It seems almost foreign to speak, at length, of the necessity of deliverance these days in the context of religious paradigms. That would imply, among other things, the presence of right and wrong, as well as spiritual life and death. It would also suggest the inevitability of a deliverer outside of one’s self, which diminishes the popular notion of the inerrant self-worth of the individual. 

The disposal of depravity and the ascension of inherent goodness in man have rendered such talk of deliverance as fanatical absurdity. Man’s upward motion is so philosophically inevitable in the minds of men that a call for a radical correction makes no sense. If man is walking on water, who needs to save him from drowning? If there is no damnation to avoid, there is no deliverance necessary. 

This is where darkness comes in. Though it is universally present at any given moment, the knowledge of it is suppressed by man’s enlightened foolishness. The pressure of that so-called enlightenment is so overwhelming that, for preachers, ignoring the reality of darkness is far more convenient. 

The effects of this are clearly seen in the user-friendly church movement, as well as the burgeoning emergent movement. For instance, the preacher, once generally known as a prophetic voice against the onslaughts of Satan’s worldly infestations in the church, has now joined the ranks of the fleshly promoters of human ingenuity and faulty philosophies. 

The clarion call for deliverance from darkness has been replaced by aggressive attempts to win the world through appeasement and capitulation. In this contextual delusion, the preacher may have gained the world, but he has lost his soul and the souls of his hearers. This apparition is not a potential path to destruction; it is destruction incarnate. And if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? 

This is what we can do. We can discern more readily the dangers of novelty in the church today and restore the tried-and-tested boundaries of biblical truth. The starting point is found at the beginning of man’s sojourn in the Garden of Eden. Death, which is the inevitability of darkness, engulfed the first Adam and thrust his posterity into unimaginable chaos. While no hope was assured, hope was most certainly procured through the tender mercies of the Triune God. 

The uncaused love of God made eternal provisions for a people to be delivered from the damnable rebellion against His sovereign majesty.  It also dealt a fatal blow to the great adversary known as spiritual darkness (sin) and its consequential death. 

It is the procurement of this deliverance from darkness that is at the very heart and soul of true Christianity. Furthermore, any hint of a dismissive attitude regarding the point, power and persuasiveness of that darkness is high treason against the truth of light.  Ethically driven homilies that relegate the person, power and work of Christ to the back burner are deadly for their hearers. But Jesus-preaching without Judgment-preaching is likewise damnable. 

Paul once addressed a philosophical crowd with a statement about an “unknown God,” but today we would serve our people well to remind them of an unknown Christ. Christ’s life is filled with judgment. His sermons often broached the subject of judgment and darkness. His death was an inextricable display of judgment upon Himself, brought on by His eternal Father’s wrath. Darkness and death are interwoven into the fabric of biblical revelation—so much so, that the deletion of it renders the rest of the story meaningless. 

It is often stated something like this: “As cold is the absence of heat, sin (spiritual darkness) is the absence of holiness.” I suppose an element of this is true, but it is not the whole truth. Sin is not essentially passive in nature. It is vigorously active in intent to suppress and ultimately supplant the majesty and worth of light (Truth), which is solely rooted in the Triune God Himself. This makes spiritual darkness the greatest of evils and the highest of all treason in the universe. 

Unlike the present pervasive relegation of sin to the level of a mere peccadillo, sin is both the father and king of all evils. It is of such an infinite nature at its root that it demands infinite punishment. The failure to grasp this truth diminishes and ultimately destroys the necessary basic construct for hell itself. The consequent reconstruction of a “hell-less” judgment or a “compassionate annihilationism” robs the gospel of its full meaning and renders the cross as finite instead of infinite in nature.  

In essence, according to this construct, light is attained without the necessity of darkness being dismantled and destroyed. This conclusion thoroughly ignores the biblical revelation of sin’s true nature and love’s great sacrifice.  Therefore, it is heretical at its very core, as well as an abomination to God Himself.  

What, one might ask, are the essential elements of gospel comprehension? First, the holiness of God must be set forth in the mind of the sinner. Without this element, sin, sacrifice and security are moot points. If God is not seen as holy, just and thoroughly righteous in His very nature and in all of His works, then sin is diminished as it pertains to its spiritual impact on the heart of the sinner. 

Essentially, the full impact of this fact is established through the preaching of the perfect law of God, the Ten Commandments. While many have rendered these “Old Testament Concepts” obsolete, the New Testament has further established and fulfilled these commandments. According to the New Testament, the commandments are necessary for many reasons, two of which are most essential. First, they establish the righteous demands of God upon His rational creatures. Sin is, after all, the transgression of His law. Thus, it necessitates our utmost attention to them. 

