Shining Example
This will be the last issue for our teaching about light which we began last April. I don’t want to stretch out this teaching about light—and maybe bore you. Please read Romans 13: 12 – 14. Here we read that we who are believers in Jesus are to put on armor of light. You might want to compare and contrast this reference in Romans with Ephesians 6: 10-18. The armor of light means simply to put on—to be “clothed with”—Jesus as we are told to do elsewhere in the Bible. Ephesians 5: 8 and 9 and I Thessalonians 5: 5 teach us that we are God’s “children of light” and should radiate goodness, righteousness, and truth in our daily lives.
Note in Philippians 2: 15 that we are bright lights in the sense that we are guiding stars or beacons shining in a dark world; the terms “guiding stars” and “beacons” are nautical terms in the sense that in the past a ship’s captain would use a guiding star to fix a position and follow a beacon such as a lighthouse beacon shining out from a perilous shore on a dark and stormy night.
When the Bible teaches that we are beacons, it not only refers to light in the sense of spiritual illumination but also in the sense of natural, physical light that is even now resident within our bodies—in our spirits—hidden by the veil of flesh, waiting to burst forth from our new light-bodies we will receive when we are resurrected upon Jesus’ return to earth. Even though veiled by flesh, the light is there nonetheless—flickering, slowly increasing in intensity and in radiated output. Years ago, I heard a scientist state that human blood is really “congealed” light. Whether or not that’s true, it’s an intriguing statement.
We have only the down payment now, but it is a foretaste of that body we will one day have—a body like Adam’s; yet, even more like Jesus’ own glorified body which far surpasses Adam’s light-body just as the brilliance of the noonday sun far surpasses the reflected light of the moon. At this point, please set this aside for a few moments, locate and meditate very carefully upon Proverbs 4: 18 and 19.
In the context of what we are just now studying, Holy Spirit will open your inner, “spiritual eyes” to see some deep and wonderful truths in these references. Isaiah 9: 2 tells us that great light will shine upon those who walk in darkness and the shadow of death. What causes a shadow to disappear? When the source of light is directly above the object casting the shadow. This, I believe, signifies our being directly “above” or “taking dominion and authority” over the fear of death, our last enemy to be destroyed.
Once again because I feel that the Bible itself—without any human intervention or comment—affords the clearest teaching on a particular subject, Please read the following references in their entirety, simply allowing Holy Spirit to teach you what He wants you to learn. These passages are speaking about you and to you: Isaiah 60: 1-3; Ephesians 6: 12 and 13; 2 Peter 1: 19; and 1 John 2: 8 and 11.
Ages Yet to Come Before the Eternal Realms
At this point I’ll just briefly mention the basic biblical teaching concerning the ages to come, because there is much misunderstanding among some of God’s people about the successive, overlapping ages of time. There are “spiritual ages,” so to speak, (sometimes called salvific ages)—ages that transcend time and space. And then there are chronological ages of time. The chronological ages of time continue to roll on—and will continue to do so until the end of those ages . . . when time shall end and cease to be. Many people see this age in which we now live as being the final age of the chronological ages of time—which will eventually be swallowed up into eternity. My own view is that there may be many more ages of chronological time yet before creation is swallowed up by the timeless state of being called Eternity.
Eternity doesn’t go on and on and on forever and forever. No! Eternity is a state of being in which there is no time, and everything is absolutely simultaneous. Please understand I try not to be dogmatic about my view, and I remain open to additional light and understanding. During these successive and overlapping ages, the children of God—arrayed in glorious light-bodies as was Adam before his fall and Jesus as seen in Revelation 1—will be playing active, co-creative roles in restoring, rebuilding, and replenishing the earth and universe before the advent and onset of eternity at the end of the ages of time.
How will this restoration and rebuilding of the universe take place? The simplest explanation I can furnish is to look at the action and effects of light in both the natural and physical realm. And as restoration by the action of light occurs in the natural universe, so restoration will occur in the micro-universe within the minds and spirits and bodies of fallen humankind—by direct reaction to the light of the children of God shining upon them.
The Marvelous Process of Photosynthesis
How does light “create” life in the physical realm? By the simple, yet so very complex, chemical process of photosynthesis to which we previously referred. Throughout the ages of time and then in eternity until the entire universe is restored and reconciled to God, his children, outraying God’s life-giving light from within, will be the indirect sources of life for the entire micro- and macro-universe, for all that is natural, for all that is spiritual.
Of course, we only see dimly the “how” of such matters, but as Adam was to have complete dominion over the earth, so will we have co-dominion over the universe, sharing it all with Jesus. As Jesus is, so we shall be . . . in a sense; yet, he is always the infinite God, while we will always be finite created beings. He is the One by whom and in whom all things are and were created, and the One by whom all things consist; we, as members of His Body, the universal Church, will share in that continual creation and sustenance of the entire universe.
By a process of both physical and spiritual photosynthesis, our glorified light bodies will literally bathe the universe and all created things everywhere in the warm life-giving light of Father God’s loving and tender care for His creation. The process of photosynthesis is not only an action of “creation” but also a process which brings healing and cleansing. Regarding this matter of healing and cleansing, please look up and seriously meditate upon and ponder the following references: Isaiah 58: 10, Daniel 12: 3, and Daniel 5: 11. We shall also be directly involved in the divine government of the universe by being those through whom God delegates his authority and through whom he will govern the universe in righteousness. Justice shall at last prevail in all the affairs of all humanity.
Remember, God’s true justice is to make all wrong things right!
There will be honest and humane laws and “courts” of law, presided over by those who have God’s laws as part of their very own nature. And, yet, there will be judgment upon the sins of humanity until all sin and wrongdoing is at last eradicated from the universe. Regarding this matter of future government and judgment, please turn to your own Bible and ponder the following references; I give them for you to look up without comment on my part because there are some biblical matters that simply cannot be further expanded upon by human comment: Psalm 90: 8, Isaiah 51 :4, Daniel 12: 3, and Hosea 6: 5.
The Glorious City of God
The “seat” of God’s government (whether literal or spiritual, or both) will be that glorious “city” we see in Revelation 21: 23-25 and 22: 5. Note the presence of the light of God in this marvelous city of God. It is a city, yet it is a living organism composed of believers in Jesus from all the ages of time. Consider the effects of photosynthesis by which trees of life will dispense life, health, and healing to the world. There will be no night there, for the entire universe will at last be bathed in the glorious sunlight of God’s love.
I conclude this study of light and darkness by simply stating: Through God’s redeemed children—who will be fully restored into the image of Jesus—a time is coming when the entire universe will have found rest at last and will be bathed and sustained in the reflected light of Father God radiating from his children throughout the infinite, eternal realm.
All creation will be bathed in the life-giving light of Father God flowing out through his children to the infinite vastness of the universe and of eternity. Jesus—THE Light—will be at the precise center of all, but there will be no circumference!
“Let the Light from within you (Jesus) shine brightly so that people around you can clearly see your good works and thus be drawn to Jesus, thereby glorifying Father God in heaven.” –paraphrased from Matthew 5: 16 in the Bible
To Think About This Month
“Some bright Morning the reflected light of God shining forth from his redeemed sons and daughters will bathe the entire universe, transforming all dark matter and dark energy into LIFE-giving Light.”
Bill Boylan
Life Enrichment Services, Inc.
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated December 2020
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