Recently, I spoke from 2 Corinthians 4:6, which tells of God’s good news that, through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, sinners like you and me can be reconciled to God. The word picture of the text is that of light replacing darkness. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, a new day has dawned. This is the storyline of the Bible. I have been asked by a few individuals to summarise this narrative, and so here it is.
Looking around at our world, I suppose that “harmony” and “hopeful” are probably not what comes to mind. Discord rather than peace seems the order of the day. Alienation is far more evident than reconciliation. Conflict screams louder than harmony. Humans are at war with humans, ultimately because humanity is at war with God. Therefore, many live without any hope that things will change; many assume that tomorrow will be like today without a realistic anticipation of a new and better day. Looking around at the surface of things, the world is an existence of darkness rather than light.
But we would be wrong to make such a superficial conclusion for two reasons. First, because of who God is, we should know that things are not always as they appear. Second, because of God, a new day has dawned.
This new day arrived with Christ’s incarnation (his birth and sinless life), was secured by his death through crucifixion and subsequent resurrection, and will come to completion when he returns in the new creation. This is precisely what the apostle Paul wants his readers to appreciate as he pens 2 Corinthians 4:6. He wants them to appreciate and embrace the truth that, long ago, God displayed his power to send light into the darkness, to bring about a new day. We need to see this; we need to believe this; we need to live in the light of this.
First Light
When God created the world, his first act was to pierce the darkness with light (Gensis 1:3). With the creation and entrance of light, life was subsequently created and planted in this world. God summarised his work as being “good” (Genesis 1:10,12, etc.) and ultimately as “very good” (Genesis 1:31). But darkness loomed in the background.
The evil one, also called in the Bible the devil and the Satan, God’s diabolical slanderer, tempted God’s people and they succumbed, casting the world into spiritual darkness and spiritual death.
But rather than giving up on his plan, God promised a brighter day (Genesis 3:15). A day would come when God would pierce the darkness and crush the devil and his works by that Light, his own Son. Nevertheless, for centuries the darkness would continue.
At a certain point, it got so dark that God brought a worldwide catastrophic judgement (Genesis 6–9). We can say that God turned out the lights. And yet God would not abandon his plan. The promise of Genesis 3:15 was kept afloat (literally!) as eight sinners, saved by grace, survived God’s judgement though his appointed means of an ark. After more than a year inside a large boat, with doubtless very little light penetrating the darkness, a new day dawned—gloriously. Though God recommissioned Noah’s family to be the light of the world (Genesis 9:1–17) yet it would not be long before darkness ensconced this new world again. The landscape had changed, but not the appointed landlords. Men and women and boys and girls were still sinners made in the image of their first parents, fallen and sinful Adam and Eve. Therefore, darkness continued (Genesis 9:18–11:32) with its awful rebellion against God. At one point, human harmony was attempted (at the tower of Babel episode in Genesis 11), but this was a world united by hatred of God. Yet holy God graciously brought that project to a halt.
God next sent the light to an idol worshipper by the name of Abraham (Genesis 12:1). From him would arise the nation of Israel graciously tasked with being God’s light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6). The hope of harmony between God and man had been restored. The almost unintelligible light began to shine brighter and then within a few hundred years it was seemingly extinguished in Egypt (Exodus 1–2). But, because God is faithful, a glorious light appeared to Moses (Exodus 3) by which the Lord delivered them from dark bondage into what would be a brighter day (Exodus 13:17–22).
As Israel wandered in the desert, and settled in Palestine, they built a tabernacle, designed by God as his dwelling place, complete with lights on the inside (lampstand) and with the Shekinah glory of God evident at night. And yet this too would not last. As someone has said, “Judaism is a four-thousand-year argument with God.”
After hundreds of years of rebellion against God, he literally extinguished the light of Israel as he and his glory left the temple (Ezekiel 10). For the next four hundred years, God’s people, and the world, would experience a silent darkness as the prophetic word came to a standstill (from Malachi until Matthew 1). Yet during these centuries, small embers of light lived on in the hearts of a faithful remnant until one day the promised light was birthed into this world. The Light’s name was Jesus and with his birth a new day dawned (Matthew 4:16; Luke 1:76–79; 2:29–32; John 1:4-9).
But just when hope was renewed, a deep darkness—the darkest day in history—occurred as Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was crucified on a hill called Golgotha (Calvary). From noon until three o’clock, the world was covered in darkness as the Light of the world was extinguished, buried beneath the wrath of holy, almighty God (Matthew 27:45–46). Even those who had followed Jesus thought the lights had been forever turned out. Jesus was left alone on the cross.
But three days later he rose from the dead and the light of the glorious gospel has shone ever since (Matthew 28:1–10). This is the light that Paul says “has shone in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 4:6). It has shone into the hearts of those who have repented and believed on the crucified yet risen Lord Jesus Christ.
We can summarise the biblical storyline as God’s faithfulness to send his promised Light (Genesis 3:15) into the world. The promised light dawned on our world the day Jesus was born. The incarnation is about God’s illumination. The incarnation was the glorious dawning of a new day in which sinners can be saved by God’s Son who lived a perfect life, died our deserved death, and rose from the dead to present us as righteous in God’s sight (2 Corinthians 5:21). But this is not the end of the story, for a final day must and will dawn once and for all, banishing all darkness as a new heaven and earth replace the sin-cursed one in which we now live. Christians refer to this as God’s new creation (Revelation 21:1–5). And what a day that will be!
Do You See the Light?
Sadly, though there is at this time of year much talk and singing about Jesus, many remain blind to his glorious light. The problem is not with the light, but with the listener for, as Charles Hodge wrote many years ago, “The sun does not cease to be the sun although the blind do not see it.” So I ask, do you see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and therefore as your Saviour? Have you been brought into harmony with God through God in Christ? The Light is shining. Ask the Lord to enable you to see! Ask him to make you one of the faithful, joyful, and triumphant and then come and adore him.
Grateful the day has dawned,
Doug