light from Light from Light https://youtu.be/-uOhSsD3ReY
Introduction
Vast numbers of committed Christians seem deeply misled about the essential nature of God. We cling dearly to the biblical testimony, “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) and uphold power as the key to revival, but few of us rejoice at the definition of divine life, “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Light is a dominant theme in scripture. At the start of John’s Gospel, we read of the eternal Word, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:3). This powerful word is echoed in Jesus’ self-declaration, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46 cf. 9:5). God’s coming in Christ is essentially an event of illumination. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) is a message about spiritual seeing. The Word of God is the substance and revelation of eternal things.
Hebrews begins with bold clarity about God’s “Son”, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Heb 1:3). This “radiance” was the extreme brightness that dazzled the disciples of Jesus at his transfiguration (Luke 9:29), which blinded Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3; 22:6; 26:13) and which stunned John at the start of Revelation (1:17). In being “the radiance of the glory of God” Christ penetrates, upholds and directs all things to their destiny in his Father.
Early Christians were seized by the importance of the Light of Christ. The 4th century Nicene Creed reads, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.” The oldest known Christian hymn (3rd-4th century), Phos Hilaron, extols the radiant light of Christ. The ancient icon image which hangs directly behind my desk has on it in the Greek words, ““I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”” (John 8:12).
The scriptures speak of themselves in terms of this light, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path… The unfolding of your words gives light” (Ps 109:105, 130). If it’s the case, “in your light do we see light” (Ps 36:9), why does there seem to be so little spiritual sight in so much of the contemporary Christianity?
Light Unseen
Recently I had an unexpected memory of an incident from when I was 16 and its stark clarity concerned the fear of being exposed in doing wrong. We sometimes talk about people being “in a dark place”, something to do with depression, shame or guilt. Christ spoke of the great human crisis as one of darkness versus light. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”” (John 3:19-21). If fear “has to do with punishment” (1 John 4:18) its fear of retribution that drives people to turn inwards for emotional survival becoming conscious only of their own dark inner state and blinded to the light of the Lord. Recent experiences have convinced me that our dimness of vision comes from not allowing gospel light to shine in us.
A little while ago I became intensely angry with Donna, without any justification of course. A few days afterwards I started to ask the Lord, as I often do, to speak through my prayers, preaching and writing in a prophetic way. On this occasion something came over me and I felt so deeply unworthy (Luke 17:10) of serving Christ that these petitions could not cross my lips. My heart was being assailed by the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:34). I fell on my knees before the Lord (Luke 5:8) sensing that apart from the grace of Christ my sin would always discount me from speaking for the Lord. This was a healthy experience, but something much deeper was to come
As I was out praying in the midst of the storm last Sunday the precise word Donna had used to describe my angry outburst came to mind. This was “fury”. Suddenly a bright light from God broke into my spirit revealing that my anger was the exact opposite of the truth of the gospel. As a forgiven and justified child of God the heavenly Father could never be furious with Donna. She will be “presented blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). At that time, I had an immediate experience of the reality of what this scripture speaks, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6). I was seeing in the light of God that We will be the city of God set on a hill (Matt 5:14; Rev 21:9-10) about which is said, “the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev 21:23). I immediately apprehended that the darkness in me (2 Cor 4:3-4) deserved the fate of the damned. Apart from Jesus I deserved the “fury” which is the fate of the lost (Rom 2:8; Heb 10:27). I knew had sinned against the light, but I also knew I was fully forgiven. In my case the sin was anger, but it could as well have been resentment, envy, malice, bitterness, lust….or anything else that is the exact opposite of the divine nature. These words of Watchman Nee sum out the need of our time to come under the holy searchlight of the Lord; “we recognise the corruption of our nature, the hatefulness of our self, and the real threat to the work of God of our (uncontrolled) soul-life …. As never before we see how much of us needs God’s drastic dealing…” We become aware in ourselves of the substance of sin into which Jesus was immersed on the cross (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:24).
Jesus the Victorious Light
The Old Testament has many powerful prophetic pointers to the work of the cross. God dwelled and spoke from “thick darkness” at Sinai when the Law was given (Ex 20:21; Deut 5:22). At the opening of the Temple Solomon was in awe that the Lord who normally resides in “thick darkness” would live in the temple as his house forever (2 Chron 6:1-2). The prophets declare that the coming Day of the Lord will be “a day of (thick) darkness and gloom” (Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15). It was however the pitch blackness of the windowless Holy of Holies, illuminated only by the glory of God, that spoke most profoundly of the coming sacrifice of the Light of the world.
