Let There Be Light

(2 Corinthians 4:6)

Among Christians there has been an argument running for many years concerning how God created the world and everything in it. One of the interesting parts of the argument is centered around what God meant when He said on the first day of the creation, “Let there be light.”

There are those who believe creation occurred in a literal period of seven 24 hour days, while others believe it happened over thousands of years. Still others believe the creation period has not yet ended and of course science talks about the earth existing for several billion years.

Now, I don't intend to weigh into this argument here, but I will lay my cards on the table and say I believe that the creation is still underway. It has not yet been finished because man is not yet in the image of God, which is the final state of man to be achieved on the sixth day of creation according to Genesis chapter 1. If man were truly in the image of God, we would be perfect like Him. But you only need to read any newspaper or watch the evening news to see the depth of sin that exists in man to know that this is not so.

Which brings me back to what God was speaking about when He said, “Let there be light.” This scripture in 2 Corinthians 4:6 gives us some insight into what He was talking about.

Let There Be Light

In the beginning, the very first act of God's creation was where He created and defined light. Here is what He said:

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. – (Genesis 1:3-5)

The very first part of the creation was to create light and to separate it from darkness, and He named the light Day and the darkness He called Night.

Seems simple enough doesn't it? But when we read deeper it begins to get a little more complex. You see, we determine day and night by the revolution of the earth on it's axis and which part of the earth is facing the sun. The issue with this in relation to the creation, as defined in Genesis chapter 1, is that God did not create the sun, moon and stars until the FOURTH day of the creation, so there was no sun, moon or stars to separate day from night. They simply did not yet exist.

So when we look back to the first day of the creation, we begin to wonder what this light and darkness that God called Day and Night could actually have been.

Good and Evil

We get the first clue from the actual words of Genesis 1:4 where we see that after creating the light, God “…saw that the light was good.” God did not call the darkness good, but specifically mentioned that the light was good.

So what was God actually doing here? What I believe He did on the very first day of creation was to draw a line in the sand and to separate good from evil. When He spoke of the light or the Day, He was talking about all things that are good in His sight. And conversely when He spoke of the darkness and the Night, He was talking about all things that were evil.

Right from the very beginning of creation then, we see that good and evil existed, but they could not coexist together, and so God separated them. They are like what we know of as day and night or light and dark.

Darkness exists only where there is the absence of light. As soon as light appears, the darkness is swallowed up by the light.

This view of mine is further strengthened when we look at how Jesus spoke of people and the spiritual realm. Jesus called those who followed Him and worshipped God, sons of light and children of the light. And those who did not follow Christ but chose to remain ignorant of Him and the ways that lead to salvation, were often referred to as children of darkness.

Consider these few verses as examples of light and darkness equating to good and evil.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – (John 8:12)

In this verse Jesus shows clearly that the “light” is found by following Him, and when a person comes to Christ and follows His teachings, that person will be walking out of darkness and into the light of life.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! – (Matthew 6:22-23)

This is an important scripture concerning light and darkness being good and evil. Jesus is teaching us that it is important what you are looking at and seeking. If you seek out the things of darkness, that is, the evil things of this world, then you will fill yourself with the darkness of ignorance and evil. What we absorb through our eyes by reading and observing will fill us up, either with the good things of God when we seek out His righteousness, or we will be filled with evil when we seek out the things of this world.

35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” – (John 12:35-36)

Finally here we see that Jesus teaches us that He is the light and that we must keep walking forward, seeking the light. We cannot remain stationary, thinking we have reached the place of perfection. And this is because the darkness is on the move too.

The darkness of evil is always plotting and planning and seeking a way to trip us up and pull us down into the darkness of evil and sinfulness. It is always there lurking just under the surface trying to condemn us as sinners, even when we know that Jesus Christ has set us free from sin to bring us into His glorious light.

That is why we continue to walk in Christ. We dare not stop because if we do, we will fall prey to the works of darkness. Instead we continue to walk so that we can't grow stronger in our faith in Jesus Christ and so that we can come to the fulness of maturity in Him and receive the promise of salvation given to the children of the light.

Light and Dark

And this brings us back to the earlier discussion and the verse under review today.

When God said, “Let there be light,” on the first day of the creation, He was talking about the light of all that is good and the darkness of all that is evil, and He was separating them from each other. Today's scripture is a direct reference back to Genesis 1 where God said, “Let there be light,” and proving that God was speaking about good versus evil representing them as light versus darkness.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. – (2 Corinthians 4:6)

When Paul wrote these words, he was referring back to Genesis chapter 1 and the very first day of the Creation.

This light that was shining out of darkness is the knowledge of the glory of God, which we see in the face of Jesus Christ who truly bears the image and the stamp of God's holy, righteous and perfect nature.

It is in Christ that we seek to find the fulness of the nature of God and to be transformed into the light by the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so that we too can be perfected in the image of God.

We seek these same things today as we walk with Christ. Our call to God is the same as His words in the very beginning, for we too ask Him saying, “Let there be light” and let it be the light of the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shining in our hearts so that we can be like Him.

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John

Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.