Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/68

Contributor - Rev. Henry J. Boekhoven

Title - "Holes in the Night"

Topic -

"ONCE YE WERE DARKNESS .... NOW YE ARE LIGHT IN THE LORD."

The opposed themes of light and darkness are frequently used in the New Testament to denote the divine Kingdom as against all that is contrary to it. The basic principle of this opposition is stated most succinctly in I John I, 5 where it says, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

Our thoughts are going back to the Genesis story when there was darkness upon the face of the deep, but God said, "Let there be light", and there was light. Here God gave of Himself to creation and divided the light from the darkness. The calling forth of light is used as a picture of the expulsion of moral darkness by the inflowing of heavenly light. God's eternal Word is the very embodiment of the heavenly light, and the Christ shines in His incarnation as "the Light of the World" and "the Light which lighteth every man" (St. John VIII, 12 and I, 9). Yes, "The Light of the World is Jesus!"

Once you were darkness. St. Paul wrote to the Church at Ephesus not that they were in darkness, but that they were darkness. Once, he said, they were possessed by an inner darkness of the soul.

Spurgeon, the great preacher of yesteryear, wrote that darkness has a terrible power of causing fear which has a mysterious influence of creating dread. It is not what we see that we dread so much, but that which we do not see. When darkness, Spurgeon continues, lowers down upon the believer's mind it is a great trial to his heart.

But that is all over now! The Son of Righteousness is Risen with healing in His wings. The people which sat in darkness - and were darkness -, saw a great light. The Christians of Ephesus through faith-union with Christ have become light in Him. "Children of Light" is a scriptural expression denoting those whose lives are characterized by divine light. They receive the illumination of the glory of God. They are irradiated and reflect divine rays of heavenly sunshine.

You are Light, You are not merely enlightened, but partakers of the source of light, and so giving light unto others. Scripture places emphasis upon the ethical burden of light. In a quaint mixing of metaphors the Word of God says that the fruit of light is goodness, righteousness and truth. "Living for Jesus a life that is true" is requested. And the God of Light who is in secret sees in secret looking upon us as we practice our goodness, righteousness and truth.

No observer of human life can fail to note how desperate for most men and women is the fear of exposure. Falling short of goodness, righteousness and truth, we wear masks to hide our real selves. Exposure brings danger and shame: the criminal fears betrayal and the adulterer fears the retaliation of jealousy. All men nurture a sanctuary of the soul which is ashamed to reveal all. Hence the wearing of disguises. Worldling and sinner are darkness.

But the Christian by contrast is one who exposes himself to the light. The light brings judgement and reveals ugly things. Judgement, however, is the very thing which a Christian has learned to accept as the gateway into new life in Christ. Repentance is then a joyous acceptance of the searching light of God's holiness. God's light searches the depths of our hearts like the beams of anti-aircraft guns search the skies for enemy planes. Masks can and must be thrown away.

As children of light walk then in the Lord. Walking indicates a proceeding step by step, conducting oneself in a particular manner, pursuing a particular course of life. It does not mean a non-involvement in the things of light, neither does it suggest that we are non-productive in the realm of the fruits of light. It means that we who are light walk in God's light and show to fellow man our participation of light. We indeed walk in the light of Him Who said, I am the Light of the world. As disciples of the new way of light we walk in the following of Him Who said, I am the Way. A little boy at bed time was fascinated when he saw the lamp lighter light the gas lanterns down in the street. Mother called him away from the bedroom window, but the boy said, Mother, look, there is a man putting holes in the night. The Christian task today is to put holes in darkness of our present day world.

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