Part 2 THE GOD OF LIGHT
Back to OUR GOD
Oh, let us in this day of lax views of Inspiration, a day in which everywhere, among professed friends and avowed foes, God's Word is so flagrantly tampered with, its truth so openly and defiantly assailed by Rationalistic and Ritualistic views, cling closer and warmer to His Divine Word; "whereunto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the day star arises in our hearts." Thus, we see enough in God's Word to satisfy us that the evidences of its divinity are many and conclusive- that, it contains a revelation of Himself, His mind and will, found nowhere else; that, it is an unveiling of His love to man seen in no part of His creation; that, it demands our universal holiness and teaches us the lessons of its attainment; and that, it contains a wisdom infinitely transcending the most exalted finite understanding, which will furnish the enlarged and perfectly sanctified mind with material for thought and study, widening, increasing, to all eternity.
But God, in the revelation of His light, has surpassed all His works of creation and wonders of providence, and even of His word, in THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. The Son of God is the great revelation of God's light. In Him God appears not in profile or in dim twilight, but in express image and in full-orbed light, softened, indeed, and toned to our visual organs, for no man can see God and live, seeing that He dwells in light which no man has seen or can see; yet so full, clear, and resplendent as to be "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person." Herein our God is light. Christ is the "Sun of Righteousness," and every truth He revealed, and every promise He spoke, and every invitation He issued, was a radiant beam flowing from God through Christ His Incarnate Son.
How fully does this statement accord with the Old Testament Scriptures of truth. The prophet Isaiah calls the Savior a "Great Light," the "Light of Jehovah," the "Light of the Gentiles." With this perfectly agrees the teaching of the New Testament. John, Christ's forerunner, styles Him the "True Light." It is true, Christ testifies of John that he was a "burning and a shining light"- a lamp, a candle, as the original expresses it, but his light was kindled by Christ, the true Light. Our Lord's own declarations on this point are decisive. He speaks of Himself as the "Light of the world," and as the "Light of life." This He is, as He represents and reveals the Father. God is light, but because He is essential light, no created eye could look upon Him. But God, in the fullness of His benevolence, would so unveil and manifest Himself to the eyes of His own created intelligences, angels and men, as should permit them to gaze upon Him and live.
The mode was in all respects worthy of Himself; it was such a mode as could only find its conception in a Divine mind. And what was the mode thus conceived and adopted? "Let us go even to Bethlehem, and see this thing, which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us." What thing? The most marvelous, unheard of, and glorious the universe ever beheld- the Incarnation of the Son of God, "God manifest in the flesh."
Here is the mode by which God has manifested His light to man. We go to Bethlehem, and we behold in Christ "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person." "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Thus, Christ is the light, or revelation, of God. Hence He said to the inquiring disciple, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." Behold how God has subdued, and softened, and toned down the splendor of His essential person to the gaze of mortal man! True, in gazing upon Christ, we gaze but upon the rays of the Divine Sun; nevertheless, we accept the invitation, "Look unto Me, all you ends of the earth, and be you saved; for I am God, and there is none else;" and in so looking in simple faith, we are saved. We look upon God, revealed to us in the Son of His love, reconciled, pacified towards us, and behold, we live!
We learn from this subject the NECESSITY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT'S ILLUMINATION. If, as we have endeavored to show, we only really see God's light as it is revealed in Christ, it follows as a truth equally conclusive, that we only truly know Christ as He is made known to us by the Spirit. Veiled and subdued as the glory of Christ is, it is yet too pure and resplendent for the visual intellect of man, unillumined by the Spirit. The natural man sees no glory or beauty in Christ. He is as a "root out of the dry ground, having no form nor loveliness." How truly is this confirmed by God's Word! "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Behold, then, the essential importance of praying to the Holy Spirit for His Divine illumination.
