Sunday Morning Bible Story
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the
light shined in darkness and the darkness comprehended
it not. John 1:4-5
Genesis chapter one is the first mention in the Bible of
darkness. "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."
So, in the natural order of things, there was darkness, a
true phyiscal darkness which covered all the waters over
all the earth. Yet -- when light appeared, the darkness
vanished.
But in the verses in the gospel of John, there was darkness,
and when the Son of God appeared, as light, the light did
not dispel the darkness. Why not?
The Genesis darkness was physical. The John darkness was
spiritual. The darkness here was from man, the light was
from God, yet the darkness did not respond to or receive
the light. Why not?
Spiritual darkness is darker than physical darkness. The
gospel of John darkness is a spiritual darkness. It is that
spiritual darkness which keeps people from seeing the hand
of God, the work of God, the Son of God, and the Light of
God.
The light that shined in darkness is Jesus, who said, "I am
the light of the world. he who follows me shall not walk
in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
Question is, what happened between Genesis 1 and John 1
which made it impossible for man to receive the light of
God? When the Son of man came to earth in the form of
a man, why was he not received with open eyes and open
hearts?
The answer is found back in the Garden of Eden. Adam
and Eve were created in the image of God, and they were
created with a free will to either obey God or disobey him.
They both used their free will to disobey the command of
God. When they chose to disobey, and ate of the tree of
the knowlege of good and evil, they lost their ability to
choose good. They lost their ability to choose between
light and darkness.
As the physical and spiritual representative of all men
after him, when Adam sinned, everyone born after him
was born in sin, in spiritual darkness.
The free will of man, to either choose God, or to not
choose God, was lost when Adam sinned.
So when Jesus came to earth, as was promised by God
in the Old Testament, the light shined in darkness and
the darkness comprended it not.
There is only one way for man to overcome the spiritual
darkness and to comprehend the light of God. It is all of
God. It is God who must open the eyes of the spititually
blind, so a man can receive spiritual truth.
It is God who works a work of grace in the heart, to give
life from above. When God gives that grace and life from
above, only then can man believe in the true God.
It was John the Baptist who said, "A man can receive
nothing unless it is given him from heaven."
The same from the Apostle Paul, "And you hath he made
alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins."
Apart from the divine grace of God, working in the
heart of man, we would never receive his light. The light
would shine and because of spiritual darkness it would
never be seen.
It is only through the sovereign grace of the sovereign
God that man can respond to the light of the world.
Faith in God then, is a gift of God, and life in Christ
through faith in him is as Paul says, "For by grace
you are saved through faith, and that is not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest
any man should boast."
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