God is Light
A new year brings about a new theme, focus, or concentration for us to uncover and investigate from a biblical perspective. All throughout scripture we see an emphasis on the concept of ‘light.’ This concept is discussed in many forms, from its source, its usage, its necessity, how it is emitted, and even how it describes those living according to it from a figurative and spiritual perspective. A simple, yet profound topic, necessary for the Christian to be aware of and even understand due to how it is regarded and connected to God in the New Testament. The apostle, John, states, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). While much should and will be gleaned from John’s letter, we focus on how he paints the essence of God by referring to Him as light. From a worldly perspective, we may ask “How can God be something that He created?” While this inquiry is fair, we must realize that John is utilizing this as a tool to describe the essence of God, as many writers have done throughout scriptures. This should turn our focus to the concept of light to get a better understanding of God’s essence. What is light? Why is it necessary? Where can it be found? How is it to be used in our lives? As we ask these questions, we must remain aware of the context and whether the term is being employed from a literal or figurative perspective to gain a better understanding. We will begin the series by studying its definition and source. The dictionary definition for light varies by technicality, but can be summated as “something that makes vision possible.” The light identified by John is simply that which is in contrast to darkness. In other words, that which illuminates or brings radiance amid an abiding darkness. Hence, we begin to build on the essence of how God is described in this passage. There is no darkness abiding in Him, which helps the reader to know that God only sends forth radiance and illumination into the world. The writer then shows that God’s essence, as light, is directly connected to the Christian’s walk and that which is true. Because God is light, we must walk in that light and practice the truth in this life.
The Eternal God
Thus far God’s essence has been established to us through the metaphor of light. As we dig a bit deeper and search out the scriptures for other descriptions of God’s essence, we realize the extensive study that is before us. Let us consider this topic through the lens of Moses. Once Moses had escaped Egypt for some time, he was approached by an angel of God through a burning bush, with instruction to lead the house of Israel out from under Pharoah. Amid that story we uncover information that should reshape the thinking about our Creator. “Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’’” (Exodus 3:13-14). In this passage we see the Lord employ a new name or rather description of who He is. Here we see the name Jehovah shown of God to Moses, which described God’s eternal existence. This is significant because we glean more insight into the essence of God through the concept of time, though it is clearly evident that God is not bound by time, but is eternal. A verse later it is declared, “Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations’’” (Exodus 3:15). The angel of the Lord is explaining to Moses that the Lord God’s name is forever, which translates to this idea of enduring eternal, spanning beyond both antiquity and futurity. In other words, God’s essence cannot truly be fathomed by the time that we count and appreciate because He always and ever existed. This becomes more apparent as we read a psalm penned by Moses; “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalms 90:1-2). To get a deeper understanding of the essence of God, Moses declares God’s existence as being from everlasting. When thought about soberly, this becomes almost impossible to fathom due to the human way being so governed by the concept of time. Nevertheless, we notice somewhat a proverbial white flag thrown by Moses on behalf of all mankind that promotes that yielding of our will to God as he concludes the Psalm. Moses, already declaring the secrecy of our sins being before the “light of God’s countenance” in verse 8 goes on to say, “Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands” (Psalms 90:16-17). With so much to say about how our lives are spent, Moses pleads with God to establish the work of his children’s hands throughout the generations. As children of the Eternal God, we must being circumspect about our days, and spend them doing the work that God has desired of us!
The Ethical God
To this point we have discussed the essence of God in two major facets; He is light and He is eternal. Furthermore, we delve into His might and power given to us through how God revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and later to His man Moses as He desired His children to be removed from Egypt. As we look deeper into the relationship between The I Am and Moses, we notice responsiveness of God during a intense moment where the children of Israel were caught in some hot water due to the lack of patience, trust, and contentment. Despite the shortcomings God was able to display another portion of His character as Moses would offer a plea on Israel’s behalf. During a time when Moses approached God in the Mount Sinai to receive the various laws and ordinances to govern His people, Aaron felt the pressure of the people and took matters in to his own hands, gathering all the gilded earrings and fashioning an idol. This caused the Lord to grow angry and move to the brink of decimating the entire nation, save Moses (Exodus 32:10). As the story unfolds, we then see Moses offer strong petitioning to God on behalf of Israel so that they would not be consumed in the Lord’s anger, which ultimately led God to change His mind about their destruction (v. 14). While there is much to say about this vital point in Israelite history, we do draw out something about God’s essence; His moral and ethical nature. While God had every right to do as He willed with a stiff-necked people who were rebellious to His word amid the deliverance from Egypt, we see Him exercise an immense level of mercy, grace and longsuffering through restraint at the request of Moses. While Moses was hewing two more stones like the first set of commandments he received, God proclaims, 'And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord , the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7). God declares His wonderful essence through his restraint of punishment towards His children, and through the words given to Moses in response to his intercession. The Psalmist cites the same of God’s essence by stating, “Be merciful to me, O Lord, For I cry to You all day long. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You” (Psalms 86:3-5). With this knowledge, the Christian should not be moved to take advantage of God’s gracious and merciful nature through a lifestyle of sin, but should rather be moved to walk with morality due to His wonderful longsuffering (Romans 6:1). Furthermore, we should take the same mindset to embody His ethical nature through our ability to be forgiving of others when the time presents itself (Ephesians 4:32).
