Light

Intro

As we continue on here in Genesis 1-11 I would like us today to take up and consider a theme that we see develop in scripture. This is one of our stated goals here in these early chapters of God’s Word, that we not only seek to understand the creation narrative and the early history of man up to and through the flood and the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 but that we also, as we work our way through these texts consider the many theological themes that we find rooted here in these early chapters.

We have sought to make the case several times over now that when we compromise here in these early chapters we do more than capitulate on a literal history of the ancient world, we do more than bend the knee to supposed scientific fact, we, through compromise here, give up the foundations to all of the major doctrines that are developed across the pages of scripture. When we say that some source outside of scripture gets to be authoritative in how scripture must be interpreted there is no way to limit this influence. John Piper may say things like “science can say what it says about the age of the earth” but we understand that science and the claimed secular evil that seeks to suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness will know no bounds when moving churchmen to bow the knee to the supposed scientific norms of the day. In a past generation it was creation, the flood, and the age of the earth; now that this battle has been in large measure won it has become the nature of humanity and what it means to be male and female and what are the socially acceptable avenues of sexual relations among other things.

As we seek to recapture this lost ground it is important that we seek to start to capture if from the foundations that our forefathers gave up, that we storm the beaches of Normandy here in Genesis 1-11 and build from here a stable foundation from which we can progress to attack the other battle fronts of our day. To fight these battles while there remains a compromised force behind us will at best make the battle that much harder and at worst risk winning a battle only to loose it again as the enemy regains the foothold there on the beach and attacks us again from behind.

And so we press on in this effort to securely establish our beach head here in Genesis 1-11, making sure this foundation from which we will find all of the other themes and truths of scripture are built.

Now, the theme that we will take up today is the theme of light. Two weeks ago we considered God’s creation of light here on day one of the creation week. We sought to show how the creation of light forms the basis for the literal 24 hour day that we see from our perspective here on earth, the perspective from which the whole narrative must now be viewed after we pass 1:1-2. We considered the compromised positions that seek to make a day something other than a day and we sought to establish the fact that any other reading of the text outside of the literal 24 hour day even before the creation of the sun and moon and stars does a grave injustice to the text.

In the course of making that argument I also made the case that the creation of light and the naming of day and night, the separating of the created light from darkness was intentional and created a physical and visible manifestation of what would not be used to provide imagery of spiritual realities. That while in the creation narrative light is not good and darkness bad, all of creation was good, day and night, however God in His providence was establishing a world that would be used to illustrate for His time bound, material creatures, unseen spiritual realities.

In other words, the creation of light and the delineating between day and night, between darkness and light would lay the foundation for these elements to become foundational themes in scripture, elements through which God would make His truth manifest to His creatures. And so today we will take a survey of some of the texts in scripture related to light and see how it is that God uses these created elements of Day and Night, darkness and light from creation day 1 to reveal truth to His people.

I would like to take up as our text this morning not the account in Genesis of creation but rather John’s drawing from the creation account to show us the glory and wonder of the Christ who was Himself, as we will surely see this morning, the light of the world. We will read this text again here and then we will make our way through scripture to this text this morning.

John 1:1-14

English Standard Version Chapter 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

That is where we are headed but we first need to back up and take some time to consider light in the OT.

Light in Creation

The starting place is obviously here in Genesis 1. We read again of the creation of light in verses 3-5:

Genesis 1:3–5 ESV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Now we have already considered this passage but there are a few important things here that I would like to point out.

Firstly, while we aren't told what this light was, as we saw in our first message here the creation of light comes before the creation of the light sources. This we saw is something that actually lends evidence to the validity of this text as it is highly improbable that an ancient author apart from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit would have created a story in which light simply existed. That wasn't part of the paradigm and it points to the divine inspiration of the text, that this is not just some man imagined document. God as the creator and eye witness of these events is the only one who could have conceived of light simply as light.

