Light shining in the dark is favorite motif of Christmas. The great Christmas passage from Isaiah 9 begins with:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. (Isa 9:2)
God wants us to think of light shining in the darkness when we celebrate Christmas!
A light in the dark takes what is normally foreboding and makes it warm and hospitable. A glowing fireplace in a dim living room; advent candles in the evening; Christmas lights twinkling in the dark.
But sometimes a light shining in the dark is more uncomfortable.
On the night of Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Christmas past, a living flame here to, quite literally, shed light on the dark mind of the old miser. But it is anything but warm and hospitable; it is a painful affair.
He wrenches Scrooge by force out of his bed and flies him across time to show him how the many choices of his life have brought him to his current state of greed and hard-heartedness. One scene they visit is when Scrooge is a young man and speaking with a woman he loved. She tells him that he must choose: he can either give his heart to her or to his other mistress: money. The scene fast forwards and we see that same woman, only now she is happily married (to another man) with several children rolling around her feet, hanging on her arms. Her husband walks into the house and scoops the children up, kisses them, laughs…all the while the invisible Scrooge hovers above, forced to watch the life he could have had. It is too much to bear, too painful.
He begs the Spirit to stop, to let him forget. But the flame of the Spirit burns even brighter, impressing the pain of knowledge indelibly into his mind. Desperate, Scrooge wrestles with him, tries to cover the light with a candle snuffer, "but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he could not hide the light: which streamed from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.”
What is Charles Dickens doing here? He is showing us that sometimes bringing something out into the Light is painful. Painful, but necessary. The whole story of A Christmas Carol is a parable of the pain and joy of someone coming into the Light. Scrooge thinks he is a good person, is blind to his flaws, he thinks everyone else is the problem. And he requires this supernatural intervention to bring him into the Light, to see himself for what he really is. And it is only in this bath of unrelenting Light and Truth, so painful to behold, that the old sinner is transformed and, by the end of the story, born again.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
- John 1:1-13
Light, Darkness, Faith…or Receive, Deceive, Believe
Light to Receive
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. - John 1:4
A common theme that John will return to throughout his gospel is the contrast between light and darkness. Jesus will later famously say, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” (John 8:12; cf. 12:35-36, 46).
Jesus has come to drive away darkness and bring the light of life.
Light is a nearly universal positive image. Without light, there is no sight, no warmth, no life. If you read accounts of those who have been deprived of light for any length of time—prisoners in solitary confinement, people trapped in caves or mines, etc.—they all describe the craving for light almost as if it were a physical hunger and thirst. Spend any amount of time in pitch dark, and you are quickly disturbed, disoriented. And when someone finally turns a light on, it is such a relief.
Later, in vs. 9 Jesus is called “the true light,” meaning, “the ultimate light, the light of all lights; whatever you have found to be positive in light, Jesus is the final and fullest expression of all light. He is the light that all men crave—the light of men. John is obviously echoing the creation story of Genesis, where God creates light to shine in the darkness. But notice that here, John is moving beyond light that is created. The Light he speaks of here is bound up in the person of the Son of God—in him was life, the light of men. It isn’t something God made, but it flows from within Him. Many people think this is an allusion to Psalm 39, which tells us:
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.
- Ps 36:7-9
Here we are told about God opening up the storehouses of His own pleasure and satisfaction to us, a veritable buffet of delight offered to us forever with Him. That is what verse 8 offers. But notice the ground, the reason why David can make such a provocative offer. Verse 9 says, For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light. The parallelism in verse 9 shows us that light and life are one and the same. God has bound up in His person an everflowing, unstoppable fountain of light and life that is shed abroad freely to any and all who come to Him!
And this fountain of life and light is not typical, not mildly interesting, not ho-hum, it is intoxicating, it is thrilling, it is a river of delight! It is a wonderfully refreshing experience to drink from a cold stream when thirsty—that is a delight of sorts. What will it be to drink from something that is not a kind of delight, but Delight itself? To plunge your head into the strong river of Divine Pleasure, which all other earthly pleasures—every sexual experience, every good meal, professional success, fit of laughter, every opportunity we have for pleasure here and now—all are but faint echoes of that clear and holy stream.
This is the fountain of the light of life that flows from the Son of God.
And, thanks be to God, this river of light flows into the land of darkness.
“The light shines in the darkness.” - John 1:5a
God sends the Light of the World, the Son of God, to us who are not light. He takes the land of shadow and makes it the kingdom of light. I love that John is willing to cut right to the chase: Do you thirst? Do you feel lost in the dark? Do you crave sight? Then come to the One who is the light and life of men.
I am reminded of the first verse of, Joyful, Joyful:
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day!
