This morning on Easter Sunday, Garry spoke about ‘The Light In The Grave.’ He talked about how mankind had originally known God as a friend, how Adam would meet with God in the garden of Eden, but with sin came the loss of connection and darkness, spoiling that beautiful relationship. Just as printed photos fade over time, so too as generations passed, mankind’s relationship with God became more distant.
God has always been a God of revelation, however, and His truth is linked to light (Ps 19:8). 1 John 1:5 reminds us that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Paul tells us that God lives in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:15-16) and John’s vision of the resurrected Christ in Rev 1:12-16 is full of the imagery of light (His eyes were like blazing fire; His feet like glowing bronze; His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.) The light in Jesus brings life (John 6:68, John 1:9, Isaiah 9:6). Gloom and darkness are dispelled by the light of God, and as Is 42:7 reminds us, this light would include Gentiles as well as Jews.
With the Incarnation, we see the arrival of the Light, for Jesus is the light of the world. (John 8:12) The enemy does not want us to see the light (John 3:19-20) for light reveals what is. In the darkness, our imaginations can see monsters in the shadows, but light removes the darkness and shows us plainly what is, the reality. In John 1:1-3 we see life and light in Jesus, and He illuminates, reveals truth and dispels the darkness. The enemy wanted to extinguish His life and light and at the cross thought he had succeeded, but as 1 Cor 2:8 reminds us, he and the earthly rulers just did not understand God’s reality. Instead of being the end, the grave became a beginning, a doorway not the end. The grave was illuminated by the light and now ‘the God who died came back to life/ And everything is changed.’ (‘Christ Is Risen’, Phil Wickham)
The disciples who had been huddled in a room, fearful of the Jews and afraid for their own lives, were transformed by the resurrected Saviour. They understood that death did not have the final say or victory, that we are also promised new life in Him. (2 Tim 2:11) The light in the grave now blazes forth and reminds us that our future is safe in Jesus, the Overcomer.
