CHRISTMAS IS MORE THAN FOOD, FUN AND PRESENTS. It’s the promise of life and light fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world.
THE LIGHT HAS COME
When the Bible speaks of light, it generally refers to spiritual understanding, particularly the knowledge of God and the gospel of salvation that came to us in Jesus the Son of God. The opposite of light therefore is darkness, a condition that is marked by the rejection of God.
There is a spiritual darkness across the world and humankind is said to “love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19). Spiritual darkness is evidenced both in the heart’s opposition to the things of God, as well as in deliberate sin and idolatry. Romans 1:21-24 puts it this way:
“For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves…”
The coming of Jesus marks the work of God to lift the veil of spiritual darkness. When God’s light shines upon us, we begin to understand that Jesus, the Son of God, is God’s answer to darkness and sin.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
Indeed it is by God’s grace that salvation has come to us. When we give our lives to Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we experience a new beginning, something that is called a new birth in John’s Gospel. It is a new beginning that is characterised by life (not mere existence, but eternal life) and light (not just clarity but certainty).
In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4,5
Summary of a message by Dr Phillips Koh