“From Darkness to Light”
Ephesians 5:8-14
3/5/08
This evening’s Epistle lesson is about living
as children of God, living as children of light as the text says.
Having been adopted as His children through holy Baptism, in which we
were clothed with Christ and His righteousness, we are now to live in
obedience to our heavenly Father, not because we are afraid He’ll
punish us if we don’t, nor because we hope to get something from
Him if we do, but because we are children of a heavenly Father who
loves us in Jesus. Obedience to God which is motivated by His
love towards us in Jesus is the only obedience which God accepts, and
only those who are His children through faith in Jesus Christ can live
this way.
This is what the Apostle Paul’s letter to the
Ephesian congregation is about. In the first three chapters Paul
talks about the Christian’s redemption in Jesus Christ. In
the last three chapters he talks about how Christians are to live now
as those redeemed by Christ. Paul is very logical. First
comes redemption, then comes sanctification. Here he writes that
formerly we Christians were darkness, but now we are light in the
Lord. Therefore, we are to walk as children of light.
In order to motivate us to live as children of
light, we must be reminded again of who we are in Christ and how our
Father loves us. Paul writes we were once darkness. What
does this mean? Darkness is a metaphor for sin and
ungodliness. To be of the darkness means to be dead in trespasses
and sins. Paul writes in chapter two of Ephesians that we used to
live this way, which means we really had no life at all. We
formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, as Paul writes. And we were by nature
children of wrath. At that time we heard nothing but accusation,
condemnation, and threats of punishment from God on account of our
sin. In His justice He had to punish sin, but He didn’t
want to punish us. Instead, in His mercy and out of His great
love for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He sent His
Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the wrath and punishment that we deserve, so
that we might live. God made us alive together with Christ and
raised us up with Him. In Baptism He made Christ’s death
our death to the darkness of sin, and He made Christ’s
resurrection our resurrection to the light of righteousness, holiness,
innocence, and blessedness. We were not just in the darkness or
of the darkness, but we were darkness; there was nothing good about
us. Even now there’s nothing good about us; but
Christ’s righteousness has been given to us, so that now we are
light in Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world.
Being darkness as we were, dead in our trespasses
and sins, there is no way that we can take any credit for having
brought ourselves out of the darkness into the light. Light does
not come from darkness. It dispels the darkness. The Light
came to us from heaven. It shone upon us through the preaching of
God’s Word and through His Sacraments. Through these means,
Jesus, the Light of the world, has shone the light of His grace and
mercy upon us and said to us, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the
dead.” We are reminded of the story of Jairus’
daughter who represents us all in our sleep of death on account of
sin. She had died, but Jesus said she was asleep, because He was
going to awaken her. This He did by taking her by the hand and
saying to her, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
And immediately she arose and began to walk. Notice a couple of
things here: First, Jesus raises the girl with His Word; she
doesn’t raise herself; He awakens her from her sleep of
death. Second, it is only after she is raised that she can then
walk, and she can walk because she’s alive. What Paul is
saying here in Ephesians is exactly what is illustrated with the
raising of Jairus’ daughter. Now that God has raised us to
life with Christ through the light of His Word, we can walk/live as
children of light. Our obedience to His commandments shows that
we are alive.
Throughout the last three chapters of Ephesians, on
the basis of the new life God has given us in Christ, Paul encourages
us Christians to walk in a manner worthy of our calling; he encourages
us not to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine; he encourages us
to die to our old self and to put on the new self which has been
created righteous and holy in God; he encourages us not to walk as
unbelievers do, who still live as darkness, but to be imitators of God
by walking in love. Why? What is our motivation? Is
it the Law? Is it threats of punishment or promise of reward that
motivates us? No! It is because we were once darkness, but
now we are light in the Lord. We were once dead, but now we are
alive, all because our heavenly Father in His great love for us has had
mercy on us in Jesus Christ. This is why we thank and praise,
serve and obey Him. In fact, what Paul here is advocating is
simply that we live out our Baptism by the power of the Holy
Spirit. Luther asks the question, “What does Baptism
indicate?” Answer: “It indicates that the Old
Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and
die with all sins and evil lusts; and, again, a new man should daily
come forth and arise, who will live before God in righteousness and
purity forever.”
