The Calvary Road #1 – Walk in the Light

A small, 76-page book was given to me by a Christian brother many years ago and was especially formative in my own spiritual journey – The Calvary Road by Roy Hession.

Roy was an effective Christian evangelist in post-World War II Britain especially among young people.

But then his understanding of the Christian life underwent a radical change in 1947 through a conference where he invited members of the East African Revival Movement.

He was very much influenced by their strong emphasis on living out the Christian faith, in particular the healing powers of transparency and repentance. In 1950 he published The Calvary Road, which is still in print today.

I want to revisit and retell Hession’s message.

Many understand revival as a rare and sudden outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a group of Christ followers. This misses, however, an understanding of continuous revival. Revival is first personal and immediate.

Revival is the constant experience of any believer who, according to 1 John 1:7, “walks in the light”, God’s light.

To walk in the light means being sensitive to sin.

To walk in the light means calling a sin by its biblical name, such as pride, hardness of heart, doubt, fear, self-pity.

To walk in the light means a readiness to be broken over our sins.

To walk in the light means confessing our sins at the feet of Jesus who was broken for us.

To walk in the light means receiving cleaning for sins. (The blood of Jesus does not cleanse excuses, but always cleanses sin.)

To walk in the light – continuous revival – means daily experiencing our lives being full of Jesus and running over to the needy world around us.

Our transparency and brokenness is both horizontal and vertical, with one another and with God – a living fellowship. “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” (1 John 1:7).

How can you today “walk in the light”?

~ Pastor Dave