Living Stream Ministry

II. FOR THE SHINING IN DARKNESS

Christ is unveiled as the great light for the shining in darkness. He shines upon the people walking in darkness (Isa. 9:2a; John 1:5; Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9b; Col. 1:13), shining upon those dwelling in the shadow of death (Isa. 9:2b; Luke 1:78-79).

Christ as the great light firstly shines. Our salvation was a shining of Christ as the great light upon us. When He shined upon us, we were saved. His shining is our salvation, and His shining is His saving of us. By His shining, darkness is gone. When darkness is gone, everything negative is gone. Before I was saved as a teenager, my mother had a difficult time dealing with me, but when I was nineteen years old, Christ shined upon me. My love for the things of the world was gone. My mother wondered what had happened to me. Even though many outward negative things were dealt with, many inward negative things still remained within me. This is why we need more shining. The inner shining is Christ’s saving.

The people in darkness either walk or sit. They walk in the darkness (Isa. 9:2), and they sit in the land of the shadow of death (Matt. 4:16). When a person is in darkness, he is limited to walking a little bit and sitting. Before we were saved, we were walking and sitting in darkness. Then Christ as the great light shined in the darkness and brought us into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).

We need to realize the tremendous importance of the shining of light. If the sun did not shine for one day, the entire earth would suffer. If it did not shine for three weeks, many things on the earth would die. Every day the living things of the earth live under the shining of the sun. In Luke 1:78-79, Zachariah referred to Isaiah’s word when he spoke of Christ as the rising sun from on high visiting us to appear to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. We Christians were the ones who were walking in darkness and sitting in the shadow of death. Then we received the Lord’s shining, and that shining saved us.

(Life-Study of Isaiah, Chapter 37, by Witness Lee)