Now this light give rise to the question of what was it. Scientifically speaking light is electromagnetic radiation. Waves of this radiation in certain frequencies are detectable by the human eye as various colors. The visible spectrum as seen in a rainbow or as simply white light when all are present together.

Strictly speaking this electromagnetic radiation must be given off by something, it must have a source and since there is a source lacking on day one many speculate that the light that filled the world was the light of God’s glory, often referred to as the shekinah glory of God. I have no problem with this thought and would say that there is probably a great chance that this is true. That God’s glory has the power to visibly be manifest in this world as light is evident from the fact that Moses had need to cover his face when he came out of the tent of meeting from talking with God because his face shone.

We also understand that in the coming new creation, the redeemed world that we long for there will no longer be any need for light sources as the Lamb will be the light.

Revelation 21:23 ESV

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

We understand that we have a taste of this as a spiritual reality now in the kingdom inaugurated but that we also long for its full expression in the kingdom consummated.

When we consider the new creation it is not just a return to what was lost but an advancement to an even greater state. It is perhaps a glimpse of that give here as we see that in the early hours of day one the world is bathed in the light of the glory of God, no need for sun, moon, and stars, just pure beautiful light.

Sovereign Over Light

Important for us to hold in mind this morning is that God is the one who creates and directs this light. God is sovereign over the light. He speaks it into existence and He names it and He separates it from the darkness; which we considered likely means that it became directional, He guides the light that He creates. This will become especially important as we bring this theme of light to its connection points in the NT and see Paul tell is in 2 Corinthians 4:6

2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV

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.

We will see a consistent witness that God is the One who controls and guides the light.

And lastly here before we move on we again see that light and darkness are here. Now while darkness is not evil in and of itself, it is part of the very good creation. The reality of darkness which is the absence of or the result of the seperation of light from an object will become deeply symbolic. Darkness is not the opposite of light, it is its absence, it is the natural result of light being removed or prevented from reaching an object. Appart from the supernatural creation of light darkness is the default state of being, God doesn’t specifically create the darkness darkness exists in creation because light had not yet been brought into existence.

Pillar of Fire

But now we have to jump forward again. The next place where we see light is in and around the Exodus.

Firstly we see God guiding the people with a pillar of fire, read pillar of light, by night. In Exodus 13 we read:

English Standard Version Chapter 13

21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

We see here an additional faucet to light. Light reveals, light enables us to see and so God here uses this light to lead and to guide. God gives His people a light so that they can follow it. The light is given we read specifically so that they can travel by night! It wasn't some sort of comforting nigh light out in the desert, this light was given to guide them forward in their travels, they were truly following God as they walked along with the light.

Light in the Tabernacle

The next place that we need to consider light is in the building of the tabernacle. There is all kinds of significant imagery associate with the tabernacle and its various furnishings and implements but for our purposes this morning we need to focus in on the lamp stand with its seven lights.

We read of the construction of the lamp in Exodus 24. Earlier in Exodus we find the information needed to construct the center piece of worship in Israel, the tabernacle and one of the interesting things about the tabernacle is that it was a very dark place. The tabernacle itself was draped with layers of woven fabrics and skins that would have most assuredly blocked nearly all light. The only light source then for the inside of the tent was this lamp.

Not only this but we read in Leviticus 24 that the people were to bring 12 loaves and place them on a table of pure gold that was sitting before the lamp stand. There in the midst of the tabernacle were these 12 loaves that represented the people of God and they were to be placed there in the light of this lamp.

We see this imagery of the people of God being granted access into God’s presence where He has provided light for them in a dark place.

One of the other interesting things about the tabernacle is that there was not a light in the most holy place. Some have said that perhaps it was lit by the glory of God but in 1 Kings 8:12 at the dedication of the temple by Solomon we read:

1 Kings 8:12 ESV

Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.

