30 Oct 2022

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).

The above verses bring ‘new light’ in my appreciation and understanding of our Lord Jesus bringing light into the world, dismissing and defeating the darkness, and helping us to see things as they really are, from God’s point of view and increasingly, from the Christian’s point of view.
This becomes clearer as I studied the book of Ecclesiastes and realised that even for one known as the wisest man of his times, everything seemed meaningless and ‘dark’, without adequate explanation and understanding of his observations and experiences of life in all its various areas and forms.

Perhaps, we are now living in the ‘worst of times’ and certainly, many would acknowledge that we are truly living in very dark times. We need not elaborate, but if we look at the pandemics, the war and conflicts, the climate changes, economic crises, the cruelties and evil of men, we cannot disagree with this conclusion.

We need hope – not a naive and shallow optimism, but a robust confidence that there is something good – there is someone good who will triumph over despair and hopelessness. It is a real hope grounded in something and someone trustworthy – a hope that keeps us going and growing, even in the darkest of times. God’s good news is Jesus – He is the life and the light that dispels the darkness and gives real hope!

It is the kind of hope that kept the people of Jerusalem going during their time of exile. Their God was beyond the reach of human tyranny and oppression and one day things would change. This is the hope that keeps many of us going as well – the thought that something beyond this world of suffering and pain which we will one day enter and embrace – a world in which God has made everything anew and there is no more sorrow, pain or death.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else” (C.S. Lewis). For Lewis, the ‘big picture’ that lies at the heart of the Christian faith allows us to discern the patterns of meaning and value that is behind and beneath our observations; Christian discipleship is about grasping this picture and living meaningfully within its frame. It is very far different from the conclusion of the preacher in Ecclesiastes that echoed ‘all is meaningless’; it is also a ‘big picture’ that throws light in every nook and corner of darkness in this world.

Christianity gives us a new set of spectacles through which we see the world, allowing us to discern its deeper logic. The world is illuminated by the light of the gospel and interpreted by the believing mind.

The true Church of God is called to see the world in its true light, by adopting a Christian ‘mental map’ that enables the world to be illuminated and brought into focus, so it may be seen as it really is.The church serves the world by giving the world the means to see itself truthfully; the church also looks ahead to a better, transformed future, shaped by the Christian hope. The Church has a role to play as a sign, instrument and foretaste of the kingdom of God, pointing towards the renewal of humanity’s hopes and the transformation of its situation through grace. The Church both anticipates the coming of the new heaven and new earth in its proclamation and worship, and seeks to embody and exhibit its values as a witness in the present.

The notion of divine revelation is about the disclosure of a view of reality that we did not invent and lies beyond the capacity of human reason to grasp fully. Revelation is not about the violation of human reason, but a demonstration of its limits and a disclosure of what lies beyond its limits. It is about the illumination of the landscape of our world, so that we can see things more clearly, to see things as they really are. Our eyes need to be opened so that what we once deemed to be an incoherence is recognised as arising out of our inability to see fully and properly. This ought to be our stance and posture as we query many areas in life we could not fully understand and not turn away in indifference and despair.

Christian discipleship is not about mastering God, but being mastered by God.

“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, One who loves me, and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters.” (J.I. Packer in ‘Knowing God’)

Indeed, Jesus Christ is the life who brings light into the world – by it, we can see clearly – see clearly this world, not just how things work but what they mean, and see clearly ourselves before the great and almighty God.

‘It is evident that man never arrives at true self-knowledge before he has looked into the face of God and then come away and look at himself. For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just and upright, wise and holy until we are convinced, by the clear proof of our injustice and deviousness, stupidity and impurity. However, we are never convinced of this if we simply look to ourselves and not to the Lord as well, since He is the only yardstick from which this conviction can come….

To take this further: if, at midday, we look down at the ground on any object which is lying around, we think our eyesight is strong and accurate. But when we look up at the sun and gaze at it with no protection, the vision which was fine for the earth is so dazzled and confused by the brilliant sunlight that we have to admit that clear sight for earthly things is very dim when applied to heavenly. It is exactly the same when it comes to assessing our spiritual qualities. So long as we do not look further than those around us, we are quite satisfied with our own righteousness, wisdom and virtue; we assess ourselves in very flattering terms as being well on the way to perfection! However, as soon as we lift our thoughts to God and reflect on His nature and how absolutely perfect He is in righteousness, wisdom and virtue, we realise that this is the standard we must conform…In just this way, even the qualities in us which seem most admirable are worlds away from God’s purity and can never match it…Men are never really convinced of their own insignificance until they contrast themselves with God’s majesty. (John Calvin in ‘The Institutes of Chrisian Religion’)

This is the perspective we need to take as we evaluate the lives of other believers, in the church, and elsewhere. Let us never forget that in the eyes of God, our good works are like ‘filthy rags’ and our lives are tainted with darkness that only the light of the Lord can reveal when they are hidden from the eyes of men. Do we see things as they really are? Do we see ourselves as we really are before the holy and transcendent God? Do we continue to remain in the darkness and refuse to come to the light?