We all know that God is Eternal Spirit and Light. What does that really mean and what is it telling us? We all know that light is a good thing. We need it to see and to guide us in accomplishing all of the things we want and need to do. God’s light is POWER. Our light on earth is also power – think of lasers. BUT this article is about God’s light, not ours.
The Bible tells us that in eternity there will be NO night. Why is that? Simple – because God is Light and “everything” about God is Light and Life. And with God’s Light in eternity comes everything “good.” No death, no disease, no sadness, pleasure, joy, happiness and anything else you can think of that is “good.” It is God Himself and the Power of His Light that produces “everything” and sees to it that everything is good. There are thousands of near-death experiences, and one of the main things they all have in common is their amazement in seeing God’s Light in everything – the grass, the trees, the buildings – everything.
When Lucifer and one third of God’s angels disobeyed God and sinned using their free will, they lost fellowship with God and were cast out of heaven where all of God’s “goodness” dwells. Since God’s goodness comes from God’s Light, what do you get when you do not have God’s Light? You get darkness which produces “nothing good and everything bad” and is the total “opposite” of God’s Light. It is death – an eternal separation from God type of death vs annihilation.
God’s sentient “beings” created in His image are “spiritual beings” with ETERNAL being another word for spirit – eternal beings. The Bible seems to indicate that spiritual beings can NEVER die an annihilation type of death like atheists would like you to believe. It appears God simply doesn’t allow that. There are only two places ALL spiritual beings dwell – with God in His Light or separated from God in darkness that He HAD to create for first Satan and his demons and then also for human beings who reject Christ.
Think of hell as being a large “box” that God creates that will NOT allow His Light to enter, and thus it is filled with utter darkness and everything in it is BAD – the opposite of everything good with God for one reason – God and all His Light and goodness is NOT there.
Now let’s switch gears and apply God’s Light and darkness to our universe and planet Earth. Our universe has two things in it that do not exist in eternity where God dwells – time and darkness. Why is that? Easy – God is eternal and infinite and does not need time. He is Light and light destroys all darkness.
So what is this “saying” about the universe? It is saying that God does not NEED the universe for Himself and His eternal beings. Then why create it? Because there IS someone who DOES NEED the universe and time – finite human beings whom God created AND whom God KNEW would sin and whose sin would “apply” not only to themselves but also the whole universe. That is how bad sin is to God. And let’s not forget – sin cannot “dwell” where God is, thus He created the universe separate from His eternal dwelling in order to “contain” the sin of mankind until in the future when He will create a new heavens and earth with no sin for all eternity.
God’s number one essence is Relationship with Him being the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Spirit. Relationship brings Him His greatest JOY. The number one essence of relationship is love which is simply putting others first. God LOVES relationships above all things and thus created angels and then human beings in order to have an eternal relationship with Himself and each other. The ONLY way anyone – angels or humans – can even “have” love is through free will or free choice. You cannot love unless you have the ability not to love. God loves the angels and loves us and desires that we love Him back with our free will in order to spend eternity with Him.
Knowing in advance that Adam and Eve would sin and bring sin to the whole human race and also to the universe, He had to find a way to save us since His greatest desire is to love us and spend eternity with us. How did He do this? Through Jesus, of course, but also through TIME created by the universe.
Since every human being is born with a sin nature, we are born lost and separated from God and are actually children of Satan until we come to know God through His Son, Jesus Christ. God had to make sure that we would not be “created lost” inside “eternity” in order to avoid being created eternally lost. By being created inside “time” which is “temporary,” we have “time” to come to know Him through His Son Jesus Christ and to become His children for all eternity. We are NOT eternally lost “inside time.” We are only eternally lost if we enter eternity with sins because we do not have a personal relationship with God through Jesus. We must be born again!
What happens then is what this whole article is about – God’s Light. Through Jesus Christ we are born again and receive God’s Holy Spirit in us. Since God is Light, we receive God’s Light in us. Why is that and what does that mean?
Since all human beings are born with a sin nature, that means there is NO God’s Light in us which means we live our lives in spiritual “darkness” with no God’s Light to guide us. When we are born again, we receive God’s Light in us through the Holy Spirit.
Think of God’s Light in us as God’s flashlight. Without it we live our lives in spiritual darkness, but with God’s Holy Spirit Light, we now have God’s flashlight to guide us and help us to see and know how to walk on our spiritual path to live lives that are pleasing to Him. The only problem is we still have a sinful nature. We now have a new Godly nature through the Holy Spirit Light in us alongside our sinful nature. So how do the two work together?
Think of it this way: Think of our body, soul and spirit as one large dark ROOM with NO God’s light – ZERO. God’s flashlight is a BEAM of light that illuminates a “part” of that dark room. In eternity there is no dark part of “anything” but there still is in the universe, as long as we have our sinful nature which we keep until our bodies die. And then those who are born again enter eternal heaven with God because Jesus paid the price for our sins, and those who do not know Jesus keep their sins and are then separated from God forever.
How does God’s flashlight and darkness in us work together? God’s desire is for us to follow Him, serve Him and be guided by Him in our journey on earth. When we follow His path using His Holy Spirit flashlight, we are walking by His spirit and earning eternal rewards; and when we stray from His flashlight beam, we are walking by the flesh back into the darkness.
We “have” God’s Holy Spirit flashlight only because Jesus paid the price for our sins and is our Lord and Savior; and when we die, the “path” of our Holy Spirit flashlight beam is straight to heaven. For those without God’s flashlight who live in darkness, when they die they do not have God’s flashlight to show the path to heaven; and thus they continue from finite darkness to infinite darkness.
Bottom line: If you are born again, always seek to follow the path of God’s flashlight and walk by His spirit, and rack up lots of eternal rewards which pleases God. Try not to stray from His Light back into the flesh and darkness. If you are not born again, repent of your sins and ask Lord Jesus to come into your life and help you live a life that pleases Him for now and all eternity. He has an incredible Holy Spirit Flashlight He wants to give you. Use it to light up your darkness and follow God’s path. There is a song that was made by Debby Boone back in the 70’s that says it all: YOU Light Up My Life. Just imagine how incredible and wonderful your life is when God lights up your life.
God bless and Maranatha