This is drawn from Psalms like Psalm 18 and 97 where we see God shrouded in darkness. Where as God had come to walk with mankind in the cool of the day in the garden, now that man had fallen into sin in Adam God has separated Himself from man and throughout the OT we see that though God has given grace and mercy to provide light to His people as symbolized by the loaves laid out before the lamp yet God himself remains separated from them in the most Holy place shrouded in darkness, unapproachable save by the High Priest once a year to offer the blood on the day of atonement.

Light and darkness indeed hold great significance in the symbols and imagery of the OT tabernacle and temple as they direct us to the most fundamental realities of who God is and who we are as fallen creatures living separated from Him by sin in this the world that He had made for us to inhabit.

The Prophets

We begin to see though some tremendous promises in the prophets as they direct us toward the coming day of the messiah. We cant go through them all but we read texts like:

Isaiah 60 talking about the promise of a redeemed Israel:

Isaiah 60:19–20 ESV

The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.

And another text from Isaiah 9 that is quoted in Matthew 4:

Isaiah 9:1–2 ESV

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

And we also read in Isaiah 49:6

Isaiah 49:6 ESV

he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Here at last we see all importantly that this Messianic figure that is coming to save Israel and to be a light for her will also be a light for the nations! The purposes of God are not limited to giving light to just the 12 loaves, God’s purpose is that this messiah reach out and become a light of salvation for all nations, that this salvation would extend beyond the borders of Israel and reach to the ends of the earth!

The Light of the World

It is in this light then that we come now to the gospel of John. You could call the apostle John the apostle of light. His Gospel shows us Christ as the light of the world and then light also figures heavily in the epistle of 1st John as well.

So we read here in the first chapter of John’s gospel:

John 1:1–16 ESV

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 any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

I want us to hone in here and see what it means that Christ is the light. In this passage we see Christ as God, we see Him as the creator through whom all things are made, we see Him as life itself, and we see Him as light. True light that has come into the world.

There in the first paragraph, verses 1-5 we see the glory of the Son. He is with God and He is God. We are still a little ways away from taking up the theme of the trinity in Genesis 1-11 but it is certainly here in John! He is the creator of all things and as creator He is life, when the creatures are spoken into existence it is because the One who is Himself life has given them life and then we know that He breathed into Adam the breath of life. He is life. And the life here isn’t simply biological life, the word here is zoe and it is the true kind of spiritual life.

We understand that everyone in this world outside of Christ are biologically alive and yet they are spiritually dead. Dead in their trespasses and sins. They have life in one sense and yet in the most important sense they lack life. They lack this life that comes from Christ, they lack the life that will never perish.

John MacArthur points out that the construction of life being the light of men is the same as the Word being God. In other words When we read that this life was the light of men there is a deep connection a sameness between life and light.

MacArthur says, “He is the life manifest, and the life manifest is called Light, the metaphor of light against the darkness of fallenness. Jesus is the eternal life source, the eternal divine life, manifest in the world like light shining in the darkness.”

We see here life and death, darkness and light, the first elements brought to us in Genesis 1:2&3 have been developed across the pages of scripture to present to us a picture of who Christ is. He is the light of life shinning in the darkness. And just as the light shining into the darkness there on day 1 of creation sets the stage and prepares the way for all kinds of wonderful creative acts and the bringing of life into the world so here we will see that this light that once again Has been made manifest int he world is coming that Creation may be made new!

Bear Witness to the Light

We then see this wonderful description of John that in actuality gives us our marching orders as people of the light now. We see what John was to do, John was to bear witness to the light. The marching orders have not changed one bit. Our call in this world is to still bear witness to the light!

God’s people in the OT though we did not read this verse had been called to shine forth as a city on a hill and now there is a similar call in the NT that we live as lights in this darkened world. And actually the text makes this clear as we find that the light that comes from Christ is described linguistically as a source light and yet when it describes our lights we are lights that are derived from the source, we are reflectors. Our call is to reflect the light of Christ out into the world.

Now we also know that the world doesn't particularly like our shining of this light. Just a few chapters later in John 3 after that most famous verse 16 we read:

English Standard Version Chapter 3

19 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.”

