In Ephesians 5:13 it is written, "whatsoever doth make manifest is light," and this is true in regard to what is spiritual as well as in what is natural. God is the originator of all light, whether it be that which enables men to see what is around them or that which has come to us through Jesus to make God known to us. Before men can avail themselves of natural light they must have eyes to see, eyes that can take account of all that the light makes manifest, and it is the same in spiritual things, for we must have the eyes of the heart opened to view what God has revealed of Himself in His own Son. When Jesus was on earth He said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3); and it is equally true that a man cannot see anything that is spiritual and divine unless he is born of God.
When the prophet, in Isaiah 60, wrote, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee," he was looking into the distance, to the time when the Lord Jesus would be found in the midst of His earthly people Israel in the millennium. Just before His coming to set up His kingdom, "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people," but at His appearing for the blessing of Israel, His glory shall be seen upon His people (Isa. 60:2). In that day "the Gentiles shall come to thy light," to be enlightened by the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God; and the kings of the earth shall come to the brightness of Israel's rising, for God's people shall have arisen from their slumber among the nations, and back in their own land will reflect the glory, the brightness, shining in their King (Isa. 60:3).
In that day, "the sun shall be no more" Israel's light by day; "neither for brightness shall the moon give light" to God's earthly people, for they shall no more need to rely on the supreme and derived authorities of earth, "but the Lord shall be" their "everlasting light," and their God their glory (Isa. 60:19). As their everlasting light, the Lord will be the source of light to them for ever, He will bring to them the knowledge of God, directing them in His ways, and revealing to them all that God has in His purpose for their rich and abiding blessing.
The next verse has a remarkable change. It is no longer "The sun," but "Thy sun," not the supreme authorities of earth, but "the Sun of righteousness" that has arisen for them "with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4:2). Their Messiah has returned to bring to them all the promised blessing, and this Sun "shall no more go down": they will have His light, direction and brightness for ever. Israel too will reflect the divine light among the nations of the earth, and this will nevermore be withdrawn on account of their unfaithfulness, for their place of prominence among the nations, and their divine blessing, will not rest on the ground of the old covenant they could not keep, but on the ground of the new covenant in the blood of Jesus.
God, their everlasting light will then, indeed, be their glory, they will find their delight and boast in Him, and the days of their mourning shall be ended. While scattered among the nations they mourn their lot, but it is God's righteous judgment upon them; and being restored to the land they mourn when they discover that the One they have rejected and crucified is none other than their Messiah, but when the days of mourning are over, they will bask in the light of the Sun of righteousness, in the everlasting light of their God as seen in Messiah their King.
A presentation of the divine glory of the eternal Word opens the Gospel of John, and having written of Him as creator, the Spirit of God through the evangelist says,
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). The life that was in the eternal Son inherently was that through which God was revealed to them, and in order that God might be revealed in His nature and disposition towards men, the Word was made flesh. Hitherto there had been divine revelations of God's will for men through His servants, but in the Son there was the clear and full revelation of what God is, for it was God Himself who had come into the world.
When light is introduced the darkness is dispelled, but it was not so in regard to the spiritual darkness that marked this world at the coming of the Son of God, and this proved the incorrigible state of man in sin as under the influence of the powers of darkness. John Baptist, as a true servant of God, bore witness to the Light; but the true Light was God's own Son, and, coming into the world, He was light for every man. It was impossible to confine the shining of such a light to the nation of Israel. The Lord will indeed be an ever-lasting light for Israel in the coming day, but when God's Son entered this world it was to bring the knowledge of God within the reach of every man.
The presence of the true Light not only revealed God in all the great love of His heart, but also manifested where every man stood in relation to God. Those who refused to believe in the Son were condemned as evil-doers, for in rejecting Him they were exposed in their opposition to God. Such hated the light, they hated the divine love made known in God's Son, and would have nothing to do with Him, for in coming into His presence they were exposed in their true character as evildoers. But the presence of Jesus also brought to light the children of God, those who practised the truth, and their deeds, in coming to Him, showed that they were divine in origin (John 3:18-21).
At Sychar's well, when Jesus spoke to the poor sinner, "it was about the sixth hour" (John 4:6), when the light was brightest naturally; and it was just then that the divine light in God's Son was manifested in all its heavenly brilliance. The light so exposed the poor sinner that she said, "Come, see a Man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" (John 4:29); but the same light that made plain to her what she was also revealed what God was, and what He desired. It was not to the "master of Israel" of chapter 3 that the Lord spoke of the worship of the Father, but to the poor sinner of chapter 4.
Again, in chapter 8, we have the Lord in the presence of a sinner, one condemned in the light of the law of Moses by men, who not only themselves broke the law, but were opposed to Him who gave the law. Here we see the divine light shine out, not to condemn the sinner, for the Lord said to her, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more," but to expose those who had brought her to Him. When Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" (John 8:7), the light so exposed her accusers that they were convicted "by their own conscience" and went out "one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last."
