My time in
God's word this week has revolved around this verse, "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."[1]
As I have
considered the connection between the God who called light out of darkness, and
the way he has shone in our hearts, I realize that our reason for embracing
what he has shone into our hearts is equivalent to our faith that he simply
spoke a word, "Let there be
light,"[2]
and light came out of the darkness.
The point is
simple: with the same power that God called light out of darkness in creation,
he shines light into our darkness in salvation. Whatever is in us that is
darkness, that is hidden, that is buried under layers of self-protection, that
is blinded by sin, is helpless against the light that God shines into our
hearts.
I believe the
message is clear, that God calls us to surrender our darkness to his light, believing
that, when we open the door to the dark places, it will not be the darkness
invading our lives and destroying us, but the light invading the darkness and
destroying it.
How do we
know? How do we know that the scariest things hidden inside us are terrified of
God’s light? How do we know that the God who is light is able to not only
dissipate the darkness, but to actually destroy the darkness?
We know this
because when God called light out of darkness, "there was light."[3]
When God shines into our darkness, there is light. The dark rooms in our hearts
exist because we have shut the door to God’s presence. We have told him we do
not want him to go there. We have decided that he is incompetent to handle our
pain, and our trauma, and our nightmares, and flashbacks, and our sin, whatever
we have locked in these rooms, and that is the reason it is dark. God is not
there.[4]
God’s message
is, look to the first command of creation, that the God we are dealing with as
our Father, the God we have united with in our justification by grace through
faith, is the God who once said, “’Let
there be light,’ and there was light.” He now wants us to know that he has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." He is just
as able to do the latter, as he was able to do the former.
A
corresponding Scripture says, "and
hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”[5]
God has shone into our hearts to give us "the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
He has done this by pouring his love into our hearts through the presence of
the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us.
Do you see
this? In the beginning, when God spoke to the darkness and called forth the
space, time, and matter elements of light, “the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”[6]
When God calls his light to shine into our hearts, he accomplishes this in the
most amazing and personal of ways. He pours his personal love into our hearts
by sending his own Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
We may not
know how God will overcome the darkness within us, but we do need to put our
faith in this, that the same God who called light out of darkness and the light
obeyed, now sends his light into our darkness. His light will surely do exactly
what he sends it to do.
We must
respond by handing our darkness over with fear and trembling so we can
experience what HE can do.[7] We
certainly can't be proud of what we have done (soul-rooms filled with darkness
is nothing to boast about). But we can look with faith at the perfection of
God's intentions that are always fulfilled according to his will, and know that
his intention to fill us with his light is on its way.[8]
When Jesus came
into the world, it was said of him, “In
him was life, and the life was the light of men.”[9]Once
again, we see the personal nature of God’s work. The light that shines into our
hearts, the love that is poured into our hearts through the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit, is the very life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to give
us life, even in the hidden places.
The promise
of God’s word is, “The light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”[10]The
darkness did not overcome Jesus when he came to purchase our complete
salvation, and it will not overcome Jesus when he opens the doors to our inner
dark places and fills them with his presence.
The
invitation still stands to anyone who knows that Jesus’ is outside anything in
their lives, “Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
and eat with him, and he with me.”[11]
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
II Corinthians 4:6
[2]
Genesis 1:3
[3]
Genesis 1:3
[4]
I do not mean to deny the reality that God is omnipresent, or present
everywhere. I am speaking in the relational sense that we do not have
fellowship with God in our hidden places because we have been unwilling to do
so.
[5]
Romans 5:5
[6]
Genesis 1:2
[7]
Philippians 2:12-13. We are only responding to the work God is already doing in
us!
[8]
Romans 8:28-30, II Corinthians 3:18, Philippians 1:6, all show that God will
complete what he has started in his work of restoring us to the image and
likeness of his Son.
[9]
John 1:4
[10]
John 1:5
[11]
Revelation 3:20
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