Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . .The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. . .And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses (“Try harder! Try harder!); grace and truth came through Jesus Chris (The Light). No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.
Well, to say, “Let there be light” is to say, “Let there be Jesus.” And can you see? He’s good.
122
The Light is good
“The light shines in the darkness.” On the cross, Jesus emptied Himself and bore our sin, experienced our shame, suffered our isolation, and descended into our death. See it? “The light shines in the darkness.” The light is good.
Yet we worry that the darkness wins. In this world the good doesn’t seem to win. We think the darkness wins, so we make a “covenant with death.” We trust death, climb into our coffins, and hide from light and life and love. We think death wins, for we only see as far as the edge of the grave.
But death doesn’t win! Death, darkness, lies, and evil always and forever lose. As Jesus dies He cries out, “It is finished!” The earth shakes, the veil rips and tombs are opened. And on the third day, Jesus’ tomb is opened and the Light walks out. And now He tells you in Revelation 21:4-6: Death shall be no more . . . “Behold, I make all things new. . . . It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
In other words, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The Light always wins.
Even when He loses, He wins; especially when He loses, He wins. “Where sin increased grace abounded all the more (Romans 5:20).”
On the cross, Jesus didn’t just descend into one tomb, one grave; on the cross, Jesus descended into Hell. I think He descended into every tomb, every grave. I think that’s every Hell. Like Paul wrote, “He who descended is he who ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things.” Did you get that? All things.
In The Great Divorce, the angel says, Only One has descended into Hell." “And will He ever do so again?” asks the traveler.
“It was not once long ago that He did it. Time does not work that way when once we have left the Earth. All moments that have been or shall be were, or are, present in the moment of His descending. There is no spirit in prison to whom He did not preach.”
Do you realize that the gospel “has been preached to every creature under heaven.”? If Scripture is true, it has. (Col. 1:23) So light doesn’t just shine in some darkness 2,000 years ago on a Friday; light shines in your darkness now. So if you don’t see the light, what’s the problem?
Perhaps you don’t trust that the light is good. So…
Perhaps you won’t agree with God and say, “Let there be light.” Perhaps the eyes of your heart are shut, because
Perhaps you’re too afraid to open them. You think the light will only burn and never heal. You think the darkness wins. But “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.”
123
The Light is eternal.
There is at least one more amazing thing about light. Turn on a light and time how long it takes to get from the bulb to the wall. Did you notice? It’s fast. It was moving at 186,000 miles per second! And no matter how many times you measure it; no matter how fast you’re moving when you measure it, it will still move at 186,000 miles a second relative to you.
Albert Einstein discovered that the speed of light is a constant. Now, that’s totally counter-intuitive, but it means this: If the speed of light is a constant, space and time are
not constant. Time is relative.
So as I move relative to you, time slows down for me and speeds up for you. If I were to travel into space at 130,000 miles per second and then return in ten years, ten years would have passed for me, but twenty years would have passed for you. You’d be ten years older than me.
Theoretically, if I could travel at the speed of light, time for me would stop. It would always be NOW. And all your life would be eternally present to me—past, present, and future—NOW. I’d see your whole life in the eternal NOW.
I can’t travel at the speed of light. But light can and does. In The Elegant
Universe, Brian Greene writes, “Light does not get old. A photon that emerged from the
Big Bang is the same age today as it was then.” A photon is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Light is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
So when He looks at you, He sees all of you: yesterday, today, and forever. And when He forgives you, it’s all of you. He’s never surprised by you.
Light is eternal. God is eternal. Love is eternal. Jesus is eternal. So when He gives you His life, it’s eternal.
God said to Moses, “My name is I AM THAT I AM (Ex. 3:14 KJV).” Jesus said to some Pharisees, “Before Abraham was, I AM (John 8:58).”
And Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (John 6:54).”
When we come to the cross, we come to eternity. The cross is the point where eternity invades all temporality and fills it with life, with meaning and with plot. So when Jesus cries “It is finished,” I think He means all is finished: all time is finished, all creation is finished, all atonement is finished, and all of you is finished—in the End. He is the End. So, when He died on the cross for your sins…
Which sins did He die for?
124
that about your past the deal would be off?
If you hide a sin in the past, you just build a coffin for yourself now. You close your eyes to the light and climb in . . . even though He has forgiven all your sins in the past.