The Oneness of God
To this point we have discussed the essence of God in two major facets; He is light and He is eternal. Furthermore, we delve into His might and power given to us through how God revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and later to His man Moses as He desired His children to be removed from Egypt. As we look deeper into the relationship between The I Am and Moses, we notice responsiveness of God during a intense moment where the children of Israel were caught in some hot water due to the lack of patience, trust, and contentment. Despite the shortcomings God was able to display another portion of His character as Moses would offer a plea on Israel’s behalf. During a time when Moses approached God in the Mount Sinai to receive the various laws and ordinances to govern His people, Aaron felt the pressure of the people and took matters in to his own hands, gathering all the gilded earrings and fashioning an idol. This caused the Lord to grow angry and move to the brink of decimating the entire nation, save Moses (Exodus 32:10). As the story unfolds, we then see Moses offer strong petitioning to God on behalf of Israel so that they would not be consumed in the Lord’s anger, which ultimately led God to change His mind about their destruction (v. 14). While there is much to say about this vital point in Israelite history, we do draw out something about God’s essence; His moral and ethical nature. While God had every right to do as He willed with a stiff-necked people who were rebellious to His word amid the deliverance from Egypt, we see Him exercise an immense level of mercy, grace and longsuffering through restraint at the request of Moses. While Moses was hewing two more stones like the first set of commandments he received, God proclaims, 'And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord , the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7). God declares His wonderful essence through his restraint of punishment towards His children, and through the words given to Moses in response to his intercession. The Psalmist cites the same of God’s essence by stating, “Be merciful to me, O Lord, For I cry to You all day long. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You” (Psalms 86:3-5). With this knowledge, the Christian should not be moved to take advantage of God’s gracious and merciful nature through a lifestyle of sin, but should rather be moved to walk with morality due to His wonderful longsuffering (Romans 6:1). Furthermore, we should take the same mindset to embody His ethical nature through our ability to be forgiving of others when the time presents itself (Ephesians 4:32).
Light in Creation
The inevitable conclusion of God’s goodness is manifested through reflection on His creation of the world and the light that he brought forth with it. In continuing with this thought, we see a writer of the New Testament go on to explain this event in a profound way. John, the apostle, states, “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 nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). First and foremost, we notice the writer give this divine expression of speech a pronoun, describing the Word as “him.” Additionally, we notice the role that He would take in the creation of the world, finishing off with this understanding that life was within this Word and this life being the ‘light of men.’ What a masterful, yet thought-provoking manner to describe one of the most important, yet scrutinized events in world history. The writer goes on to say, “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:5-9). We should pause for a minute to appreciate the divine commentary given on this man, John, and his role in bearing witness to that eternal Word and Light. Of course the writer would be describing John, the baptizer and prophet of the Lord, who would be a key figure in identifying and preparing the way for the coming Messiah and His kingdom (Luke 7:28, Isaiah 40:1-5 cf. Malachi 4:5). John, the baptizer, here is being described as an instrument to help bring in the belief on the Christ to come, as he was encouraging Israel to turn from their evil ways and towards the Lord. In verse seven, we see that the intent of his work in bearing witness to this Light was to bring forth believers of the Lord. Such passage gives us more insight into God’s goodness intended for mankind through the concept of light, and its connection to His son. We attain the light of life given by God, the father, when we make the decision to follow Jesus in our lives. This we can confirm when we read further into the gospel account and see Jesus impress upon his audience this; “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). Through this passage, we should understand the significance of God sending forth His son, and the benefit to our lives as those who will be able to avoid walking in darkness through our belief in Christ!