People love darkness because the light shows that they are dead, the light shows just how sinful and wicked they are. Their works are evil. They don’t want to be told that they are dead in their trespasses and sins, and yet we see that there are those who even though they are in darkness will be drawn to the light.

John 1:1–16 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.

Sovereign Light Giver

It is here that we need to think back and consider the nature of light in Genesis 1. There we see that God speaks and light comes into existence.

Earlier we read 2 Corinthians 4:6

2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV

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.

God’s sovereign display of power in speaking light into existence there on day one of the creation week becomes a parallel of the way that God speaks light into the lives of those who He is calling to His Son. When God speaks light goes forth and it accomplished that for which it was intended, this is true of the original creation and it is true in the new creation.

When Jesus is taking to Nicodemus there in John 3 just before the passage about the light coming into the world He tells Nicodemus that:

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Seeing and light are intricately connected. We have seen that John in chapter 1 connects light and life, that life was the light of men and this carries over to chapter 3 as being born again is what is required for new life and new life leads to the ability to see the Kingdom of God!

In other words salvation is an act of God by which He causes dead blind sinners who are incapable of seeing spiritual light and tasting spiritual life and He sovereignly speaks and causes blind eyes to see and dead hearts to come alive and dull foolish minds to understand so that they see and behold the glory of God in the person and work of Christ and turn from their sin in repentance and turn to Christ in faith and we see the roots of this understanding of how it is that Christ brings sinners out of darkness into light and life all the way back in Genesis chapter 1.

Walk in the Light

This leads me to my last point for today which we have already actually seen a bit. We talked just a moment ago about how Christ is described as a source light and we are described as derivative lights or reflected lights.

In his 1st epistle John gives us this charge:

1 John 1:5–7 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Once we have been brought from death to life from darkness to light we are charged with walking in the light. We renounce the wicked ways of our past, we deny the sinful lusts and pleasures that once drove us as bond masters over us and we now live in the light of Christ. We walk in the light just as we saw that Israel was lead by the light of the pillar of fire so that they could keep moving forward even if they were called to journey on during the night. We live in the light of God’s presence just as those loaves of bread were placed there in the tabernacle in the presence of the light from the lamp. All of these things that were brought to us as pictures, as types and shadows in the OT are now made manifest in their full forms through the blood of Christ and the life and light he brings to us through the new covenant.

And finally one last important point that I would like us to see from 1st John. You might assume based on those verses we just read that the life of a child of God is one that will be walked in perfection. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth. Doesn’t that mean that we can’t sin?

Well not exactly because John continues:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

This passage makes it clear that God’s children will sin. So what is the difference between being a child of God who sins and being a false professor of the faith who claims fellowship with Christ while walking in darkness?

It is there in verse 9! Confession! Confession is the act of bringing the light of Christ to bear on our sin. When we confess our sins to God and to those whom we have wronged we are stepping out of the darkness of our sins and walking in light.

When we fail to confess our sins, when we fail to bring the light of Christ to bear on them this is when we are walking in darkness. This is actually what it means to say we have no sin. Did you know that? There are a few in our day who would say they have no sin, some of the more charismatic folks and holiness preachers claim to be able to live sin free. This is will agree is 100% wrong and puts on square in the walking in darkness/calling God a liar camp. However, its not just that. If you are not daily at the task of confessing your sins to Christ and to those whom you have sinned against then you are doing the same exact thing, you by your silence in confession are claiming to be sinless and making God out to be a liar. This is the very definiton of walking in darkness!

If we want to live in that light that comes to us through Christ, that glorious light that is prefigured in God’s creative and authoritative word “let there be light” we must be often and humbly at the task of confession of sin, bringing our lives into the light of Christ and walking in that light. As we do this and as we bear witness to the light by sharing the gospel of God through words that flow from redeemed lives we then become these little reflectors of God’s glory that spread the light of Christ across the world, shining into darkness and not being overcome by it straining forward to that day when as we read in the prophets the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea!