Oxford University – Dominus illuminatio mea – The Lord is my light (Psalm 27.1)
Although people refer disparagingly to the Dark Ages, the Medieval universities of Europe were enlightened enough to realise that, since all truth found its source in God, people required divine illumination to understand the world around them. But how much more do we need divine illumination to know God!
God and light are inseparable. He initiated the Light of Creation, for His first command was ‘Let there be light: and there was light’ (Genesis1.3). Before sun, moon and stars were created as light-bearers on the fourth day, God simply spoke light into existence. There was no muscular energy or effort involved, ‘For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood’ (Psalm33.9). The bare word of the God of the Bible is immeasurably powerful.
It is not surprising, then, that His written word acts as light to communicate truth about Himself and expose the sin in our hearts. The Light of Revelation declares who God is. While creation testifies silently to His ‘eternal power and Godhead’ (Romans 1.20), the scriptures tell us that ‘God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all’ (1John 1.5): He is holy, sinless, perfect, righteous and flawless. The same scriptures probe the recesses of our minds, bringing to light our secret thoughts and motives, for God’s word is ‘a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart . . . all things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do’ (Hebrews 4.12-13). Just as light shows up the dirt which remains unseen in the dark, so God’s word brings the penetrating beams of His holiness to bear on human behaviour, showing that it falls short of His standard. The coming into the world of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, brought our sin into the open: ‘Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil’ (John 3.19). Do you shy away from the Bible because its message upsets you?
Yet the same One who showed up our sin by His perfect life is able also to cleanse it. When David called the Lord his light, he went further: ‘The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm27.1) The Light of Salvation is found only in Christ, who is able to save sinners because of His finished work at Calvary. Our sins deserve the eternal death penalty; but ‘Christ died for the ungodly’ (Romans 5.8). To trust Him as Saviour brings you into a living relationship with God, for the Lord Jesus said, ‘I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’ (John8.12).
Come out of the darkness of sin into the light of Christ’s saving love!