It was just then that Jesus said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). Who else but the Son of God could utter such words! In Him there was the full knowledge of God, not only for Israel, but for the world; and those who followed Him walked in the light of the revelation that He had brought into the world, and all others walked in darkness, for this is the natural state of man in sin without the knowledge of the true God.
In the next chapter the Lord intimates that He was not to be always in this world, for He said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5). From the opening of the eyes of the blind man we learn that the Lord had to work in sovereign grace to open blind eyes, so that men might be able to benefit from the light He had brought. There was no approach to Him by the blind man, the Lord Jesus acted from Himself, showing by the mud put on the eyes of the blind man that the incarnation only made man's condition, if anything, worse than it was before. He Himself was the Sent One of the Father, and obedience to Him resulted in a divine cleansing that gave the sight that could benefit from the light brought by Jesus.
The result of the coming of the light into this world is found in John 12:39, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind." The Pharisees who spoke to Jesus claimed to have sight, but it was merely intellectual, it was not spiritual sight, and the refusal of the Son of God brought them judicial blindness (John 12:40). They were not blind intellectually, so sinned with their eyes open; but they were blind spiritually, not apprehending the light that had come in the Person of Jesus. The erstwhile blind man not only received his natural sight, but it is abundantly plain that the eyes of His heart were also opened to discern in Jesus the Son of God.
John 12 brings to us the closing testimony of the Lord to this world, and He announced His impending departure, saying, "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." John 12:35. This was a solemn warning to those who heard the Lord. They were most highly favoured in having the Light of the world in their midst, the One who had brought to them the most wonderful knowledge, even the full revelation of God in His own Person, but they had rejected Him, and an awful darkness was about to descend upon them. It was bad enough to be in darkness before the light came, but to have refused the light would leave them in greater darkness than they had ever been in before.
Men might be very religious and highly educated with all the culture of this world's philosophy, but without the knowledge of God that is found in Jesus they walk in darkness, and do not know where they are going. They walk in darkness, in ignorance of God, and have neither the knowledge of what awaits them in time or in eternity. The Christian walks in the light of the revelation of God, and knows that every step is watched over by God, and he has the light of God's word to guide him in every step; and he knows that his path leads into the presence of God, into the eternal light of the Father's house.
Those who believe in the light seen in Jesus are the "sons of light" (John 12:36), bearing the character of Him in whom they have believed. Then in John 12:46 there is the last mention of light in this Gospel, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." How great the grace that caused the Son of God to come into this world that men might be blessed with such a knowledge of God, that they should no longer remain in ignorance of the true God, but know His love, His compassion and goodness as fully made known in the Son of His bosom.
If in John 9 and John 12 the Lord indicates that the light was about to leave this world, we read, that Judas, the betrayer, "went immediately out: and it was night" (John 13:30). The testimony to the world of the Son of God was over, the light from heaven had shone in all its brilliance, but had been refused, and the act of Judas showed what man is. How great the darkness for Judas! and how great the darkness for the world that had refused the light of God! In leaving this world, the Lord Jesus left as the Light of the world, so that the light no longer shines in the world.
Although the light left this world, how wonderful the grace that caused it to shine from the place where Jesus now is in the presence of God above. Soon the Lord will come again, and the light of the Sun of righteousness will illuminate the darkness of this world; the everlasting light will shine in the very scene where Jesus was rejected. John can say the darkness is passing (1 John 2:8), for already many have been brought into the light that shines in the face of Jesus. The true light that once came into the world (John 1:9), and departed from it, now shines in the glorified Son of God; and all who believe in Him "walk in the light, as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7); they walk in the light of the knowledge of God found in His blessed Son above.
Saul of Tarsus, on the way to Damascus, saw "a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun" (Acts 26:13), and it gave him the knowledge of God in Jesus, and it characterised the testimony he bore to Jesus, speaking of it as "the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God," and as "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:4, 6). Paul had not known Christ on earth, but he was called by Him from heaven, and the testimony that he bore was to an exalted, heavenly Son of God.
On earth, the light brought to men the knowledge of God in the Son of God incarnate, but the light from heaven brought to men the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the unveiled face of Jesus. God has been infinitely glorified in the work of redemption wrought out by His Son upon the cross, and this redemptive glory shines in Jesus upon the throne of God. Jesus in heaven is the image of God, so that we see in Him all that God is, and we learn too all that God is in the counsels of His love and His eternal purposes that centre in the Man of His right hand.
We are able to look back to see the light shining in the Son of God on earth; we look up to see the true light already shining in the heavenly Christ on God's throne; and we look forward to the time when all darkness will be past, when the Sun of righteousness will arise, and the Lord will be for His people, and for all men on earth, an everlasting light. R.