SERIES
Advent: Into His Marvelous Light
2016-12-04T08:00:00-06:00
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.esv.org
In Isaiah 45:7, God says, “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.” In this passage and in many other passages of the Bible, God reveals that He is sovereign over both the brightness of what is good and pleasing, and over the darkness of what is evil and difficult. This does not mean that God is somehow morally responsible for evil, or that He delights in it. Rather, it means that nothing in all creation happens apart from His holy will. While experiences of darkness and calamity may feel chaotic and destructive, God’s sovereignty means they are actually purposeful and redemptive.
Some Christians feel that the reality of God’s sovereignty should somehow reduce or eliminate our grief when we experience seasons of darkness or calamity. But that is not a biblical notion, and is actually contrary to how God calls us to respond personally and emotionally. The video above, which Rev. Davis mentioned in the sermon, clarifies this in a very helpful way in the context of the loss of a loved one.
God’s Word gives perspective on darkness in all kinds of ways, including the relationship between darkness and the Incarnation. The Gospel of John begins with a beautiful and powerful announcement about who Jesus is, and what His birth accomplished. Using the metaphor of light and darkness, John says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4-5).” While God has allowed darkness into this world and into our lives, He has also allowed His Son to come and defeat this darkness. And in God’s profound wisdom and beauty, the Son’s defeat of darkness came by experiencing the curse of darkness on the cross. As a result, we can rejoice in the beautiful promise we heard sung on Sunday, “There is no night that can steal the promises His coming brings to us.”