By nature we have no light. Darkness reigns in the understanding. It may be true that there is knowledge of the things of this world but there is no knowledge of God. We are in darkness — and we are darkness itself — until by divine grace we are enlightened. We may have what looks very like the true light, and we may think that we have light while we are still in darkness. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” If left to ourselves we are ready to deceive ourselves. How solemn this is in view of the Saviour’s warning — “If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness.” How necessary it is then to know that it is the true light we have and not a spurious light.
How are we to know if we do indeed have light? It is through the Scriptures that light enters the soul — “The entrance of Thy words gives light.” It is not through the letter of the Word that light comes, but through the Word coming, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Wherever a soul is found that has been divinely enlightened, it is through the word of truth that this has come about. The Psalmist found it so in his own case and so does each individual believer. Consequently each one of them can say from their own experience — “The entrance of Thy words gives light.” For them, the darkness is past and the true light now shines.
What a blessed experience it is for a sinner to be brought to the light. The Apostle to the Gentiles could say: “God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” He spoke of this experience also as a being “brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light.” It is through the Holy Spirit, operating by and with the Word of God on the soul of man that this great change takes place.
It brings about such a change that in a moment of time the understanding is enlightened, the will is renewed, and the affections drawn out after God. The darkness that reigned before gives place to the light that now shines.
What does the new light shining in the soul unfold? It uncovers the evil, sin and depravity of the natural heart. “Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” Nothing can hide from the glare of this light. Everything is seen as it really is. Sin is seen to be sin; righteousness is seen to be righteousness; justice is seen to be justice; and so on. With this light, too, comes a revelation of the glory of God. It unveils the consummate holiness of the God of eternity. It shows God to be a sin-hating God — One who loves righteousness and hates iniquity. If this were all that the light revealed, how hopeless would man’s case be. Sinners would be left facing a holy God whose law they have violated and whose righteous displeasure they have incurred. What more then does this light bring? It brings with it the knowledge of Him who is the Light of the world — the One through whom sinners are reconciled to God. So, too, does it bring with it the knowledge of the way of salvation. What a glorious revelation this is — to be brought to the knowledge of the One through whom sinners may be reconciled to God and that, not in a way that vitiates any of the glorious attributes of deity, but in a way that magnifies those very attributes. Truth meeting with mercy, righteousness and peace kissing each other, truth springing out of the earth and righteousness looking down from heaven, are all seen in the way of salvation through a crucified Saviour. Such light is given on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as to hold the mind of the believer enthralled and make Christ appear as an all-glorious and all-sufficient Saviour.
Have we been brought to the light? Has the light of divine truth yet shone into our sin-darkened understandings? If we are taken up with the glory of God, and if Christ in the Gospel has become precious to us, if we have given a bill of divorcement to our sins, and if we have engaged our hearts in the strength of divine grace to serve the Lord in the beauty of holiness, then we have reason to conclude that the true light now shines. A further evidence that we are in possession of light is to have a desire for more light. To be satisfied with Christ is honourable and God-glorifying, but to be satisfied with the measure of light we have is dishonouring to God. He has promised to give more light, a greater insight into His own glory as the God of eternity and fuller knowledge of Christ as the Way unto the Father. His people therefore are to seek it. How may we have this increased knowledge? Surely it is through the Holy Spirit who is the Enlightener as well as the Regenerator and Illuminator of Men. But how may we obtain the Holy Spirit to this end? The answer is given in the Word of God. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask it.”