Let There Be Light

Thanks to the grace of God, we have again reached the pre-Christmas season, and as we walk down the streets, we discover that it has become livelier and brighter everywhere. Bright lights shine in many homes, streets, and stores, and awaken a joyous mood in our hearts.

In the creation account in the Bible, a wonderful fact is written for us. It says, “God created” – “And God said.” Literally, we read in Genesis 1:1 and 3 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” – “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” What He says happens, it becomes reality. Before God says the quoted word of command, the earth was chaos: a desert-like condition, darkness and gloom – until God called forth the light. Oh, what a difference! So it is, spiritually, in people's lives.

Because of the fall of man, we are plagued by sin. Our lives without God, who is the Light and wants to call the light forth for us again, has no real purpose. We need God! Even those who can afford everything life has to offer are unfulfilled and inwardly dissatisfied. The condition of their heart can be compared to the state of the Earth before the call of God came: desolate and empty. That is why “there was light.” Without the Light (God) we would not be able to exist. But how can we find God and connect with Him?

There are many discontented, seeking, souls, who travel the world because of an inner longing. They search for God in different religions, wanting to connect with Him, and yet return disappointed and empty. They do not know that God seeks them.

After the fall, God again sought a relationship with man as He cried: “Adam, where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) And so it is He who reveals Himself to us and looks for us. The Apostle Paul so fittingly writes in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Just as God illuminated His earthly creation by His light and caused a complete change in its condition and character, so God also accomplished a personal conversion through His spiritual creation. In the figure of His Son – Jesus Christ – He sent light into the spiritually darkened world. (Please read Luke 2:8-14). In connection with the light sent by God for us mortals, Jesus says in His personal testimony: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

The exalted God cannot in any way be found by any of us – unless He reveals Himself to us. This is shown to us already in the Old Testament, when we think of the encounter between God and Abraham, Moses and other men of God. With the words “I am,” God revealed Himself to them. This is also how the Son of God, the God of mankind, introduces the Father, saying: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

God is light and reveals His essence in Christ Jesus. Two scripture passages clarify this idea. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light” (Revelation 22:5).

This enlightenment refers to the inner part of a person. This can only be done on the basis of a true encounter with God. A heart illuminated by the light of God is thus convinced of the existence of an exalted God. A blind man admittedly cannot see the sun, but still senses the difference between light and darkness. He can feel the warm rays of the sun and that convinces him of its existence. It is similar with the relationship between God and man. By sending the Son of God to earth, He reveals Himself as the God of love and light. The Psalmist had made this discovery: “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light” (Psalm 36:9). The light will only be useful to us if we accept it and receive it in us.

Just as God is pure light, the Gospel is also light and life. The darkened minds of many people may well be illuminated by this light, but they do not find the correct relationship with this active force. The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the church at Corinth: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Only the clear light of the Gospel through Christ brings about the enlightenment of our hearts in all things. Then a total transformation occurs. We receive new vision and see everything, even ourselves, with different eyes. Our interests shift, and a new, more worthwhile life, begins. Then we can say with the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But we must begin to step into the light of God, dare to look Jesus in the eye and say ‘yes’ to Him.

“Let there be light” – that is how life began on Earth – and that is how life begins in and with God. Has the Light already illuminated your life?

Alfred Brix, 

Chilliwack, BC