Let There Be Light, Part 2

In my previous post, I wrote about how God is often associated with light, and went on to talk about the state of the world and how we can all agree that something is wrong. We left off with two questions that logically follow; these are the questions that people often have differing opinions on: “what is the cause (of our current state)?” and “how do we fix it?”

Answering these questions will be the focus of this post.

“What is the cause?”

The Christian perspective, as revealed in the holy Bible, is that we are all in a fallen state/condition. Ever since the garden of Eden when our ancestors Adam and Eve disobeyed God (you can do some light reading on this here), we inherited the tendency to want to do what is fitting in OUR eyes. I know you have probably heard expressions such as “every man for himself”, “you only live once (YOLO)”, and “the ends justify the means”; these are all statements usually used to justify whatever course of action we deem fit.

The Bible describes this our state/condition as being in spiritual darkness or spiritual death—we are unable and unwilling to do otherwise because we cannot see or even comprehend anything better, and so we are unresponsive to the notion of righteous living.

“The darkness spoken about symbolizes a lot of things, but in all cases it leads to the same result: we grope around, unable and unwilling to find ourselves a way out of the darkness, and we get left hurt, frustrated, miserable and cold in the process.”

This raises a point that the Bible emphasizes: it is not simply a matter of deciding one day to ‘do better’; just as a corpse does not (and cannot) suddenly decide one day, ‘I think I’ll try being alive today’, so also we cannot change our fallen condition by ourselves or by the choice of our will. Not only that, but we don’t even WANT to change our state of darkness, because we enjoy the comfort of living in it. We like our secrets hidden and would rather our less presentable deeds not to be exposed. Jesus Christ said,

‘…men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.’ (John 3:19b-20, NASB)

The darkness spoken about symbolizes a lot of things, but in all cases it leads to the same result: we grope around, unable and unwilling to find ourselves a way out of the darkness, and we get left hurt, frustrated, miserable and cold in the process.

“How do we fix it?”

The story does not end there though, because God—who created the heavens and the earth and us all—decided to intercede for us in our pitiful condition and sent His Son Jesus Christ to save us. A prophecy spoken about Jesus’ coming puts it rightly when it was said,

‘The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.’ (Isaiah 9:2, NASB)

This is a message of hope; like we catch a glimpse of the sun that heralds the dawn of a new day, so we were given the promise of a life of light and an escape from the grips of darkness when we gaze and embrace the “Light of the world”. We do not “fix” ourselves. We cannot “fix” ourselves. We cannot somehow do ‘good deeds’ to earn enough reward points to redeem our souls from their wretched conditions. This isn’t a retail store customer loyalty scheme. All we can do is come humbly to a merciful God by confessing (admitting) our helplessness and putting our trust wholly in Him and the ONLY ONE He sent to save us, Jesus Christ.

“What if I don’t care about (or don’t believe in) God at all?”

It is my hope that this question will be addressed by a future post (at least that is the intention at this point in time as I write this). When the post addressing this has been published, I shall put the link > here < in hopes that it will help you in your search/consideration.

Okay folks! That is the end of the second part to this 3-part post. Be on the lookout for the final part; I’ll probably link it here when it is out. Until then, take care!