IMAGO DEI: September 15, 2016
www.imagodeicommunity.ca
The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:5
The coming of Jesus has certainly confused our experience of spirituality. Our relationship to divinity, ever since, has become much more subtle. Gone are the well-defined walls that separated what is godly from what is merely human. Gone is the clear-cut distinction between the sacred and the common. And gone is the obvious logic of heaven and earth as two separate geographies. Instead, we have divinity mingled with humanity, and sanctity somehow shining through the darkness of our sins.
The OT was painstaking in the ways it delineated the gulf between what is divine and what is human. The tabernacle itself was an elaborate object lesson demonstrating, in the most graphic terms, the distance that separates purity from sin. Its main purpose was to communicate the fact that God is holy—and that we are not. The fact that such clear boundaries exist was a given in the OT. But Jesus has changed all that. He who is both human and divine has confused the lines of demarcation that made sense of our lot.
When we knew ourselves uniquely as sinners it was easy to grasp the distance between ourselves and God. But now we’re not so sure. Jesus has blurred the boundaries. He has torn the curtain that not only kept us from God, but also kept God from us. Separating the weeds from the wheat isn’t as easy as it was before. Even in our own hearts, it is difficult to discern what is human and what is of the Spirit. For, in the person of Christ, the two have mysteriously become one.
The light shines in darkness. God somehow co-exists with even the most profane aspects of our humanity. He dwells in the midst of our basest instincts. He skirts on the edges of our sins, dances in and around our iniquities. Nothing impedes His grace. Though sin persists in us, divinity is undeterred. Though our depravity is evident, Jesus continues to shepherd us towards a sanctity that somehow already dwells within.
The darkness has not understood this. His glorious Truth beckons from deep in our hearts, a righteousness that we feel called to become. Though we live much of our lives out of sync with this Truth, Christ’s love is relentlessly conforming and aligning us to its movements. Though our inner lives flicker in and out of darkness, His presence continually lights our way.
Such is the mystery of the Incarnation. We cannot understand how or why this Light persists, but we nevertheless grow in our faith and experience that even our sins cannot thwart its purpose. Praise be to God for His steadfast ways! In spite of our confusing darkness, the Light of His unconditional grace is somehow making perfect sense of our lives.
Rob Des Cotes
Imago Dei Christian Communities
(written for Jan. 2nd, 2014)
FOR DISCUSSION:
- How do you relate to the experience of darkness and light co-existing within you? What examples do you see of this in your life at present?
- What is required of you, and of your understanding of God, in order to live in the paradox that though you are a sinner you are also a saint, and that though you are a saint, you are also a sinner?
- Jesus said that His sheep would “go in and out” of pasture (Jn. 10:13). How might this relate to your experience of living in and out of sync with the Spirit’s movement within you?
FOR PRAYER: Meditate on the fact that Christ’s light shines even in the darkest recesses of your soul. Thank God that there is nothing in you that will deter or thwart His purpose for that Light.