The Road to Victory

Learn to Walk in the Light with Jesus
1 John 1:7 says, “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, purifies us from all sin.” What does John mean when he says, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light”? John is saying that we must learn to walk in the light with Jesus: We must travel on the same path as Jesus. When the Saul (who later became the apostle Paul) was on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 to persecute more Christians, he was blinded by the light of Jesus. Jesus was (and still is) walking in the light, and Jesus wanted Saul to follow Him into the light.

We read in Acts 9:1-9, NIV:
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

Now, some might say that Saul was having a near death experience. But this was not the case. Saul was having a virtual, visionary experience with Jesus. Jesus knew that Saul was a good man at heart; it was just Saul's mind that was making Saul do the things he was going to do. This is evident when Saul, who later became Paul, wrote in Romans 7:21-25 (NIV), “ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” And so, even after the conversion, the apostle Paul still had a hard time, struggling with the thoughts in his mind and trying to “walk in the light” with Jesus. As Christians, if we are to have fellowship with one another—and especially with Jesus—we must all learn to walk in the light with our Lord and Savior. For Jesus is the only one who can save us, and Jesus is the only one who can bring us into His “Light” or Way into God's Presence.