The apostle John seems eager to communicate to his readers in his New Testament writings this whole idea of Jesus=Light=Life. In his gospel, he starts right out in chapter 1:
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,
and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it...
This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,
that all through him might believe."
(John 1:4-5, 7)
Again, in his first letter, he starts right out:
"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all."
(I John 1:5)
"Darkness" here in the Greek is the word scotia, which means gloom, evil, sin, night, moral depravity. It also has the implication of everything that came to us from the fall of man--enmity with God, our sinful nature, and every kind of demonic work in mankind. All the trouble in our lives is some manifestation of the curse of darkness at work in the world.
I remember as a child pondering once on the curious circumstance of 'waking up' born into the world, not having had any say about when or where I would live, which family I would belong to, etc. It struck me how unbelievably fortunate we were to have discovered that our Maker was benevolent, that the universe ran by His love, that we didn't find ourselves the victims of some cruel experiment of a malevolent god.
Then, when I discovered that this terrible thing called 'the fall' and sin had happened to us, and that the good God had already taken care of it by the time I arrived on the scene through Jesus--well, I knew I wanted to belong to Him. If it took that kind of a price to fix me and the world, I could never honor Him enough, thank Him enough.
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and comes down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."
(James 1:17)
Thank You, Father! Thank You, Jesus!
Amen, indeed! How fortunate we are.
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