p. 4 | THE LIGHT OF LIFE

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 26.

THE LIGHT OF LIFE.

MOSES, in his record of creation, speaks of God as saying, "Let there be light," and then adds, "And there was light." Gen. 1:3. Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthians, obviously refers to this record, when he says: "For 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." 2 Cor. 4:6. God, according to Moses, is the Creator of light, and, in the sublime language of the record, he said, "Let there be light." Paul’s God is the same being. He "commanded the light to shine out of darkness." Light, whatever it is, is no more self-existent than oxygen or any other gas. The God who "built all things" created light as really as he created man. The universe of suns is the universe which he made by his own power.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." Ps. 19:1. This God—the God of light, who said, "Let there be light"—is, according to the conception of Paul, the God of the gospel system; and in this system he "hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face [person] of Jesus Christ." The sun is his because he made it and commanded it "to shine out of darkness;" and the gospel is his because he appointed it, and sent Jesus Christ to be the Revealer of himself, and the great Saviour and Teacher of the world. Referring to himself in this character, Jesus said of himself: "I am the

light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12. Of him John says that he "was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John 1:9.

Saul of Tarsus saw this light when God revealed his Son in him and unto him. Then it was that God "shined" into his heart, and gave him the light of his own glory as contained in the mission and work of Jesus Christ; and thereafter he spent his life in diffusing this light among men. It was the light of God’s glorious grace to sinners, and the light of Christ’s glorious work in their behalf, that Paul specially saw, and communicated to others. The God of creation came to him in the person of Christ, and through that person shone into his heart. This God made Christ to him "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Cor. 1:30.

Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, recognizing it as "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Rom. 1:16. "God forbid," says he, "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Gal. 6:14. The supreme passion of his soul was to know and honor the great God who had poured the glories of his own grace into his heart through the Lord Jesus Christ. God in Christ was Paul’s God for the purpose of salvation. The Christology of the apostle is worthy of a life of the most attentive study. His epistles are filled up with it.—Independent.