John wrote to first-century Christians: “This is the message we have heard from him [Christ] and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5, bracketed item added). As our brother Guy N. Woods observed, the Bible associates light with God in a number of ways: God is the Creator of light: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17, emp. added). He spoke light into being and designated its function (Genesis 1:3, 5, 14-19). Furthermore, God dwells perpetually in light; He is “King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 1:15-16, emp. added). Light represents God’s glory, as we also see repeatedly in the Bible (Psalms 104:2, Habakkuk 3:4, Daniel 2:22, and Ezekiel 1). Jesus, as God with us, is the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5).
In the Bible, light symbolizes a variety of magnificent realities:
Light symbolizes holiness and righteousness. One is either in the light, i.e., living rightly, or is in the darkness. Job lamented, “There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths” (24:13). Faithful Christians are those who walk “in the light” (1 John 1:7; cf. John 3:20; Romans 13:12).
Light symbolizes the joy of God’s blessings. David said that God “dawns” on His people “like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning” (2 Samuel 23:4). When the Israelites were rescued from wicked Haman, they had “light and gladness and joy and honor” (Esther 8:16).
Light symbolizes truth and our understanding of it. The Psalmist writes, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (Psalms 119:130; cf. 119:105). God’s law enlightens the eyes (Psalms 19:8). God’s word is like “a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19).
Light symbolizes the presence of God in heaven, where there is no need for the sun or any artificial light, because “night will be no more,” and the Lord is the light (Revelation 22:5; cf. Zechariah 14:6-7). Heaven has “the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel” (Revelation 21:11).
If we are Christians, we have become “qualified … to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). This occurs because “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:13-14).
Let us praise God for giving us the light!