GOD IS LIGHT
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5
The big tree in my neighbour’s yard has gone, cut down a few months ago. Now the sun shines in my eyes in the early morning, a blinding light I can’t escape unless I draw the curtain.
I can’t help thinking of descriptions of God in Scripture, so bright a light that He outshines the sun. “God is light,” wrote John, “and there is no darkness in Him.” He cannot cast a shadow because there is no light brighter than He. His light is all-consuming; none can stand alone in His presence.
A great hymn, written by Thomas Binney (1798 – 1874}, encapsulates this awesome truth, that no human can gaze on God’s glory and not be consumed… but God has made a way for us to see Him and not die.
Eternal Light! Eternal Light!
How pure the soul must be
When placed within Thy searching sight
It shrinks not, but with calm delight
Can live and look on Thee.
The spirits that surround Thy throne
May bear the burning bliss,
But that is surely theirs alone
Fot they have never, never known
A fallen world like this.
O how can I, whose native sphere
Is dark, whose mind is dim,
Before th’ Ineffable appear
And on my naked spirit bear
The uncreated beam?
There is a way for man to rise
To that sublime abode,
An off’ring and a sacrifice,
A Holy Spirit’s energies,
An Advocate with God.
These, these prepare us for the sight
Of Holiness above;
The sons of ignorance and night
May live in the Eternal Light
Through the Eternal Love.
What a reason to praise and adore Him, the three-in-one God!