As Edwards writes:
When the light of the world came into the world, he came to spread his redemptive light across the face of a world darkened by sin and Satan. As the physical sun is the only source of daylight—spreading it’s beams across the face of the earth—so Christ is the only source of light to the world.
At the cross, it was as if the Sun had set under the severe wrath of God that was upon him. In his resurrection from the dead, the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in his wings. It in only through faith in the crucified, risen, ascended and reigning Sun of Righteousness that we have light and life.
New Testament AnalogiesÂ
Having already briefly considered the Apostle John’s use of the light/darkness symbolism in the fourth Gospel, it will help us to look at a few other examples in the New Testament. Perhaps the most well known is that of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:6, where we read, “It is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Eric Alexander captures the essence of Paul’s use of the “creation light” analogy in the explanation of God’s work of regeneration so well when he writes:
The New Testament ransacks the universe for comparisons that will be adequate to describe what has happened to us when we became God’s children. And the only two possible comparisons are the creation of the universe at the beginning and the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. So Paul says the same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts (2 Cor 4). And the same God who raised the Lord Jesus from the grave and broke its bondage over him has raised us in Jesus into newness of life.
New creation can only be compared with the supernatural greatness and power of God in the original creation. In this way, we can understand that Genesis 1:3 was preparing us for the saving work of Christ. Creation serves the redemptive purposes of God. This concept is not simply a literary analogy—it is a theological construct that is part of the consummated plan and purpose of God.
In the last book of the Bible, we find an intriguing parallel/contrast to what is taught about the creation light in the first book of the Bible. Like bookends to a glorious story we are told that in the New Heavens and the New Earth, “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (in Revelation 21:23). The light of Genesis 1:3 proleptically points to the end of the story when God himself will be the light in the world to come. This is partly what is intimated when the Apostle John says, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
In the New Heavens and New Earth, we will be shrouded in the glory and splendor of his holy light. All of his works will be seen and rejoiced in as they are seen by the effulgent beauty and glory of Christ.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.Â
