The light of Christ radically changes our lives, without a doubt. But there’s more: it also equips us to help those still in the dark catacombs of rebellion in which we once walked. As the prophet Isaiah says, “I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison house” (Isaiah 42:6–7).

Unless you’re a cat burglar, a cave bat, or a deep-sea creature, you no doubt function far better in the light than in the dark. We were made to live in the light, both in a literal and spiritual sense.

The Bible often presents darkness symbolically as—at its worst—evil and walking in rebellion against God, or—at minimum—as a less-than-ideal spiritual situation. Things have been this way since the opening verses of Scripture, where Genesis 1:2 says, “Now the earth was formless and empty, [and] darkness covered the surface of the watery depths.” This was not how God was going to leave things.

To remedy the situation, God could have said many things. What He did not say was, “Let there be TikTok,” “pickleball,” or “a venti iced chai tea latte with two pumps of brown sugar, one pump of vanilla, and some sweet cold foam cream topped with caramel drizzle.” Instead, He said, “Let there be light” (v.3). The result? “God saw that the light was good” (v.4). Before populating the earth with His image-bearers, God filled the bleak void with His light.

Throughout Scripture, the light versus darkness motif continues to appear.

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