Darkness and Light : The Quest: Day 45.0

If you haven’t read the last handful of studies, you might want to before preceding here. They cover the same verses we are covering today, and are all preliminary to today’s study, which will be over darkness and light, Lord willing. If you have read any of my previous studies you know, we might not make it through both! Previous studies over these same verses can be found as follows: Race and Racism, Chosen Generation, Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation, Peculiar People, & Show forth! Today, we should (Lord willing!) complete 1 Peter 2:9, as we look into the meaning of darkness and light. Wouldn’t that be something!

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:9-10

Proclaiming His excellencies

I am going to assume that you have read the previous studies. Or, at the very least, I am going to operate on the assumption that you are familiar enough with 1 Peter 2:9, that you have grasped the central point. What is the central point? That Christians are a people chosen by God (Ephesians 1:3-6) and set apart (John 15:19). They are in the world, and yet no longer of the world (John 17:15-18, Romans 12:1-2). This enables them, individually and collectively, to proclaim His excellencies in their every word and deed.

Beyond defining darkness and light

It is important to note that we are not simply defining darkness and light today. We are, as I hope we always are, focusing on God. Becoming part of a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar people allows us, or enables us (that you may, in Peter’s words) to show forth praise to God. Likewise, Peter gives us both another reason and another defining characteristic of God. It is a further why.

Why further why?

Why further why? (That may be the strangest little sentence I have written!) I write, further why, because there is reason enough to show forth praise to God in his choosing to count us among His chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar people! So, here is our further why, which is yet another reason to proclaim God’s excellencies. He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (see: Called). This is also another defining characteristic of God. He is the one who calls His elect from darkness to light. Praise be to God!

Going Greek – defining darkness and light

What does Peter mean by darkness and light? I thought about just winging this conceptually, but I decided to go Greek and really get down to brass tax. Let’s ask, What words did Peter use? And, Where else were these terms used in similar fashion? Here is the word for darkness in Greek: σκότος. Got that? Me neither. It is pronounced, “skotos”, and has nothing to do with the US Supreme Court. (That’s a joke…you get it? Never mind.) Here is Peter’s word for light: φῶς, or “phós.” (This makes me hungry for Vietnamese food. Simultaneously, it makes me want to shout – hurling all the items on my desk across the room to shatter against the far wall!) (Yes, that was another joke. But, I digress.)

These two words, skotos and phós, darkness and light, are the same words used by Jesus when he was quoting Isaiah.

¹⁵ “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
    the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people dwelling in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
    on them a light has dawned.”

Matthew 4:15-16

Darkness and light, the world and the kingdom of God

Interestingly, even the word for shadow, skia, is very similar to the word for darkness. I have said it before, and will repeat it here: I am not a scholar. Still, the words skotos and skia might very well have the same root. Here we have Jesus quoting Isaiah. He says that the people of Israel have been dwelling in darkness and in the shadow of death. But, he says, they have seen a great light. That light has dawned on them. What happens next? From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) So, darkness is the world outside of the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God. The light is the kingdom of God, which can, and has, only come through Christ.

Darkness and light beyond John 3:16

Where else can we find darkness and light, skotos and phós, used together? The next example, I think will surprise some people. Most of us have no doubt memorized John 3:16. If you are unfamiliar with John 3:16, I will copy it below. If you are unfamiliar with John 3:16, but are here with me, up to the elbows in exegesis of 1 Peter 2:9-10, then you are truly a peculiar person. Welcome!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

But, how many of us, I wonder, have committed to memory the rest of this passage of scripture? Here it is in its full form, darkness and light included.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 3:16-21

Darkness and light. The light is the kingdom of God, come to earth through the incarnation of Christ. The darkness is the world without. Peter says that we show forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness – out of the world, out of the shadow of death. Where did He call us? He calls us into His marvelous light – the glorious kingdom of God. This is a grace which illustrates His excellence. Christians, as chosen people of the light, can proclaim God’s excellencies to a world lost in darkness – not only in words, but in our every action.

Paul used the same words for darkness and light when he related to King Agrippa the story of his conversion.

¹⁴ And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ ¹⁵ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, ¹⁷ delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you ¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Acts 26:14-18

Darkness and light, the power of Satan and the power of God

Previously, we defined darkness and light as the world and the kingdom of God. As Paul quotes Jesus above, we see that darkness and light get more granular definitions. Before we were only dealing with the concept of a kingdom – those within God’s, and everyone else. And, what is a kingdom to the modern mind? It is some old folks got up in fancy dress waving at crowds from balconies or motorcades. We yawn and think it hardly worth our notice. Paul’s passage above augments the definitions of darkness and light by adding the concept of power. Power is something the modern mind can really “feel.” Paul, quoting Jesus, tells us darkness and light represent those under the power of Satan and those under the power of God.

