Truthworks

And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. (Gensis 1:3)

These are the first words we have on record of God speaking, and there is far more here than we may initially realize. And writing about such things is, in the words of Eugene Peterson, “like trying to paint a picture of a bird in flight.” Our attempts to define and explain that which is full of constant motion are blurred at best. But I will give it my finest effort.

Consider: on Day One of Creation, God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. But He did not create the sun, moon, and stars until Day Four. Therefore, the phrase, “Let there be light”, does not mean sunshine. What, then, does it mean?

The only way we can know for certain is to let the Bible itself tell us. And we do that by paying attention to how the Bible uses certain words, like “in the beginning” and “light.”

We fastforward to the New Testament and find that John the Beloved writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1). He then tells us that ”The Word became flesh” (vs.14). From this we know that when God speaks — what He says happens. Genesis itself bears that out — “God said it, and it was so.” (The phrase occurs at least 8x in Genesis One).

In another place John writes, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1John 1:5). And a few pages later he then says, “God is love”(ch.4:8, and 16).

Ahhh, so God is Light; and God is Love. It is right here that John puts the literal and the metaphorical side by side. God is Love — that’s literal. God is Light — that’s metaphorical. And both mean the same thing.

Thus, on Day One when God in the beginning said, “Let there be light!” – He was saying, “Let there be a revelation of My love!”

And there was.

This means that everything that has happened from Day One forward — even unto the present — has as its singular purpose the revealing of God’s love to us one way or another. We will look at this in greater detail tomorrow.