John has written his entire gospel to convince you that Jesus is the only one who has the light of life you need, to persuade you to believe in His name. He is Light to Receive! Jesus has not come to save you impersonally. Sometimes you are saved by something that you have no personal interaction with. A general, hundreds of years ago, defeats a tyrant who may have changed the face of the world had he conquered. You may be grateful, but you may also not even know who that general is, or what happened. Yet you still benefit from his victory regardless. Jesus’ victory over sin and death does not work that way. You must make a conscious choice to receive it. A doctor may have discovered a new life-changing procedure that could save your life…but if you refuse treatment, the doctor cannot help you.
In fact, did you notice that John tells us that God sent John the Baptist to be a witness to this light (1:6-8)? That all might believe through him. This Light requires a response from you.
Yet, there appears to be a problem—the Light of the World appears to be widely rejected.
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him,” (John 1:9-11).
John is holding forth Jesus as Light to be received…this Light is for everyone, John claims, and He is here now coming into the world! …yet, the very world that He made does not receive her Creator. And even more scandalous, He came to his own people—the people of Israel, the people who were in a covenant relationship with the Light of the World, the people who had been preparing for millennia for the arrival of the Light of the World—they didn’t receive Him. There was no group of people who should have been more prepared to receive the Son of God, the light of men.
Why?
Darkness to Deceive
Let’s return to John 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” A common writing technique John employs is that of double entendre, or intentional ambiguity. The Greek word for “overcome” here literally means “to grasp, to seize” (katalambano, connected with the word for “receive” used in vs. 11-12, lambano). So you can grasp or seize something physically, and thus overcome it (as the ESV renders it). Or, you can grasp something conceptually, and thus understand it. So, it is true that darkness will never overcome the Light—the Light always wins.
But John is also cleverly showing us that there is another problem—not one of overcoming, but of understanding. The Light, the beautiful, radiant, life-giving Light shines…and the darkness doesn’t comprehend it.
In fact, pay attention to this throughout John as we study it: one of the most frequent themes that John will explore is why people don’t believe in Jesus; what is needed to produce faith, trust, belief? Maybe you think that the primary reason people don’t believe in Jesus is that they need more evidence (If God would do something miraculous, then maybe more people would believe), or maybe they need better arguments (If I was better at explaining or defending the faith, people would believe)…but as we move through the book pay attention to how people respond to Jesus’ miracles and teaching. So often, the more Jesus performs miracles and the more He teaches…the more people walk away in unbelief. Why? Because the darkness that John speaks of is not simply a lack of information or data. The darkness that does not understand the Light is a willful blindness.
If darkness was simple ignorance, a lack of data, then 100% of the people who listened to Jesus or seen His miracles would have believed in Him. But they didn’t. After Jesus rose from the dead and the soldiers guarding the tomb come and tell the chief priests that He rose from the dead, they pay the soldiers money to tell everyone that the disciples just stole the body (Matt 28:11-15). They do not stop and think: Hang on, this guy actually rose from the dead? Maybe we should reconsider our opposition to Him. No, because belief is not primarily an issue of data. Information is required, you must know what you are believing, but information alone is not enough. Our problem is not just that we don’t know enough…its that we don’t want to know the Light.
This is stated most clearly in John 3:19-20 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed,” (John 3:19-20).
The world—all of us apart from the intervention of God—loves darkness. Why? Because the painful truth is that our deeds are evil. The darkness is precious to us because we can hide, can’t see our faults and blemishes and sins in the bright noonday. We are quick to judge and criticize others, but make generous allotments for ourselves. We are like people who believe that the highly edited, posed pictures of ourselves actually represent what we look like. And then someone takes a candid picture of us and we think Whoa! Is that what I really look like?
Have you ever seen those UV lights that can be turned on to reveal what the naked eye cannot see? You think your hands are clean, think the kitchen counter is clean, and then bzzzz the light turns on and you see how filthy everything really is. One aspect of Jesus being Light is that His Light of pure holiness and righteousness falls on you like a floodlight, and it reveals what the darkness hid. The book of Hebrews tells us that, “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account,” (Heb 4:13).
And when the Light comes on, you have two choices: you can run back into the darkness or you can receive the Light. I want to convince you that while receding back into the darkness—pushing God away—may feel comfortable, may feel safe, even; it is lying to you. Darkness deceives. We see this most clearly from another book in the Bible John wrote:
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God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. - 1 John 1:5-8
For so many years I thought that “walking in the Light” meant that we are (somehow) not sinning. God is light, so I assumed that meant that when we are in the Light, we don’t sin. Thus, if we say we have fellowship with him while we continue to sin, we are lying. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally noticed that walking in the Light does not mean that; it means being honest, living with nothing to hide. John certainly doesn’t want us to sin, isn’t endorsing sin (see 1 John 2:1; 3:4-10), but let me show you three reasons why I am convinced of this.
