“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 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. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:1-5). In this classic start to our Bible, God created light. Darkness was there, but there is no record of God referring to the darkness as “good.” However, He saw this light that He created, which was good. He used it to make something new; He called the light “Day.” God is faithful and the creator of new beginnings!
After the fall in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6-7), God chose a man to start a new thing. “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:17-18) This new people were to rise and be “a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6) They adopted the mantra of Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Unfortunately, these people would allow others to influence them and corrupt them with their gods made of inanimate material. When chastened by the Lord, they would return to a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). They need a savior, and God had a plan from the foundation of the world.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)
In John chapter one, we read (verses 1-3), “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” The Word was God, just as in Genesis chapter one when “God said, Let there be light: and there was light,” the spoken Word of God accomplished His will, and He “made all things.”
Verse 4, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (In who? God. He is the one who made everything during creation week) Life itself is referred to as “the light of men.” In verse 5, “And the light [of men] shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Since this “light” was not comprehended, we needed someone to help us understand. Isaiah 40:3-5 prophesied of the forerunner, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” This prophesy is fulfilled in John “the baptizer,” “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (John 1:6-9) John confirmed that Jesus was the one who would take away the sins of the world.
Verses 10-14, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The Word, which is God, was made flesh; born by God’s will, prophesy, and plan.
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) The Word, God in the flesh, the true Light, and the one Lord of Deuteronomy 6:4 came to offer the blessing and the light that Israel set aside. When we follow Jesus, He provides the “light of life.” What is this light? In Matthew 5:14-17, Jesus declares, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
God, who is “the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” “dwelt among us” in the flesh, revealing His name as Jesus, and declared that He is “the light of the world” to fulfill the will of God that Israel could not accomplish in being “a light to the Gentiles” (or a blessing to the nations). This mystery is made known to us so that we can be the “light of the world,” and through our “good works,” humanity will “glorify your Father, which is in heaven.” “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” Absolute darkness is merely the absence of light. No matter how dark things seem, we have “one Lord” who loved you enough to provide light and gift His followers “the light of life.”