GOD IS LIGHT

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5)

Devotion 8 of 22

ALWAYS SEEKING TO DIFFUSE HIMSELF

It is the nature of light to diffuse itself--to radiate into any area allowing for the introduction of light. So it is with God, who IS "Light." He desires to disseminate Himself throughout all His works. Everything He has made bears some resemblance to Himself, declaring some aspect of Him. His nature has, to some degree, permeated everything He has made. This is because He has diffused Himself into His creation.

This situation gives no sanction to Pantheism, that views everything as God. The mirroring of divine qualities does not cause a thing or a person to be an object of worship, or make it divine.

The fullest reflection of God is found in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is the "express image" of God's Person (Heb 1:3), most precisely revealing Him. It is written that "it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell" (Col 1:9). Again, it is written, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9). In Jesus, His only begotten Son, God has most thoroughly diffused Himself. That diffusion is in order to facilitate our salvation.

Apart from Jesus Christ, the most thorough distribution of Divine qualities is found in "the sons of God," created in Christ Jesus "unto good works" (Eph 2:10; 1 John 3:1-3). Through the exceeding great and precious promises of God, they become "partakers of the Divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4). This is why they have been made a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17), "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created" them (Col 3:10). God is filling that capacity with Himself, diffusing Himself in them.

This is another way of saying God desires to make us like Himself. We are being "transformed" by our exposure to the "Light." It is not something that is merely automatic, or is the result of a legal procedure set in motion by an absent God. The Father Himself is imminent in all of His works, particularly that of salvation. This occurs because the Lord desires for it to be so; it is His will!

The process of conformity to the "Image of His Son" is His predetermined purpose; that is what He desires to accomplish (Rom 8:29). This intent may have been obscured by men and their misdirected doctrines, but it has not been forgotten by God. Wherever a soul is found that desires to be "like Him," an individual is found in the heart of God's will. The Father will invest Himself in such individuals, coming with the Son to dwell in them, and making Himself known to them. They will, as they grow up into Christ in all things, be "filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph 3:19).

PRAYER POINT: Father, in Jesus' name, receive my gratitude for being made a partaker of the Divine nature. Grant me grace to live becomingly of such a gracious benefit.

-- Tomorrow: REVEALED IN CREATION --