Light and Darkness

Who likes the dark?  I don’t know many people who really do. Yes, we may want our bedroom dark when we sleep, but we prefer the light at other times.  When the seasons changed, and we had to spring forward, I found myself walking my dog in the dark for the first two weeks.  Not pleasant.  I prefer the light.  

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines darkness and dark as the partial or total absence of light.  It defines light as something that makes vision possible.  It is also listed as an antonym or opposite of darkness.  Science shows that without light, there are no colors.  Everything is black.

In John 8:12, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”  God sent Jesus into a dark world to restore the light, His Light.  “1In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:1-4).  God knew the darkness was not good in the beginning, so He created light.  John 11:10 tells us, “But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”  So God sent His Son as the True Light into the world to save it from the darkness.

In Habakkuk 1:13, it says that God’s eyes are too pure to even look upon evil.  God cannot look on sin.  But this same God sent His son to become sin, when He knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21).  He sent His only begotten son, whom He loved, to become something He could not look upon, could not bear.  Why?  “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16).  

Yes, God so loves the world, you, me, “The World”, He gave His only son to become sin.  To take on all the sins of the world, past, present, and yet to come.  ALL sin.  God, who could not look upon sin.  So at noon, while Christ was on the cross, the sky turned dark and stayed dark until 3:00.  Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You deserted me?” (Matthew 27:45-46). But Jesus knew God could not look upon all the sin He had taken on.  And Jesus died.

Now, did God forsake Jesus, His beloved son?  No!  God loved His Son.  But God also loved us.  He loved us so much that He sent His light into the world and then allowed that light to be darkened so we can walk in Light, the Light of Life.  And we have the Light of Life because for three hours darkness fell on the world, and Jesus took our sins upon himself and died so we might have life everlasting.