Reason 3: The Light and the Life of God

REASON 3
WHY GOD BECAME MAN

The Light and The Life of God

 

John 1:17-18
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father has made him known.

What is Life?

Except for God, no one knows what the meaning of life is. Life is usually understood as simply breathing and being able to do what we want to do. While life is more than just a functional physical existence, it also has an important spiritual element. Unfortunately, most people are so content and satisfied with their own beliefs and perceptions of life that they don’t look any further. Too many people muddle through life and live aimlessly from birth to death. Let’s look at how God defines life in the Bible.

Life in union with the life of God
is true life.

What Does the Bible Say?

In Genesis 2:16-17, God said to Adam,  “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Notice also that the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2,  “We are all rebels and because we live as rebels, we have died in our rebellion.” If the Bible says that everyone is dead in sin, then why do we feel very much alive?

Being dead in sin means being separated from God. People are separated from God and are unable to understand the things of God, nor can they interact with Him as they should. The natural state of all people is spiritual death. Just as physically dead people are unable to accomplish anything, those who are dead in sin are unable to accomplish anything spiritually.

What the Bible says about who we are is completely foreign to what the world tells us. The world tells us that we are inherently good and can do anything we want. Therefore, we see no need for deliverance unless we examine and discover our sins.

We are dead in sin
and deserve to be judged by God,
just as He has justly
condemned us for our sins.

God is Light

John 1:4 says, “In Him is life”- in Jesus there is life, and that life is the light of man. John explained the connection between life and light: life on the one hand and light on the other. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. Created in the image of God, man can live a full human life only when he lives in union with God.

Light is essential to our daily lives for many reasons. First, it allows us to see and perceive the world around us, which is essential to living a good life.  Second, light is also used in many forms of technology, from photography to communication systems and even certain medical treatments. Everything depends on light in some way. It is through our own experiences that we understand what light means.

The Bible teaches that the light of God is brighter than the brightest sun. It is brighter than any blinding light therein. It is a light that shines and leads us to His heavenly realm. When we look at the sun, we are dazzled by its rays of light-we cannot look at it directly. In the same way, the glory of God is so overwhelming. He is too great, too bright, and too glorious for our naked eyes. The Bible says that this kind of light is not a light that we can have access to because we cannot withstand His glory.

The Light of God in the Old Testament

On Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with the Israelites by giving them the Torah. As God descended to the top of Mount Sinai, a thick cloud settled over the mountain, making it impossible for man to see, and a very loud trumpet was heard, causing all the people in the camp to tremble. When God is present, His glory is represented as the sun shining in all its splendor.

As God spoke to the Israelites, they saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet. They saw the mountain covered with smoke, and they trembled with fear as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder; it was as if they were about to die. As recorded in the Old Testament, this is precisely why the people had asked for a preacher. The experience at Mt. Sinai was terrifying to the Israelites. They asked that God not speak directly to them. Rather, they would obey whatever God told Moses to do. This is in contrast to today’s Christians who demand that God speaks directly to them.

From Mount Sinai we understand that the Torah is the expression of the abiding values of God’s holy nature, given as a consequence of His great redemption. Therefore, God’s commandment is to be taken seriously, but not slavishly. Reading the Torah sets forth God’s perfect standard of conduct for His people, thus making us aware of our inherent sinfulness and our need for redemption.

Life in Darkness vs Life in the Light

Throughout history, not many people are aware that humanity has faced a great dilemma. We cannot live in darkness, but we cannot enter the light. All human beings are caught between darkness and light. Darkness is the absence of light, and God is light, so there can be no shadow of darkness in Him. This metaphor of light and darkness is found throughout the Scriptures.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rome 1:21).

The people of the world have darkened their minds. The world is dark because people do not know or acknowledge God. They pretend to be wise when they are really fools. Living in darkness means living in ignorance, deception, wickedness, corruption, and all kinds of evil works. Some of the acts of darkness are sexual immorality, lewdness, foolish talk, covetousness, selfish ambition, revelry, disrespect for the elderly, arrogance, and many others. The result of such a life is death.

Living in the light is the opposite of living in darkness. There was a time when man was sinless – when Adam and Eve enjoyed an intimate relationship with God and each other. This was life as God intended. Everything about God’s creation would have been perfect. The fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God was unhindered by anything. Fellowship with God means seeing things as He sees them and having the same desires He has.

Similarly, to live in the light is to live in communion with God, for without communion with God there can be no real life. We can still breathe and do everything we set out to do, but if we are not in saving communion with the God who created us, we do not experience life. God is the light, and in Him we find freedom, hope, and joy.

Life is living in union
with the life of God.

The False Light

We all have an empty place in our souls that only God can fill. The problem with most people is that instead of turning to God and letting Him fill our souls, we turn to the enemy who disguises himself as an angel of light and entices us to fill our emptiness with all kinds of pleasures that are evil in the sight of God. These instant gratifications are more inviting and satisfying than God. If you follow such a path, it is only a matter of time before you are destroyed by the enemy.

All the anguish of man’s soul
is evidence that the darkness
has not been overcome
by the light.