If it is the office of Jesus to lead us to the Father, it is equally the office of the Spirit to lead us to Jesus. We only spiritually and savingly know the Father through the Son, and the Son by the Spirit. And thus we learn the existence and necessity of the Trinity in the economy of grace. No system of theology is complete, and no hope of salvation is sure, that excludes this essential doctrine of the Christian faith. If its existence is essential to God's plan of mercy, and its belief is absolutely necessary to salvation, then, if it be ignored and rejected, we ask, By what other means can the rejecter possibly be saved? To illustrate this statement: if, as a drowning man, I thrust from me the plank that would have floated me in safety to the shore– or, if resolved to reach it by some expedient of my own, I persistently refuse to enter the life-boat launched for my rescue, it follows that I must inevitably perish, and most righteous and deserved will be my doom.
There is but one divinely-revealed way of salvation– faith in Jesus. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." Jesus has said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." If, then, I walk not in Christ the Way, believe not in Christ the Truth, and accept not Christ the Life– in other words, if I deny His Person, ignore Atonement, reject His offered salvation- I must inevitably perish in my sins, and every perfection of God will approve and countersign my fearful yet most righteous, condemnation.
Betake yourself, then, in prayer to the Holy Spirit, earnestly imploring Him so to enlighten your understanding, and to convince your heart of sin, and to renew you in the spirit of your mind, that you may henceforth walk in the light of the Lord. Remember God's order: Christ leads you to the Father, and the Holy Spirit leads you to Christ.
Another truth is taught us by this subject. Our Christian discipleship pledges us to BE FAITHFUL AND CLEAR REFLECTORS OF GODS LIGHT. Our blessed Lord recognized this Christian duty when He said, "You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." True believers are light in the Lord. This light is a borrowed, but it is solar light, kindled from no human shrine. It flows from Christ, the Sun of righteousness, beholding whose glory, as in a glass, they are transformed into the same image, as by the Spirit of the Lord; and thus, "in the midst of a wicked and perverse nation, they shine as lights in the world."
This gospel truth was beautifully typified by the Urim and the Thummin worn by Aaron on his breastplate- the literal meaning of which is, light and perfection. Such are all the true Israel of God. Christ, our great High Priest, bears them upon His breastplate within the veil; and thus borne upon His bosom, the blaze of ten million suns pales into darkness before the light and perfection of every believer, flowing from Christ Jesus, their Lord. Allow, then, the word of solemn exhortation. See to it that your religious light is not borrowed from a Church, or from a minister, or from a creed, but is derived directly and only from Christ. Let your knowledge of Christ, your faith in Christ, your love to Christ, your obedience to Christ, be the test and the measure of the light that is in you. God denounces those spurious prophets who borrowed their religion from others." I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me."
Is there not a great danger of stealing, or of borrowing, our religious thoughts, sentiments, and phraseology, from others? And was not this the case with the foolish virgins in the parable, when they exclaimed, "Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone (or, are going) out?" Oh, it is of the utmost importance that our religious light is not a borrowed or false light. See that your religion is your own- the personal, vital experience of your own heart. It is easy– nothing easier, more deceptive or fatal; than to make a religious profession, adopt a religious ceremonial, imitate the experience, and quote the language of others.
A borrowed or a counterfeit religion is of all religions the most ensnaring and dangerous. Do not go to the grave clad in the religious habiliments of others, but robed in Christ's true and joyous garments of salvation, "girded with the golden girdle" of truth, holiness, and love. Bear not to death's gate the empty, Oilless, flameless lamp of a mere religious profession, dark and hopeless as the valley down which you pass; but, see that you have Christ in you, the hope of glory- a living, burning light, shining brighter and brighter through the dark passage, until it ushers you into the meridian splendor of heaven's eternal light.
We learn, too, from this subject, how rapid may be the dawn of spiritual, converting light, in the soul of man. The Bible abounds with illustrations of this fact– the dying malefactor, is perhaps the most touching and conclusive. There is no necessity why conversion should be a process long and tedious. The kingdom of nature, which is but a type of the kingdom of grace, disproves this theory. He who said, "Let there be light," and the darkness of chaos vanished in a moment before His all-commanding voice, has but to speak the word, and the soul shall as quickly pass out of darkness into marvelous light, henceforth to shine a child of the light and of the day forever.