- All of the verses are warning us of “walking in darkness.” But notice in verse 8, the danger is deceit, and the deception is believing “there is nothing wrong with me; I don’t have any sin.” The danger of walking in the darkness here isn’t sinning, it is actually believing that you are free from sin.
- Notice verse 7 tells us that if we walk in the light then we have fellowship with one another. If you are deceived by the darkness, then you will avoid fellowship with other Christians. You won’t let people get too close, get to actually know you, and certainly won’t confess your sins. But if you walk in the light, if you are honest, then you can have real fellowship—people won’t just know your mask you present, they’ll know the real you.
- But, more importantly, notice what the rest of verse 7 says. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light…the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. Walking in the light is not the practice of those who have no sin; walking in the Light is the practice of those who are in need of the forgiveness of sins!
Honesty, walking in the Light, far from being the place where we are punished with humiliation for humiliation’s sake—as if God were a high school bully eager to mock you in front of the whole class—it is the place where cleansing comes.
Jesus, the Light of the world, though He did no wrong, though He never sinned, hung naked and exposed on the cross. Though He never sinned, He experienced the condemnation and shame of sin. Why? Because He died in our place. When you walk into the Light, you will stop blaming other people for your sins, stop trying to make them look prettier than you are; you accept that your sins are sins. But you will also accept that the Light which exposes, is also the Light which took responsibility for all those shameful acts, and then took the shame and guilt away Himself. If you feel ashamed of yourself, if you have looked within yourself and not found Light, but Darkness; have not found triumph, but failure; if you are terrified of what would come to Light and be exposed, then come into the only Light which offers you cleansing, healing, forgiving, covering.
And I am asking you today, if you are not a Christian, to receive that. If you are a Christian, to believe it more fully.
Faith to Believe
To walk in the Light—to be honest with God and with others about what you are really like; your vanity; your ego; your lust; your laziness; your self-righteousness; your anger—all of that is scary, and painful. As Scrooge is conducted by the various Spirits in the story, the Light slowly dawns on him…he is a monster. He sees himself for what he really is. Do you have the guts to see yourself for what you really are?
And like disoriented patients who wake up to see the surgeon only as a masked man approaching with a knife, we too sometimes view God and His church like a threat, not realizing that He is here to save our lives, to heal us. How do we overcome the deception of the darkness that does not understand the Light?
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, - John 1:11-12
So, despite the world and His own people rejecting him, verse 12 tells us that there are some who did receive him, who believed in his name. And if we believe, if we receive the Light, we are given the right to become children of God. Which surprises me, because it tells me that I am not by nature a child of God—I can become a child of God, but only if I believe. So **I want to know: how do I do that?
Belief in english seems to only be used in the religious world, but a helpful alternative would just be the word “trust” or “allegiance.” But when you stop to think about how you trust someone, it is more complicated than it seems. To trust someone you need proof that they are trustworthy, you need evidence. And Jesus is happy to provide scores of evidence. If you are skeptical of the claims of Christianity, then examine it, study it. But remember that the disposition of your heart is what is ultimate. How do you get over the primal, subconscious fear of the Light? How do you overcome our love of darkness?
“…who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” - John 1:13
How does one become a child of God? You must be born again. And this new birth comes not of blood (your family lineage), not of the will of the flesh (what is natural to a human being), and not of the will of man (marriage)…it comes only of God.
This leads us into a bit of a conundrum. To receive Jesus, to believe in His name are activities that we do. And we are told that if we receive Jesus, we are given the new birth—so our act, then God’s act. But then, when describing how we become children of God, John goes out of his way to tell us: your own actions, will that did this, only God did it.
So, how are you born again? Is that something that you decided to do? Or is it something that God did? Let me give you a theological answer, and then let me give you an experiential answer:
Watch the verbs closely as I read 1 John 5:1, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” Here is what John Stott says on this verse, and I agree totally: “The combination of present tense (believes) and perfect tense [has been born] is important. It shows clearly that believing is the consequence, not the cause, of the new birth. Our present, continuing activity of believing is the result, and therefore, the evidence, of our past experience of new birth by which we became and remain God’s children. (The Letters of John, 175)
In experience, however, as God pulls the darkness back and convulses our hearts with the new birth, we experience that in our choices, in our will. You must receive Jesus, you must believe in His name, you must walk in the Light.
But if you do, if you sense that the Lord is drawing you in, then yield to it. Embrace it. And know that if you sense a desire, a drawing to Him, it is because the Lord is giving you the gift of new birth. He is summoning you to life.
