“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 Christ.”
This verse is not in our Appendix A list of “In Christ” verses. It should be! Here is one of the most beautiful verses illustrating the reality of Jesus’ living presence within the heart of a believing soul.
We are talking about “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image God,” verse 4. This whole context is packed with glorious truth but we need to limit ourselves to the specifics of the above verse. We have here, the God of creation giving this record of instantaneous, original creation, setting the scene for another instantaneous creation. The new creation is the Spiritual essence of a new man in Christ Jesus. Being born again is a creation of a new spiritual being. The old has passed away, “behold,” a new generation of life has come into being. But both creations, the one in Genesis and the one inside a person, do the same thing; “let light shine out of darkness.” The original creation was physical and temporal. Our instantaneous “born again” creation, inside the believer, is spiritual and eternal. Both creations let light shine out of darkness!!!
Let’s also notice what is being said. Light comes out of darkness! Light in normal experience emanates from an object. Usually a light source is a flashlight, a fire or the sun. But this is a demonstration of God’s power and authority as light is shining out of darkness!!!
Looking back at original creation we find light was on the earth before our source of light, the sun, was created. In fact, we have vegetation growing on the second day while the sun was created on the third day, Gen. 1:11cf.
The Light within us, of course, is emanating from the “Son” whose very Life is created in us by our spirit joined to His. It is a Spiritual Light connecting our “inner man” into our soul!
Next, we notice, “light” is used to reveal knowledge concerning the glory of God. The complexity of design in our physical world is obviously apparent to anyone with eyes. The very existence of life in such intricate forms screams out for a Creator God as a designer. How amazing is God’s creation of life within the believer demonstrating by affirmation the assertions of biblical claims. Our sovereign Lord allows discernment of spiritual truth so we can choose between truth and error, good and bad. Our loving Father is shedding spiritual light into the darkness of souls and a beacon of hope to people in need.
This verse links original creation to the creation in our “heart.” The light in original creation, before the sun was hung in our Milky Way, has also shone in our heart so that we have knowledge of God’s glory, that is, His magnificence, His authority and power is exhibited in a personal way when we are born from above. The act of new birth as a creation in our heart comes out of 2Corinthians 5:17 where the word “creation” is actually used. We are born again in God’s image, or likeness, also as a new spiritual creation in Ephesians 4:24.
The realization of this fact requires faith. We can accept it, believe it in our mind with reason, but to unlock its power with authority we need to act upon it. We can believe many things but the “truth” we actually use by experience becomes the identifier of who we really are. Our competency in any given thing, making us an expert or the “go to guy,” are the things we personally prove by doing them, and doing them right. This is what we have to do with the spiritual things we believe.
We can be a born again believer without utilizing or spending the grace we are given. We need to consume grace to grow in spiritual understanding and know who we are in Christ Jesus. We must grasp grace by walking in the resurrection power of Jesus. This is faith!
Faith, we discover, is itself a gift from God. This leads back to grace which is the operating principle of God’s Kingdom and our salvation. By grace are we saved through faith. Grace is the milieu, it is the “rule of law” in eternity. Grace is the antithesis of law and it is the standard of God’s Kingdom. Our eternal life operates under the terms of grace, i.e., everything from God, nothing from us except submission. Life in Christ Jesus our Lord is totally of grace.
Grace is grace because God is Love. Grace is the manifestation of God’s agape love to those who accept God’s gift of Life.
All these things are wrapped in faith. Faith is our response to God’s love and grace. These are subjects deserving separate and fuller conversations but they are all suggested in this verse.
It is our natural habit to trust what we see with our physical eyes. Our judgment is based on reason and measured feelings. Our whole human system is predicated on worldly values and reason. These are the very things hardening our hearts against unseen grace and faith.
But our verse offers a solution. The light shining in our heart giving knowledge of God’s glory is “in the face of Jesus Christ.” Not only is Christ Jesus living in us, not only is His life now our source, the light in our heart giving us knowledge of God’s glory comes from “the face of Christ.”
We are the living life of our resurrected Jesus. The antidote for law and carnal habit is the essence of who we are! It is in Him we experience, peace, rest and a deep realization of complete wholeness. Love in its fullness is in Christ Jesus and dwelling in our very flesh; emanating from the personal face of Jesus in us, He is being the light of God’s glory in us! In our own inner being is dwelling our sovereign Lord God. We are God’s Temple.
One of the most intimate moments for a person is the face to face eye contact of another, seeing deeply into the soul of another. That is not what is exactly stated here but it is suggestive. Perhaps even inferred by personal experience. We know how deeply we spiritually experience God by His penetrating presence into the depth of our soul. The imaging of Christ’s face with light in our heart emails to us the intimate, deep agape love characterized in the Old Testament by “His steadfast love.” It is the person of Christ in us with His presence providing “His steadfast love” to others which also affirms the message to ourselves. The Old Testament expression of steadfast love is from God to Israel but in the New Testament it conveys love flowing to others and God out from us. This is telling. Using this term speaks to the intimacy and reality of Jesus’ living presence through our inner man who has been created by Himself.
The things we experience in temporal time are patterns and lessons teaching spiritual things not seen but certainly in reality present. They are teaching aids for us to understand grace.
Once born from above, we are tasking a spiritual walk in a temporal life. We are now spiritual in our essence whereas we were temporal and carnal but this is not who we now are!!! Although the physical garb is still in our closet.
God’s grace enables our participation in God’s spiritual eternality. Our faith using grace increases our spiritual capacity. Faith is walking in grace above the temporal boundaries where carnal rules do not exist. We are to apply saving faith to life situations. Joined into Christ through regeneration, we are born from above by God Himself. Our citizenship and inheritance is in heaven.
Let light shine out of darkness!