Secondly, these laws teach us about our moral inability to fulfill God’s perfect requirements (if we’ve broken one part of the law, we’ve broken the whole law). The Schoolmaster (the law) then leads us to a knowledge of our sin, as well as to a despair in our rebellion against God’s law. It also points our way to Christ, who alone fulfilled God’s holy and righteous requirements. Lawless preaching is pointless and powerless, for without the law, no sinner will ever be sufficiently driven to the only Savior.

This brings us to the second essential element of gospel comprehension, which further elaborates on man’s knowledge of sin. Not only is the sinner to see God’s infinite holiness, he must see his own infinite sinfulness. The less holy God is, the more sin becomes less sinful. The more Holy God is seen, the more sinful sin becomes in the conscience. 

Therefore, if God is seen as infinitely holy, just and righteous, sin is seen as infinitely offensive by way of contrast to an infinitely holy God. The failure to see this is fatal to the sinner because of his failure to see the infinite justice of God in his own damnation, which he is not convinced he deserves. God’s way of salvation requires our death—to self and our sin. Many are sick of their sins, but they never die to their sins through the infinite worth of Christ’s sacrifice. 

Now for the third essential element of gospel understanding: the sacrifice of Christ. When one has been taught the truth of God’s infinite holiness, His Holy Law and man’s thorough sinfulness, he or she is brought face-to-face with the necessary deliverance from darkness. Seeing that God is infinitely holy and that man is infinitely sinful creates a dilemma in the conscience. 

How can the great chasm that divides sinful man from an infinitely Holy God be traversed? The answer is profound, yet simple. A Mediator is necessary. Christ has been given an eternal priesthood through which He mediates between the two extremities of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness. This is foundational in understanding the means of God’s deliverance from the excruciating reality of darkness into the incomprehensible light of Holy Trinity. 

Often this aspect of Christ’s work is partially understood and therefore misunderstood. While love is often the lone object of Christ’s work on the cross, God’s holiness and justice are functionally ignored. This is unfortunate in that both are necessarily and gloriously displayed on the cross of Christ. 

Though the limitations on the length of this article necessitate some brevity in this matter, it must be noted that Christ’s work was both active and passive. First, it was active by way of the life He lived while in the flesh. It was a perfect life, thusly qualifying Him as a Lamb without spot or blemish as typified in the Old Testament sacrificial rituals. Of course, His deity was the first qualification seeing that He was the mediator between God and man. But it was in his manhood that he represented our side of the equation through fulfilling what the first ancestor and federal head, Adam, did not fulfill—namely, perfect obedience to the Creator. 

Secondly, Christ work was passive in that He allowed Himself to be treated cruelly by His malefactors on our behalf. The ultimate manifestation of this was on the cross, where He suffered inexplicable pain and heartache on our behalf. Not only, as some so foolishly believe, did Christ suffer physical anguish, He suffered infinite spiritual agony because He became sin for us and suffered at His Eternal Father’s hand. 

He suffered what we, the sinners, would have suffered for all eternity in the Lake of Fire. He literally took the place of sinners, also known as substitutionary atonement, and died in our stead. Mercy and divine justice kissed on the cross and thus set sinners free from darkness and its impending wrath. What infinite wisdom eternally decreed such deliverance as this?

Now, the fourth and final essential element of gospel comprehension and deliverance from darkness. All of the above explanation of gospel truth is incomprehensible to the mind of man apart from the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. It is stated clearly that the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, is the one who convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. 

It is the sweet Holy Spirit that quickens the sinner and opens his spiritual eyes to see the Truth as it is revealed in God’s Word. It is the Spirit who woos and draws us tenderly to the Savior’s blood and takes out our stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh so that we may believe and be saved. The believer’s life and witness of truth are essential means of God’s grace, but it is the Spirit alone who brings life to the dead. 

It is clearly set forth in holy texts that we are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light by His work in our hearts. No man or woman has ever been brought to the Light of Truth without first being delivered out of the darkness of sin. 

Don’t buy into wrathless preaching or loveless preaching. Preach the whole council of God that sinners may see their plight and flee from the wrath of God into the arms of the everlasting love and mercy of the Almighty. 

Dear Lord, we beseech you, deliver us from the looming darkness of sin and sorrow!

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Dr. R.A. Hargrave is Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida.  He also serves as Executive Director of GraceWorx Ministries.