"And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
- Philippians 3:9
When we open up the Bible and begin reading in Genesis chapter one we find something very intriguing. It starts off saying: "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" (Gen. 1:1-2). Most scholars believe that something must have occurred between verse one and verse two for the earth to fall into the condition of being void or as it is described by definition, a confused and worthless waste. Notice it says: "And darkness was upon the face of the deep..."
According to the Apostle John's writings we discover these words:
"God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). Many have assumed that when God said, "Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3) that this was a reference to him creating the sun. However, if you look carefully down to verses fourteen through eighteen, you will discover that it was on the fourth day that God actually created the sun, the moon, and the stars, and not on the first day.
So what was the light that he spoke into the earth on day one? Clearly, this is a description of himself and all his rightness being put back into the earth after it had been withdrawn by whatever judgment befell it (Jer. 4:23-26). Light, as represented in the scriptures, depicts more than just the sun. Paul told the church of Thessalonica: "Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (1 Thess. 5:7). Over in Second Corinthians he makes this even more clear: "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). Both of these scriptures are speaking of a spiritual light and not a natural light.
Actually, what we can ascertain from Genesis chapter one, verse three is that when God was releasing himself and his rightness back into creation, he was creating an atmosphere where heaven could now work with earth. The very idea of him declaring after each act of creation, "...and God saw that it was good," means that he saw that it was agreeable, harmonious, pleasant, and upright, and therefore, became a righteous environment to work in.
Isn't it interesting that when John describes Jesus coming into the earth, he says, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men; and the light shined in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not [or could not overcome it]" (John 1:4, 5). In other words, the light of God's rightness that had been snatched back out of earth with the sin of Adam, causing everything from the soil of the earth to the soil of man's heart to become subject to darkness was once again enacted by Christ' coming. In other words, when Jesus, who is the light of heaven, came to restore the rightness of God in man, he brought the order of life back into the earth. That is why he called himself the "Light of the World." John went on to say,
"This is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). Literally, he was saying it was Jesus who brought the rightness of God back into the world so that heaven could now work God's righteousness in the earth!
What we have to understand in redemption is that Jesus was made unto us righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), and that through him we now have available the rightness of God to carry out his will in the earth. It is through the righteousness of God that we can create an atmosphere where God can use men to exact his will, and where the life of God can flourish. This is the truest element for the spirit of man to thrive. If we can take what Christ did in us and allow the rightness of God to operate, then we can cause his light to shine in places where darkness has ruled. I like to say it this way:
"Whatever exist in the light will always come out right!" By putting God in everything we do, not only we will never be at a loss, but we will never end up on the losing end at whatever we do for him. *