The proper motivation for thanking, praising,
serving, and obeying God is His love for us in Christ and the fact that
He has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of
His beloved Son. Now, suppose your child thinks it’s all
well and good that you love him and he’s your child, but he
continues to sit in front of the T.V. and refuses to do his
homework. Such a rebellious, disobedient child needs to hear the
threat of punishment. The old Adam in us is such that it does not
want to do what God wants us to do, and so it must be coerced and
threatened. In fact, it must die, and if we live according to its
lusts, we too will die. The threats of the Law are to get us to
wake up to this fact. But again the Law can never be our
motivation for serving God as He wants us to serve Him. He wants
to move us beyond the Law, so that we despair of our obedience (which
is never perfect) and look to Christ’s obedience on our behalf,
reminding us again of all the mercy and grace He’s shown towards
us, so that we might serve Him out of love for Him, not because we are
afraid of Him.
Another child might faithfully obey his parents,
doing his homework and his chores on a daily basis, but having the
attitude, “What’s the use? What does it matter?
My parents don’t appreciate me.” Instead of
threatening punishment, a parent might promise a reward for faithful
obedience. Again, the child’s motivation ought to be that
he is a child of loving parents, and his work is done as a thankful
response for all their gifts to him. But sometimes rewards can be
given to remind the child of this, that their work does matter and is
appreciated. So with God. He promises us rewards for our
obedience. Some of these rewards are temporal, some are eternal,
but no one should get the idea that we earn eternal life through our
obedience. That is a gift to us through Christ. We are
already God’s children and He is our dear Father. This is
the proper motivation for obeying God’s commandments, but if the
Father wants to reward us, He can do want He wants.
So because we are children of light we are to walk
as children of light. How do we do this? Only by the power
of God’s Holy Spirit who makes us holy by working through His
Word and Sacraments. Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do
nothing.” The Holy Spirit’s work is to call, gather,
enlighten and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth, and keep it
with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. He does this by giving
us the forgiveness of sins through the preaching of the Gospel, through
Holy Baptism, through the Lord’s Supper, and through Holy
Absolution. Our obedience is never going to be perfect. But
our Father does not count our imperfection against us, because what He
sees in us is Christ’s perfection. We are pleasing to the
Lord, because of Christ’s perfect obedience given to us.
Now you might ask, “Well, since the
job’s already done by Christ, why do we have to be
obedient?” First, because you are God’s children,
begotten of Him through the new birth He gave you at your
Baptism. You are new creatures in Christ, created in Him for good
works. You are light. Therefore, you will have no other
gods, you will not take the name of the Lord you God in vain, and you
will not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly
hear and learn it. Second, as far as God is concerned, there is
nothing lacking in your righteousness before Him, because
Christ’s righteousness (which is yours by faith) is
perfect. But as far as your neighbors are concerned, they need
your good works. And so it is pleasing to the Lord when He finds
His children walking as light in this world as He is the Light.
We represent Him to others. Living as darkness, as disobedient
children, certainly does not represent the Lord to the world. We
are His body, and as such we bring Christ to those around us by doing
what is pleasing to the Lord. And how do we found out what is
pleasing to the Lord? We don’t have to guess. He
directs us by His Word. The 2nd Table of the 10 Commandments
shows us how to love our neighbor. God’s Word is a lamp to
our feet and a light to our path. It directs us as to how to live
holy and godly lives which are pleasing to the Lord.
Do we serve God, then, because we afraid we’ll
be punished if we don’t? No. Do we serve God, because
we hope to get some kind of reward from Him? No. We serve
God, because of what He has said to us: “Awake, sleeper,
and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” We
serve God, because we are children of light and we have a heavenly
Father who loves us in Jesus, who was crucified for us. Amen.