Light Separated from Darkness: A Meditation on Genesis 1, for this Sunday in Epiphany

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void;

and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good:

and God divided the light from the darkness.

 

There may be few texts in Holy Scripture that are as openly ridiculed or discarded by modernity than the first few chapters of Genesis, but there is inescapable truth in the Words God spoke to Moses:  In the beginning, God created… Regardless of the sophistic opinions of academia and heretical theologians, we and our universe did not create ourselves, nor did we “evolve” from nothing to something.  The plain truth revealed to Moses 3500 years ago, and known by every honest or reflective generation since the dawn of mankind, is also an iron clad law of logic designed into the architecture of the rational mind:  nothing comes from nothing, and for there to be something, there must be Someone who preexists and is transcendent of that something.  If we know we exist, we know we didn’t come from nothing, but from Someone who was before and above and beyond us, just as that Someone must be before and above and beyond all the universe of material, energy, and time which we observe.  We exist, because He who is before the beginning and after the end, who is above all creation and the entirety of the cosmos, brought us to be.  We are here today, because He who is beyond Something and Nothing, looked into the Nothing, and by His gracious and creative will brought forth Something when He said, Let there be light.

 

These opening Words given to Moses set the stage for all of human history until our end, and we ignore them at our own peril.  Regardless of the delusions we foist upon our darkened intellect, we are creatures in a created universe, and we are accountable to the Creator who has brought us to be.  The universe He created was created good, and it is only through the rebellion and self-idolatry of sick minds that evil, suffering, and death appear mixed as some kind of corrosive agent in all things around us, infecting our politics, our communities, our families, and even ourselves.  He who spoke the cosmos into existence not only brought Something out of Nothing, but He gave that Something order and purpose, so that all the universe might sing in perfect love and harmony with its Creator.  The lack of harmony we see today is not God’s design, but our most grievous fault—using our freedom not for virtue or truth which are consistent with divine love, but for lies and deception, for pride and murder, for lust and adultery and power.  It is God who separated the Light from the Darkness, who gave dignity and order and purpose to all Creation, and it is we who have worked so hard to mix darkness with light, to corrupt the good and the pure and the holy, to confound the purpose and pervert the dignity of everything we touch.  What God created good, evil minds have befouled, using freedom not as a necessary precursor to love and the highest good of all things, but to rebellion and destruction.

 

And so sat the world, in sin and darkness pining, until He appeared, and our souls felt once again our worth.  In the Advent of Christ Jesus, the Eternal Word of the Father made flesh, once again our Creator separated Light from Darkness, giving the world a new birth from above by Water and His Holy Spirit.  In Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, we were reconciled once again to our Creator, who through His sacrifice for the sins of the world upon His Cross, become our Vicarious Atonement with the Father.  Thus Jesus who is the Light of the World, becomes light and life to everyone who puts their faith and trust in Him, turning from the works of darkness and walking in His Word.  Jesus, our Light and our Life, speaks His Word of Gospel redemption into our chaotic and darkened souls, breathing new life, order, dignity, and purpose into everyone who will follow Him.

 

The season of Epiphany is a time when the church reflects on the Light of God in the world.  It is God alone who has created us; God alone who saves us; and God alone who will judge the world at the close of time.  As the Father spoke the universe into existence through His Son and Holy Spirit in beginning, so He came again in Galilee to give His life as a ransom for many, that we might see His Light and be saved by it from the sin, death, hell, and demonic powers we brought upon ourselves by our dark embrace of wicked rebellion.  So, too, will He come at the end of the ages to judge the living and the dead, and His Kingdom which was established before and beyond and above our universe, will endure forever and ever after our world is long gone.

 

Today the Word of the Lord Jesus comes to you, speaking life and light into your soul, that you may be separated from death and darkness, given new purpose and dignity and eternal life in Him.  Turn your eyes and your heart from the perversity of our age, and hear once again the Creator, Savior, and Sustainer of all things speak ever so lovingly and kindly to you, and Let there be light.  Amen.