The Light of Life
The inevitable conclusion of God’s goodness is manifested through reflection on His creation of the world and the light that he brought forth with it. In continuing with this thought, we see a writer of the New Testament go on to explain this event in a profound way. John, the apostle, states, “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 nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). First and foremost, we notice the writer give this divine expression of speech a pronoun, describing the Word as “him.” Additionally, we notice the role that He would take in the creation of the world, finishing off with this understanding that life was within this Word and this life being the ‘light of men.’ What a masterful, yet thought-provoking manner to describe one of the most important, yet scrutinized events in world history. The writer goes on to say, “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:5-9). We should pause for a minute to appreciate the divine commentary given on this man, John, and his role in bearing witness to that eternal Word and Light. Of course the writer would be describing John, the baptizer and prophet of the Lord, who would be a key figure in identifying and preparing the way for the coming Messiah and His kingdom (Luke 7:28, Isaiah 40:1-5 cf. Malachi 4:5). John, the baptizer, here is being described as an instrument to help bring in the belief on the Christ to come, as he was encouraging Israel to turn from their evil ways and towards the Lord. In verse seven, we see that the intent of his work in bearing witness to this Light was to bring forth believers of the Lord. Such passage gives us more insight into God’s goodness intended for mankind through the concept of light, and its connection to His son. We attain the light of life given by God, the father, when we make the decision to follow Jesus in our lives. This we can confirm when we read further into the gospel account and see Jesus impress upon his audience this; “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). Through this passage, we should understand the significance of God sending forth His son, and the benefit to our lives as those who will be able to avoid walking in darkness through our belief in Christ!
The Love of Light
The inevitable conclusion of God’s goodness is manifested through reflection on His creation of the world and the light that he brought forth with it. In continuing with this thought, we see a writer of the New Testament go on to explain this event in a profound way. John, the apostle, states, “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 nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). First and foremost, we notice the writer give this divine expression of speech a pronoun, describing the Word as “him.” Additionally, we notice the role that He would take in the creation of the world, finishing off with this understanding that life was within this Word and this life being the ‘light of men.’ What a masterful, yet thought-provoking manner to describe one of the most important, yet scrutinized events in world history. The writer goes on to say, “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:5-9). We should pause for a minute to appreciate the divine commentary given on this man, John, and his role in bearing witness to that eternal Word and Light. Of course the writer would be describing John, the baptizer and prophet of the Lord, who would be a key figure in identifying and preparing the way for the coming Messiah and His kingdom (Luke 7:28, Isaiah 40:1-5 cf. Malachi 4:5). John, the baptizer, here is being described as an instrument to help bring in the belief on the Christ to come, as he was encouraging Israel to turn from their evil ways and towards the Lord. In verse seven, we see that the intent of his work in bearing witness to this Light was to bring forth believers of the Lord. Such passage gives us more insight into God’s goodness intended for mankind through the concept of light, and its connection to His son. We attain the light of life given by God, the father, when we make the decision to follow Jesus in our lives. This we can confirm when we read further into the gospel account and see Jesus impress upon his audience this; “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). Through this passage, we should understand the significance of God sending forth His son, and the benefit to our lives as those who will be able to avoid walking in darkness through our belief in Christ!
The Light of the World
To this point, we have established that prior to the creation of the sonship of Jesus, He abided as the eternal Word, with God and is indeed God. John describes this Word as being integral to the creation of the world prior to putting on flesh, being handled by and beheld by this world. Furthermore, we identified this Word as the light and the life of men that that they ought to know and love, for this light was sent into the world for mankind to attain salvation. As a reminder we see Jesus refer himself as the ‘light of this world’ and in turn refers to his disciples as the same; “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16 cf. John 8:12, 9:5, 11:9). In this renowned excerpt of scripture, we see Jesus give his disciples a commission of action regarding the light that they are and show in this world. These good works would aid the world with in turning to and glorifying the Great God in Heaven. In order to fulfill this task of letting our light shine in this world, we must be cognizant of a few aspects regarding the world. We must first be aware of the world’s sinful state and influences, as John writes, “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:18-19). We must ensure that our affection is not in the world. John states, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16 cf. James 4:4) Finally, we must be aware of our power source “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). John shows that God in us is greater than the worldly influences based on our knowledge of him. This resembles what the Proverbs writer declares, “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart” (Proverbs 20:27). Shedding light in this world is very much attainable for us, but we must be aware of our surroundings, while remaining bold in our conviction in the Lord. If Christians do not rise to the occasion or lay hold onto the opportunity that Christ has given to us to let our light shine, the world will continue down a dangerous path that disregards God and does not glorify Him in the manner that He deserves.