God’s Gift of …

Today’s topic: Jesus as a gift of light. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”. (John 8:12) Christmas and light seem to go hand in hand. Scripturally, we also find this connection being made. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2).

Just as there is a great light in our scripture, there is also a deep darkness. In Scripture, darkness can metaphorically convey a few different ideas: a lack of understanding or an ignorance about God rebellion against God death If Jesus is a gift of light given to us at Christmas, then the context of Christmas is darkness. Christ is given to us while we were ignorant, rebellious and under a death-sentence. 

Prior to Christ’s arrival, we were a people walking in darkness. Have you ever tried walking through your darkened house in the dead of the night? If momentarily walking in darkness can be dangerous to one’s health and spiritual well-being, imagine what it would be like to continually walk in darkness. As difficult as walking in darkness would be, living in darkness is a whole different undertaking. Imagine though living in darkness without any sign that light would ever come.

Our text was written during a time of serious difficulty for the people of Israel – a real period of living in darkness. A scriptural theme is that God is a light in the darkness to which His people could gather. By the time of Isaiah, by way of disobedience, darkness seemed to gain a foothold in Israel. Ignorance of God, rebellion against Him and impending death perfectly describes the state of the people of Isaiah’s day. Are we in any different a circumstance ourselves? If that’s the case, the promise of Isaiah 9:2 is just as meaningful to us as it was to the Jews of Isaiah’s day.

What is the promise of our text? In Jesus, we have seen a great light, a light has dawned. How does Christ act as light within the darkness of ignorance, rebellion and death? Christ acts as light, confronting the darkness of ignorance by revealing God to the world. Ignorance is always combated by revelation.   By looking upon Jesus, we see God’s glory and in knowing God, we experience His love for us.

Christ functions as light by confronting our rebellion from God. If Jesus then is a greater light than the law, through Him the revelation of our sin ought to also be greater. Not only does Christ reveal to us God, but so too does He reveal to us our sin and rebellion. If we have seen the light of Christ, we must turn away from the darkness that once enveloped us and walk in new life in the light of Christ.

Not only does Christ break our ignorance and reveal our rebellion, but as light definitively obliterates darkness, Jesus obliterates death. The new life present in the manger some 2,000 years ago was a death knell to the darkness of death; with the arrival of this little life, death’s days were numbered.

Christ is a gift of light to us, but if we cannot experience this ourselves, it’s little more than spoken words. AN EXERCISE Take the little handout you received this morning and write out the words to Isaiah 9:2 on it. Find a dark place and take a few minutes to just “feel the darkness”. Once you’ve done this, light a candle or flip on a light and read over Isaiah 9:2 again. … write out any thoughts that come to you. Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s gift of light in Jesus Christ .

Christ is a gift of light to us, as His arrival in Bethlehem enabled our ignorance to be confronted, our rebellion against God to be revealed and death to be defeated in a decisive way. May we this Christmas be thankful for the gift of freedom from darkness that Christ provides and may we be a people who walk in the light, as He is in the light, having fellowship with one another, knowing that the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.