twice, but the autopsy shows the projectile penetrated the upper back, exited the person’s side, and entered a second time into his arm before exiting for a final time. Those four defects (gunshot wounds) are now known to have been caused by a single projectile.
It’s at that point that the detectives (and I, if I’m fortunate enough to be present at the time) get to role play a bit. We ask a series of ‘what if’ questions based on the evidence. We twist our bodies at various angles, trying to discern how the decedent must have been standing or moving at the time of the murder. “What if the decedent was standing against the wall when he was shot instead of the center of the room where he was later found?” “What if the victim was trying to run away?” “What if the victim was spinning around at the time the gun went off?” “What if the victim was charging our suspect at the time he was shot. Could that explain the weird trajectory?”
That’s crime scene reconstruction. Or at least a glimpse of it anyway.
In today’s passage, we can see John setting up something similar to the Johannine churches in which he’s writing. In Chapter 1:5-10, John asks a series of ‘What if’ questions of sorts. More specifically, he makes ‘if-then’ statements of classical logic, but it’s the same thing.
See, right off the bat, John comes out swinging in an attempt to discredit the gnostic doctrine that was permeating the churches. He’s openly confronting the gnostic lies and making no qualms about it.
The first thing John does is establish the standard for which all truth comes. He gives us a characteristic of God. “…God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.” (v 5). Remember from the last post, the gnostics believe in salvation ‘through secret knowledge.’ They believed in attaining communion with God by knowing His secret handshake. But secrets require darkness to exist. After all, no secrets can survive after being exposed to light. Granted, this comment about absolutely no darkness existing in God refers also to the fact that there is nothing evil or sinful or depraved or corrupt in God. He is pure. Pure light. Not a hint of shadow within that light.
And this truth about who God is directly leads John to describe those who claim to follow Christ in the next few verses.
“If we say, ‘We have fellowship with him,’ and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.” (v 6). And herein lies the first crime scene reconstruction of the passage (or test of authentic salvation). If God/Christ is pure light and we claim to follow Him, there should be no consistent darkness within us. Sure, we’re humans. We make mistakes. We sin. But evidence of a true relationship with God is a continual act of sanctification. If we’re saved, every day we should be growing closer and closer to the image of Christ. If we’re not doing that, then something might not be right.
John says as much in his next ‘what if’ statement in verse 7: “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.“
Not only are we to walk in the light, but that light will be apparent to all in the way we interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ! We can’t say we follow Jesus and turn around and back stab, gossip about, and hurt others who also follow Him. It would be like we were doing these things to Jesus Himself if we did.
We’ll pick up more of the ‘what if’ statements of this passage next time as I don’t want to rush through this. I want to be sure that each and every one who reads this devotion has no doubt whatsoever where they stand with God.
What about you? Do you dance around the edges of darkness? Do you see the light in you growing brighter and brighter every day or is your light so dim that you wonder if you need to change the near-dead batteries in your spiritual flashlight? If it’s the latter, don’t waste another minute! Submit to Christ. Join the light. Renounce the darkness and know for certain that you are secured in a relationship with Him for all time!
Father God, thank you for being you. Thank you for the assurance that you are absolute light and there is no darkness in you whatsoever. Help us to hold onto that truth, Lord. Help us to grow in you so much that when we step out of the house each day, we nearly blind the world with your glorious light within ourselves.