The True Light

Do we not long for a world of pristine beauty and grandeur? A paradise where man and nature live in perfect harmony? Where does this longing for Eden come from? This longing is rooted in the account of creation in the book of Genesis. Man had a paradise, but it was lost in a great tragedy. But have we lost Eden forever? Can paradise be restored? The Bible teaches that we must all look forward to the day when creation will be restored.

Restoration begins when God chooses the people and nation of Israel. In His truth and loving-kindness, God shed light on the people of Israel by giving them the Torah. He made them a holy nation so that man could have access to glimpses of the light-not all of it.

“Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2b).

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

The Israelites were brought out of the darkness of Egypt and into the light of liberation. The Torah was given as a set of laws and narratives designed to create in people a light that would shine in the midst of darkness. It was given as a model of responsible freedom and a glimpse of holy living.

The Torah was given at Mt. Sinai after the Israelites were delivered from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. John 1:17 says, “For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The Torah was given to Moses by God who is steadfast in faithfulness. The Hebrew word for steadfast faithfulness is “hesed ve-emet,” which literally means “grace and truth.” The two words convey a single thought.

In the New Testament, the Gospel of John emphasizes the supremacy of Christ over Moses. In his gospel, John considered Jesus equal to the Father because Jesus is the light of the world. He comes from the Father, full of grace and truth. He is the true and full representation of God in the flesh.

Jesus said, “Whoever follows Me
will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life.”

John’s statement “God is light” is a regular theme in his writings.

When Light Became a Man

The teaching that God is light begins in the Old Testament and continues through the New Testament. Many prophecies were written about Jesus hundreds of years before His birth. John describes Jesus, the Word made flesh, coming as the light of the world, breaking the power of the darkness of sin through His death on the cross. As the Word, Jesus is not only the creator of physical life, but also the source of eternal life.

Jesus is the Word, the Life,
and the Light.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).

God the Son came into the world to be the light of men and the true light for everyone. But people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (John 3:19). The world is dark, and darkness is full of threats, despair, and misery. Through Jesus, God’s light is breaking into the world. The darkness trembles for the first time since the fall, and the world is no longer helpless in the face of it.

The light is breaking in
and will continue to break in,
and it cannot be stopped
until God makes all things new
and all things are transformed
by the light.

This profound truth should encourage us to be vigilant as we carry His light of truth into this dark world. God is able to do far more than all that we ask. Just as natural light prevails over the darkness around us and enables us to see clearly, so the light of Christ shines within us.

It is God’s desire that His Light come into the world, not the other way around. We don’t escape the earth and make our way to heaven to access and enjoy His light. Jesus, the Light of the World, came and touched every dark corner of the earth.

Called to Light

We may be tempted to think that sin is overtaking us and that the darkness is too much. But the Bible says that this darkness no longer has power over us and will not be able to overcome us. The moment we are saved by the redemption in Christ and born again by His Holy Spirit, we inherit an irreversible identity as children of God. Even if we don’t fully understand, see, or feel it.

We who once lived in darkness
are now light in the Lord.
We are called to live
as children of light.

This is our true identity as followers of Christ. The world cannot steal our light, but it can certainly dim it if we are not careful to remain in Jesus and to know right from wrong.

Not only do we now share in His light, but in Christ we are the light of the world. Christ, who has already begun the new creation, is restoring all things in Himself.

No matter how dark
the world around us
may seem at times,
we are children of light.
Christ is in us to give us His light.

At Christmas, we celebrate this light of God that breaks through the darkness in the person of Jesus. Jesus’ incarnation inaugurated a new creation in which the light of the world shatters the darkness of sin and gives new life to those who believe in Him.

As children of light, we are commissioned to bring that light into the world by living in obedience to Him. We are light, and Jesus tells us to let our light shine. It is our calling and challenge to be light for others. We all have it. Let us stand up and let our light shine into the dark corners of the world.

God is light and God became man
so that we might be
the light of the world
and overcome the darkness.

How Do We Enjoy Light?

There are many ways to enjoy true light without being deceived by false light. These four distinctions of light explained by John can be used as our guide:

1. In Relation to the True Knowledge of God.
Light is always related to the understanding of who God is. He made Himself be known through the Word, and Jesus is the Word who became Man.

2. Regarding the Purity of Heart.
The condition for seeing the light is to have a pure heart. It is described as singleness of heart or spiritual single-mindedness. In the Bible, double-mindedness is called impurity.  Impurity and hypocrisy come from divided hearts (James 6:45). One who is two-hearted is a self-deceiver in every sense of the word.

3. In Relation to Love and Oneness.
To have been born of God and made His child is to have been brought by the Spirit into this life-giving union with Christ. Our union with Christ transcends all natural, earthly relationships. The Bible is clear that Jesus often mentions union with God, as in John 17:21. Jesus prays “…that they may be one, Father, as you are in me and I am in you,” and in verse 22, “…that they may be one, as we are one.”  The unity of the Church is based on union with God. Our triune God is the basis for unity in the Church. Unity in the Church is important because it reflects God.

4. In Relation to the Power of Christ’s Resurrection.
The light of Jesus’ resurrection shines from the depths of darkness, for darkness can never overcome light. Christ’s resurrection broke the chains of hell, the eternal curse of death. Christ is risen and has conquered death.

Death, the great enemy of mankind, has been conquered by Jesus. Jesus is the true light and has come into the world. Death has been swallowed up in victory.