Living In The Light

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1:17.

Jesus came into the world as "the Light of the world". He came to save us, and light is what it took. Had He not provided salvation for us, we would be doomed to spend eternity in darkness. We cannot fathom the dread of such a fate. But the God of Grace provided a light for us. We need to understand the nature of light as it is used to reveal God in all of His holiness.

Light itself is very mysterious. It is difficult to define what it is. Is it energy, or particles, or radiation or a beam? Webster uses it to describe everything from sight to making a load easier to carry. Regardless to how it is used, it is clear that possessing light is an advantage for us.

Light is like God in that the speed and nature of light never changes. It is as constant and reliable as the movement of the planets. The speed of light has been measured at 186,282 miles a second. That one fact alone is beyond my ability to conceive. And yet there is much more to light than simply speed.

If I were to get into my automobile and drive 50 miles per hour, my speed can be measured. A police officer can clock me speed with a radar device. Miles per hour is a relative speed. In other words it depends on everything from my foot on the gas pedal to how worn my tires are at the time. If I’m driving 50 miles per hour and you pass me at 60 miles per hour, then your speed is 10 miles per hour relative to mine.

It we were to jump on a light beam and travel in opposite directions, our speed could no longer be measured because it is constant. It is not altered at all. So the one thing that light affects is time. As we get closer to the speed of light, time slows down.

We have to adjust our understanding to conform to the nature of light because light is not going to change. That’s the way Jesus is; He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He loves us and keeps right on loving. He never stops.

With Jesus, it is always noon. No sunset or sunrise. He is always shining. Things may get dark around us, but with Jesus in our lives, He is sure to be shining.

In the summertime, we want more daylight. Therefore we devised a system of daylight saving time. We aren’t changing time by setting our clocks ahead. Neither are we altering the light of the sun. Time and light are still the same.

When we get to heaven, Jesus will be the light. We won’t need the sun anymore. Time will stand still because we’ll be living in the perfect light of heaven. In hell, there is no light; time will never end. In outer darkness, there will be no rest night or day.

In heaven, time will stand still. I have heard some say that when they get to heaven, they are going to shout the first 1000 years. But who’s counting. There’s no clock or time. We’ll be living in the light. With God one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. That’s because God is Light and time cannot be factored into His nature.

Our faith rests on the unchanging nature of Jesus Christ. If Jesus were ever to change or for one second cease to be who He is, I believe the world would fly into utter chaos. He is before all things and by Him all things consist Colossians 1:17. In other words, Jesus is the glue that holds this universe together. He never changes, gets nervous or disturbed. His mercy and compassions never fail. There is no shadow of turning in Him. As He has been this hour, He will be forever.

There can be no life in the physical world without light. Plants and other organisms depend on light to convert elements to food. If the sun ever stopped shining, all life on this planet would cease. When God said, "Let there be light", life started. God doesn’t have to take our life; just stop giving light. We would soon suffocate without photosynthesis giving off oxygen.

It is the same way spiritually. Without the light of Jesus Christ, we would have no life. "… He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" John 8:12.

There is nothing in this natural world as pure as sunlight. Light cannot be defiled or contaminated by anything it touches or passes through. If we were to take pure water and pour it into a cesspool, it would be ruined. Solid white snow that falls from the sky gets contaminated. But light, even from a battery powered flashlight cannot be contaminated. That is how God is; He cannot be defiled or defile anyone.

Jesus touched lepers but didn’t get leprosy. He touched sinners but remained sinless. He looked on that woman caught in the act of adultery and not only exposed her sin, but forgave it. But what He saw didn’t defile Him.

Jesus was tempted in the wilderness to prove, not that He could sin, but that He couldn’t. Light cannot be defiled.

Light and darkness have always been in conflict. God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom are contrary to one another Light shined in darkness and darkness comprehended it not. In other words, the darkness could not overcome it or extinguish it. No matter how powerful Satan appears to be, the grand truth is that he is powerless against the Light. He’s not a step closer to defeating God than the moment he was dispelled from heaven. The battle between God and Satan is not even close.

Let’s think about opposites for a moment. The opposite of up is down. The opposite of good is bad, and the opposite if rich is poor. Most people would say that the opposite of God is Satan, but that’s not true. God has no opposite and neither does light. Satan and his kingdom must bow to God and His Light. When light comes, darkness goes. There is not enough darkness in the universe to put out a single candle.

The only way to get rid of darkness is to release light. The sun is our greatest source of light. I’ve heard that if you look at it too long, you would go blind. I read somewhere that the sun radiates more energy in one second than man has used since the beginning of civilization. Nuclear explosions occur on the sun every second, and yet its light ripens a cluster of grapes.

God governs the universe, yet He cares about the smallest detail of our life. He belongs to all of us, but each one of us can have Him to ourselves. And we have victory in Jesus because no force on or below earth can stand against Him. He is that Light, and by Him we are eternally secure.

By: Edmund Brown