Is it only our sins in the past that He’s forgiven? Such that you have to worry about failing in the future?
If you do worry, you only build a coffin for yourself now and then climb in . . . even though He has already died for the sins you’ll commit tomorrow.
He already knows: If you fail tomorrow, He won’t say, “Oh no!—I forgot that one.”
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” writes Paul. (Romans 8:1) I think He means no condemnation. Remember? You are already “seated in the heavenly places with Christ.” (Eph. 2:6) So when God forgives your sins, He forgives
all your sins. And when the Light descends into darkness, He descends into all your
darkness. He is the end of all darkness and all time.
Grace is Eternal
Grace never comes to an end, because it is the End; Jesus is the End. Time comes to an end. (Rev. 10:6 KJV)
“The Ages” come to an end. (1 Cor. 10:11) Death comes to an end. (Rev. 21:4)
The Wrath of God comes to an end. (Rev. 15:1)
But Grace that is Mercy that is Love never comes to an End. (Lam. 3:22) It burns away evil, and as it does so, it is known as wrath. But when the darkness is gone, there is no evil left to burn. Creatures filled with fire are not burned by the fire. (Daniel 3) God is Fire (Hebrews 12:23) and He will fill all things. (Eph. 1:23, 4:10) And then we’ll see: What we once called wrath was the burning edge of Mercy. God is Mercy.
God is the End. Jesus is the End. “Jesus is the Beginning and the End.” (Rev. 22:13) He is the End and the Beginning of You.
And that means all darkness is Easter just waiting to happen. And all your darkness is Easter just waiting to happen. In every dark corner of your life, Jesus is waiting for you to open your eyes because you have come to believe that the Light is good. Open your eyes and look at Him. Your scars are on His body. Your wounds are on His hands, feet, and side. He has descended into your every sorrow, every wound and born them in endless mercy.
Easter is everywhere just waiting to happen
So Mary went to the tomb on Easter morning. It was the darkest corner of her life. There was no darker place in all the world. It was Jesus’ tomb and her tomb: the death of her hopes and dreams—the death of God. But she went to that place and in that place she
125
saw the Light. She saw Jesus… there.
Remember the story? He was risen . . . but Mary was still in the grave.
He was there . . . but Mary couldn’t see Him. The eyes of her heart were shut in pain, shame, and fear. She thought He was the gardener until He said, “Mary” and opened her eyes. The Light shone in her darkness, and everything changed.
He then showed His wounds to the disciples. They saw that the light is good and said, “Let there be light!” That place of greatest pain, shame, and fear became the place of unspeakable glory: The cross of Christ.
Julian of Norwich writes that Jesus revealed this to her: “Since I have turned the greatest possible harm into good, it is my will that you should know from this that I shall turn all lesser evil into good.”
When the light shines in the darkness, it turns evil into good. “When anything is exposed by the light, it becomes… light (Eph. 5:13-14).” Light turns our pain, shame, and fear into the revelation of God’s mercy. He turns sin into grace. He turns grief into Gospel. He turns darkness into light. Light reveals meaning, and Jesus is the meaning of all things.
If you thought you had no Father, shine the light. You’ll see God is your Father.
If you thought you had no husband, shine the light. You’ll see Jesus is your husband.
If you thought you were alone, shine the light. You’ll see His Spirit is in you.
If you thought you were forsaken, shine the light. You’ll see He will never forsake you. If you thought you were nobody, shine the light.
You’ll see you are God’s Body. If you thought darkness wins, shine the light.
You’ll see the Light works all things for good. If you thought you were darkness, shine the light.
You’ll see that you are “light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8).” He changes the meaning of your past,
so you’re no longer stuck in shame. He changes the meaning of your future,
so you’re no longer imprisoned in fear.
For some reason, along with my wife, God has given me the incredible privilege of praying for some severely abused friends. Time and time again in prayer, through visions, he takes them back to lies, placed within them through abuse in the past. Each time, the key to there healing is to open their eyes and see Him, The Light, in that place of darkness, fear and pain. Each time He’s there, in the coffin, in the box, in the closet, in the basement, in the abyss. And each time the battle is with shame. Each time the battle is for faith to open the eyes and see the light of Glory and Mercy. Each time the Spirit must grant that faith. But when that happens, even though the events remain the same, they entirely change. Good Friday becomes Easter. That Hell no longer means they’re
126
unloved, that Hell becomes a demonstration of Love, for Jesus bears it with them and for them, because he so relentlessly loves them. In fact it’s no longer their Hell, it becomes Jesus’ Hell and they taste His sufferings—sufferings which He bears for all humanity. They know Him as none other.
