The Light of the Gospel: Part 1
When I was a child, I was afraid of the dark; I was scared of the “boogie man.” I remember not wanting to be the first one to go up the stairs to my bedroom at night. Some of that fear probably stemmed from the scare tactics of my siblings. But even without their teasing, I believe we’re born with a sense of discomfort with darkness.
Depending on which translation of the Scriptures you use, the word darkness appears somewhere between 150 and 200 times throughout the text. And other forms of the word dark occur multiple times as well.
Darkness is a symbol of confusion and chaos. The opening verses of Genesis tell us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on [or covered] the face of the deep.” This darkness describes a planet characterized by waste and emptiness. Darkness, in the Scriptures, often implies the absence of God’s presence. To be separated from God is to be in darkness.
Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:19 that men love darkness rather than light, because of their evil actions. You and I know that the vast majority of crimes are committed under the cover of darkness because it provides concealment and anonymity.
Darkness is the domain of Satan, our adversary. In Colossians 1, Paul writes, “[God] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Notice the contrast here; delivered from the power of darkness into the light of the kingdom of Jesus. I hope and pray you have experienced that deliverance from darkness to light.
As we continue our study in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we come to the opening verses of chapter four. I’ve titled our study, “The Light of the Gospel.” Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul wrote things that will help us better understand various aspects of the Gospel. So, let me read the text, Second Corinthians 4:1 to 6.
This text illuminates several FACTS that help us better understand “The Light of the Gospel.”
The First FACT (to help us better understand the light of the Gospel) is,
It Must Be Proclaimed in Truth
Immediately, you might ask, “can the Gospel be proclaimed in falsehood?” Yes, it can, or there’d be no reason for what follows from Paul’s pen. And we’ll get into that shortly.
But notice the word, therefore, at the beginning of our text. Whenever we see that word, we should look back at the preceding verses for the larger context and connection. In this case, the larger context is chapter three. Some of the themes of chapter three were: God enabling Paul, and all Believers for that matter, to be competent or able ministers of the new covenant; the contrast between the old and new covenants, death, and life; and the power of the new covenant effected in us...