Only as “the true light which gives light to everyone” (John 1:9) could Jesus take into himself the darkness of human evil under the judgement of God. “there was darkness over the whole land…34 And…Jesus cried with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:33-34). Here Christ endures the unenlightened infernal experience of sinners abandoned by God to “the outer darkness” (Matt 8:12; 25:30). The darkness in which God was dwelt in old covenant times and the outer darkness Jesus speaks of is the exact opposite of the Light of the Lord’s essential being. The furious wrath of God on sin is an alien, strange and dreadful condition for his nature (Isa 28:21; Lam 3:31-33) and for human beings created to be the glory of God (Isa 43:7). On the cross Jesus became the glory indwelling the deep darkness of sin and judgement. This was an experience for the holy Light of God too dreadful for words, but also the site of his greatest conquest.
The light released in the resurrection is infinitely beyond the darkness of evil encountered in the cross. Jesus’ resurrection reveals every element of opaqueness separating sinners from God has been taken away. Christ has brought “life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10) and in his perfection entered the unapproachable light of the Father for us (1 Tim 6:16). The conquering cross has become the prism of the glory of God.
Gospel Incandescence
The revelation of sins forgiven was the glory which shone on Saul on the road to Damascus, for Jesus commissioned him as an apostle in terms of enlightenment, “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” (Acts 26:18). Paul proclaimed a prophetic vision of the glory of God in the gospel. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6). When Peter preached to the crowd gathered to see the lame man healed, “repent…that your sins may be blotted out that times of refreshing might come from the face of the Lord….that he might send the Christ…whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things” (Acts 3:19-20), his offer of forgiveness was a prophetic insight into the coming healing of the universe. The light which broke in on new believers meant they no longer evaluated themselves, or others, from “a worldy point of view” (2 Cor 5:16 cf. Eph 1:18). They knew they had been transferred from the old dark creation into the new creation one shining with the light of eternity (Col 1:13; 2 Cor 5:17).
Light in Us
Paul saw himself as a messenger of recreative light, “For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the nations, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” (Acts 13:47-48 cf. Isa 49:6; Luke 2:32). He says of all believers that we are, “light in the Lord…children of light” (Eph 5:8). “sons of light, sons of the day not of the night or of the darkness.” (1 Thess 5:5). As Jesus amazingly said of us, “you are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14). As part of the new world of light the purpose of the Church is to give light. This is why John saw the 7 churches of Asia symbolised as 7 golden lampstands (Rev 1:20).
The spiritual light about which all these scriptures speak is the Final Light. The day will come when all nations will eternally indwell the light of the glory of God through the lamp of the Lamb (Rev 21:23; 22:5). This is the light in which we can walk now. The light in which we will be moved to worship forever is already shining (1 John 2:8). The gospel has lost none of its power to irradiate those in darkness.
Conclusion
Jesus spoke of the End when, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matt 13:43). As “sons of light” (John 12:36) we will be light from the Light of the Son from the Light of the Father. Jonathan Edwards was correct to call believers “little suns”. For this to happen now we must walk in the light. John’s definition that “God is light” leads him into speaking about mutual confession and forgiveness of sins (1 John 1:5, 9). This is why confession is always the first sign of revival. The more we submit to the indwelling gospel the more we will witness the glory of God. Let me finish with a personal story.
Decades ago, I was on a winter retreat near Bold Park overlooking the city of Perth to the east, with the hills behind. Approaching a summit I felt strongly led to wait for sunrise. The wait seemed to go on forever, but finally the sun started to come up over the hills in all its undisputed brilliance. Then from east to west all the city lights started to go out. This scripture was pressed into my mind; “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” (Malachi 4:2). For the Light of the Lamb to shine through the church all lesser lights must be removed from the centre of our lives. Self-confidence, spiritual gifts, personal moral uprightness, affluence etc. If we ask Jesus, “allow us to see you as you are”, he will devastate all our ambitions and his light alone will be seen. This is the costly way of the cross.