But through knowing Him NOW, He changes the meaning of the past…or better
reveals the meaning of the past.
NOW, He opens their eyes to the past and He is the meaning of the past. NOW He opens their eyes to the future and He is the future.
Free from the past, no longer terrified of the future, they’re free to live NOW.
Life is NOW.
Light is Eternal, which means that for Light, it is always NOW. Light is “I AM.” NOW is where Light is; where eternity is. The present is the moment that eternity touches time and gives it meaning. NOW is where I know God.
God is light, and God is person. I can know about a person in the past, and I can imagine a person in the future, but I can only know a person NOW in the present.
Knowing Him NOW, He may reveal his light in all my time: past, present and future, but I know Him NOW. He is NOW. “Behold now is the favorable time, now is the day of Salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2) Jesus prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) When I know Jesus now, I have eternal life now.
The Spirit’s hovering over my darkness; the Light has already descended into my darkness. To know Him now, I only have to speak to Him now; see Him now, with the eyes of my heart. He died so that no matter where I am, I can talk to Him, be with Him, now… even in the darkest darkness.
Talk to Him NOW.
Years ago at a conference in Canada I told God that I was leaving the ministry. I’d had it. He didn’t talk to me and He didn’t care about me… I thought. But that day He spoke to me. I heard Him. It was during a little prayer time at the end of a lecture, holding hands with a huge Pentecostal Native American man and a little old Roman Catholic lady (The Church). As soon as we started to pray I heard the words, the only time I’ve ever heard words in my head. He said, “Peter, you don’t love my bride very much do you?” In an instant, I realized that I had gone into the ministry because I hated The Church.
When I was a young man, I watched my Father tried on “the floor of the Presbytery,” the governing body in his denomination. My Father was a Pastor. I loved him dearly. He was more like Jesus, at least in my mind, than any man I’ve ever known. They slandered him and removed him and I think I secretly vowed to vindicate him and never let it happen to me. On the floor in a hotel ballroom in Canada, my Father in Heaven, revealed to me my heart--the abyss in my heart. I’d gone into the ministry to “show ‘em,” “get even with ‘em,” and protect me.
I was ministering out of my own coffin.
“Peter you don’t love my bride very much, do you?” And yet there was no condemnation. It was the deepest compassion. He felt “sorry” for me. He “hurt” for me. I
127
closed the eyes in my head and opened the eyes of my heart. I lay on the floor and wept and wept and wept… and it was profoundly sweet. The Light was Good.
That evening, my Roman Catholic friend prayed for me again. To make a long story short, I found myself literally pinned to the floor. I couldn’t get up, and it felt like a million volts of electricity coursed through my body. I said to this little old Roman Catholic lady who was praying for me, “Jesus just called me a dork!” (This time I didn’t ‘hear the words,’ but I knew what He was saying.) “A dork” …She said, “Oh, He wouldn’t call you that!” But I believe He did. He was speaking my language. He was saying, “Stop being a dork and doubting my love for you.”
For in that moment, the veil was ripped; light was everywhere. I thanked Him for everything, for I saw that He was everywhere in my life working and had been everywhere in my life working—everywhere working: wherever I thought of Him, sought Him, desired Him it was Him. And even in, perhaps especially in, my darkness He was there… working. He was in my coffin… with me, Emmanuel, all along. He called me using my bad motives, for perhaps bad motives were the only motives available at the time. Yet my bad motives formed a space for His good motive: Grace. My coffin was a womb; my coffin of sorrow only prepared me for a resurrection of Joy. In fact, I experienced so much Joy in those moments pinned to the floor, I actually thought, I might die. The light was so brilliant I remember thinking, “I may die. If He reveals more, I will die.” And yet my heart said “Let there be Light!” For I knew it would be the death of death; death consumed by life. I knew: The Light is Good.
Well He didn’t kill me… and yet He did, and still is. The very thing that happened