But the full unveiling of God's light awaits us above. HEAVEN is beautifully described as the "inheritance of the saints in light." Of the new Jerusalem it is said, "And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations of the earth will walk in its light, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory to it. Its gates never close at the end of day because there is no night there." Oh, who would not so live as to be an inhabitant of this glorious city, to walk in this light, and to dwell forever where there shall be 'no night' of ignorance, and 'no night' of sorrow, and 'no night' of sin!
Dwell much, my reader, on the sunlight slopes of heaven. There are bright gleams of glory here below, if we but seek and enjoy them. God is light; and God's light shall shine around our path if we seek first His kingdom and righteousness- that is, if we make real religion the first, paramount, and chief object of our desire and aim, the all-molding, all-controlling, all-commanding object of life. Oh, seek to walk in the light of the Lord! In this light let us live. To this light let us bring all our sins and follies, all our perplexities and trials, all our griefs and woes. "Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eye to behold the sun." Why be content to walk in the shade when it is our high privilege, as the children of light, to walk in the sunshine of God's countenance?
Or, should it be the discipline of our Heavenly Father that we for a season travel, as Jesus Himself did, in soul-darkness, nevertheless, faith is still to trust the faithfulness and unchangeable love of God, clinging all the closer to Christ, as the timid child clings in the night-season to the arms that embrace, and to the bosom that enfolds it. "Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God."
Such is our God. All light His beauteous offspring– natural and intellectual, spiritual and eternal light; springing from Him, the "Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Clods of earth though we are- of the earth earthy- and returning to the earth from where we came; the Holy Spirit, by His regenerating power, can make us more radiant and luminous than a thousand suns, each in his own orbit reflecting the image of Christ, and giving glory to God.
Thus, there is no light, as there is no beauty, so transcendent as HOLINESS. Holiness assimilates us more closely to God's nature than any other endowment. We may be intellectual, and discerning, and loving, and not be God-like. Alas! vice of the greatest enormity, and sin of the deepest hue, has been found in the closest alliance with greatest intellectual powers, and with the deepest and strongest sensibilities. But holiness cannot deceive us. He that is holy is like God. His mental powers may be cramped, his range of thought limited, his attainments in literature and science measured; nevertheless, if his heart is regenerate, and the spirit of his mind is renewed, and his life is endowed and adorned with the gifts and the beauty of holiness, then is he one of whom it may be said, "Truly, this is a man of God."
Be your light, then, the light and luster of divine holiness. Welcome all the discipline of your Heavenly Father, as but designed to make you a more burning and a shining light. In the dark furnace of affliction, in the gloomy chamber of sickness and sorrow, the light of your graces– patience, submission, faith, and love; shall shine forth with a purer, richer luster; and so seeing it, the saints will rejoice in your light, and you shall glorify God in the fires.
And when the "candle of the wicked shall be put out," you shall burn stronger and brighter, until death quenches it in this world, but to rekindle in the world to come, where "they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light." Then, "your sun shall no more go down; neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended."
"Walk in the light! so shall you know
That fellowship of love
His Spirit only can bestow,
Who reigns in light above
"Walk in the light! and sin abhorred
Shall never defile again;
The blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Shall cleanse from every stain!
"Walk in the light! and you shall find
Your heart made truly His,
Who dwells in cloudless light enshrined,
In whom no darkness is.
"Walk in the light! and you shall own
Your darkness passed away,
Because that light has on you shone,
In which is perfect day.
"Walk in the light! and even the tomb
No fearful shade shall wear;
Glory shall chase away its gloom,
For Christ has conquered there.
"Walk in the light! and you shall see
A path, though thorny, bright;
For God by grace shall dwell in thee,
And God Himself is Light"
Back to OUR GOD