God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THE GREAT I AM

THE LORD IS MY LIGHT

Psalm 27:1 states boldly ‘The LORD [Jehovah/Yahweh] is my Light’, and John wrote ‘God is light’ [1John 1:5]. Jesus Christ states equally boldly ‘I am the light of the world’ [John 8:12].

From these brief texts we discover again a truth that permeates the Bible: that Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is none other than the LORD – the I AM, the eternally existing, all sufficient One.

As the Light of the World Jesus Christ is our salvation:

He reveals the true truth about the one true God.
He exposes our sinfulness, godlessness and lostness.
And he provides for us in himself the only way of salvation.

It is as ‘light’ that he came into the world as the long-expected anointed Messiah/Redeemer:

‘I will make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth’ [Isaiah 49:6].

‘Arise, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. …
… the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory’ [Isaiah 60:1,19].

‘… the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned’ [Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:16].

In his coming into the world God is revealed, in his coming the glory of God is made known:

‘And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it’ [Isaiah 40:5].

‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only … full of grace and truth’ [John 1:14].

‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ’ [2Corinthians 4:6].

‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of his being …’ [Hebrews 1:3].

‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’ [John 14:9].

Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, is God’s answer to our spiritual ignorance, darkness and despair. To believe in him is to be transferred from darkness to light [Colossians 1:13]. To follow him is to never again walk in darkness but to have the light of life [John 8:12] To know him is to finally know the one true God and to be delivered forever from all the false concepts of ‘god’ that we in our rebellion have created [1John 5:20,21].

But to reject him, to deny that he is the eternal God in human flesh, is to remain in the darkness, to remain in ignorance of the one true God, to remain under condemnation:

‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil’ [John 3:19].

To accept him is to rejoice in God [Romans 5:11]. In Jesus Christ, his Son, God has sent forth his light and his truth to lead us back to himself. Through him and because of him our separation from God and our guilt and fear before God is annulled. Through him and because of him we now rediscover that God really is, for us humans, our joy and our delight [Psalm 43.3-4].

© Rosemary Bardsley 2013