Therefore, we can say that Peter tells us God is the one who has called us out from under the power of Satan, and into the marvelous kingdom ruled by the sovereign power of God.

Darkness and light, unbeing and Creation

Let’s read another passage which uses both skotos and phós for darkness and light.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ⁷ Therefore do not become partners with them; ⁸ for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰ and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. ¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:6-14

Darkness and light, death and life

I am going to eventually get to Ephesians, Lord willing! So, I don’t want to go all-in here on the exegesis. But, my goodness what a set of verses! Briefly, let’s cover Paul’s representation of darkness and light in this passage. At the surface, Paul is comparing darkness and light to death and life. The sleeper is called to rise from the dead. What happens when he does? Christ, the light – the true life – will shine upon him. That is a beautiful contrast between light and darkness. But there is so much more here!

for anything that becomes visible is light

Here we see darkness as not only death, but a sort of unreality. It cannot be seen. Darkness is the same substance as sin. It is not of God’s Creation. Darkness is unbeing – a sort of nothingness brought into reality through covetous rebellion. Darkness merits God’s wrath. It’s works are antithetical to life in Christ, and are done in secret. It’s works are unfruitful, i.e., they create nothing, they only tear down. But, mark this: when they are exposed deeds of darkness become a part of life, for anything that becomes visible is light.

Darkness and light, unreality and everlasting fruit

What can this mean? Does it mean that sinful deeds of darkness become normalized in God’s kingdom, in the life we have in Christ, in the light? No. Let’s look at verses 13 & 14 again. ¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. I believe it means when we shed the light of Christ on sin – unfruitful deeds of darkness which warrant the wrath of God – it becomes a Creational tool in the hands of the author of our salvation. It means that, until they are exposed to the light of Christ, these dark deeds are in a sense not even real.

Darkness and light, nothingness and eternal substance

I am not saying deeds of darkness have no consequence – clearly they have plenty, and all of it destructive to both the individual and the people around him. What I am saying is they have no eternal substance. Whereas, the works of light are Creational. (Remember 1 Corinthians 3:12-15.) Deeds of darkness are anti-Creation, and therefore produce no real, lasting, solid, eternal fruit. If you are damned, you are not more or less damned based on your damnable accomplishments. I believe Paul is drawing out for us a picture of real repentance and sanctification. When we expose our darkness to the light of Christ, the deeds of darkness become useful elements of our sanctification.

Romans 6:1-4

(I am not advocating here for dark deeds done dirt cheap that grace might abound (Romans 6:1-4). What I am saying is Christ uses the deeds of darkness exposed by his light to remind us of God’s grace. In our lives among believers and non-believers God uses past sins as testimonial milestones. We use these milestones to trace our journey from darkness to light. When we were unbelievers these deeds added up to nothingness. As we step into the light of Christ and become part of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God’s own peculiar people, these former sins become emblems of God’s mercy, and magnify the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.)

Sanctification, turning darkness into light

I don’t want to limit the following passage to this concept alone. But, I do think this idea, of darkness becoming visible, and thereby becoming part of the light, is contained within the thrust of Paul’s words to the Romans. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Whew!

Wow, this went much longer than I planned. But, at least we didn’t only cover darkness today, leaving light for tomorrow! I think I have done my best (given time restraints!) to delve into the implications of darkness and light, and to illustrate the meaning behind Peter’s words. Hopefully it was not too convoluted! I pray you received this well, and that my words were not misunderstood.

The efficacy of the voice of God

Let’s close with a quote from the Reverend John Lillie on these verses from Peter. I love Reverend Lillie’s use of the word efficacy. I think, at the end of the day, the efficacy of the light of Christ, the light of the kingdom of God, the light of life, the light of the voice of God, as Reverend Lillie says, should be our meditation for the day.

For what purpose are all these lofty titles and privileges concentrated on believers ? the answer is, Not merely, nor mainly, for their personal gratification or their corporate glory, but, in the words of our Apostle, ‘that ye should show forth the praises’—or, taking the more literal marginal rendering, that ye may publish the virtues, or excellencies*—‘ of Him who called you’—by the preaching of the word, and by the effectual working of His Spirit— out of darkness’—the darkness of ignorance and sin and death, the darkness of Satan’s kingdom—‘ into His marvellous light’—the light of life, of truth, of hope, of holiness, of joy—the light of grace and of glory—the light of God—/His light. Truly, this is what Isaiah called it, when he foresaw its dawning—‘a great light’ in a dark world; what Peter, looking on its risen splendors, here calls it wondrous amazing, light; wondrous in its source, in its constitution, in its efficacy. As it was in the beginning, so is it now in the new creation: it shines out of darkness as the voice of God.

Reverend John Lillie, Lectures on the First and Second Epistles of Peter, 123, Charles Scribner & Co., 1869