Introduction:
So far in our series on the Nicene Creed, we have looked at what theologians sometime refer to "the First Article", namely the confession of the Father as "One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, of things visible and invisible."
We then began serval posts back looking at the "second article" of the Creed, the Person of the Son. The deity of the Son is affirmed in the following lines:
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God,
Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made".1
I've bolded the phrase "light of light" in the excerpt above, since it is what we want to cover in today's post. It is the middle phrase in the Nicene Creed's treatment of the deity of the Son. What we want to do to observe key Biblical passages that utilize this metaphor of "light" to explain what is meant by the Son being "light of light". We will look at four main headings to guide us through the Biblical witness.
1. The Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.
2. The Son being "light of light" refers to He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.
3. The Son being "light of light" means He could perform redemptive acts as God.
4. The Son being "light of light" means the Father and the Son illuminating the New Heavens and Earth with unending, uncreated light as One God.
Biblical passages that reveal God being light.
We begin with examples in the New Testament from each of the major Biblical authors in the New Testament letters. I begin here because it is this part of Scripture where the fullest revelation of the Trinity is given. I want to work back toward the Old Testament, since the New Testament authors draw so much of what they write from the Hebrew Scriptures. We will then loop back to statements made by Jesus Himself pertaining to He being the light of deity.
1. The Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.
We begin with the Apostle John in 1 John 1:5 "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." This usage of the term "God" refers to the totality of the Godhead, the Divine nature that is found equally in all three persons of the Trinity. James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote of the Father in James 1:17 "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."
Thus we are reminded that when we first talk of God as He is in His Divine essence, we cannot go far without also mentioning the Trinity, beginning with the Father. The relational source of and conveyance of the Divine nature of unapproachable light issues forth from the Father, to the Son, and then in turn the Father and Son to the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.
2. The Son being "light of light" refers to He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.
The New Testament authors squarely declare God is light, and the First Person of the Trinity, the Father, is in His Person the totality of that Divine light that characterizes what it means to be God. The Son too, being declared by the Nicene Creed as "light of light" also possess the fullness of this light of deity. Note Paul's words in 1 Timothy 6:15-16 "that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen."
This remarkable text affirms that the Son is too the light of deity by nature in the same way as the Father. Hebrews 1:3 attests further: "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Other New Testament texts that assert what the Creed is attempting to summarize the Son to be as "Light of Light" in other words conveying the same idea: Colossians 1:16: 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 1:16-17; Revelation 21:3l; and Revelation 22:5.
How the Old Testament develops the understanding of the Divine nature through the imagery of light
What then does the Old Testament have to reveal about God being light? Psalm 104:2 gives this striking statement about Yahweh, Jehovah, with reference to the totality of deity that is the being of God: "Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain." As we trace the revelation of God as light, we already get the sense of movement within the Divine essence of God. Habakkuk 3:4 "His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, and there is the hiding of His power."
If we couple Habakkuk 3:4 to Hebrews 1:3, we see the Father radiating the light of Deity, and the Son being that very radiance. In the experience of the Old Testament Jewish nation, God revealed Himself as a "pillar of fire" by night and a cloud by day (Exodus 13:21; Exodus 14:20; Nehemiah 9:12). When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, light and fire was the expression He gave as the uncreated one sustaining the bush by not consuming it (Exodus 3:1-14). Thus, the Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity, as well as
referring to how He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.
3. The Son being "light of light" means He could perform redemptive acts as God.
God as light includes His revelation as the Redeemer (Psalm 27:1; Job 29:3; Proverbs 4:18). It is this same God whose light of deity will illuminate the New Heavens and New Earth to light the way for the resurrected saints (Isaiah 2:5; 60:1-2; 60:19). The final revealed book of the Old Testament in our English Bibles, Malachi, predicts what would be the forthcoming Messiah, which Malachi ascribes as "the Sun of righteousness" (Malachi 4:2). Although the Old Testament's revelation is not as sharp, we can still resolve the conceptual imagery of God as a whole, along with Yahweh of Israel or God the Father, along with a Divine Personage having that same light, whom the New Testament reveals of course as the Son, Jesus Christ. One more point about Jesus being the "light of light" as expressed in the Nicene Creed.
4. The Son being "light of light" means the Father and the Son illuminating the New Heavens and Earth with unending, uncreated light as One God.
Light then is associated with what it means to be God. As we return back to the Gospels, we find Jesus referring to Himself as that same light we've already explored (John 8:12; John 9:1-2). Jesus in His preincarnate state was revealed already as "The Light" who reveals the Divine glory of God to all in general revelation (John 1:9). The Apostle Peter notes how salvation involves Christ calling us out of darkness and into "His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
Jesus Christ the Son is "Light of Light", equal yet distinct from the Father of heavenly lights. As He shared with the Father uncreated light in eternity and in His pre-incarnate state, the same will still hold true in eternity future for Him as the incarnate Son of God. In church history, the late third century theologian Origen writes a striking set of comments on Jesus Christ being the very light and effulgence of Deity in his work "On First Principles", Book I, Chapter 1:
"For what other light of God can be named, in which any one sees light, save an influence of God, by which a man, being enlightened, either thoroughly sees the truth of all things, or comes to know God Himself, who is called the truth? Such is the meaning of the expression, In Your light we shall see light; i.e., in Your word and wisdom which is Your Son, in Himself we shall see You the Father."2
The Apostle John writes in Revelation 21:23 how the Son of God will shine as "light of light" for all the redeemed to see:
"And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb."
Key points about God being light from the Scriptures
As we have surveyed the Biblical record regarding God as light, we have explored the following takeaways about the Son of God being called "light of light" in the Nicene Creed.
1. The Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.
2. The Son being "light of light" refers to He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.
3. The Son being "light of light" means He could perform redemptive acts as God.
4. The Son being "light of light" means the Father and the Son illuminating the New Heavens and Earth with unending, uncreated light as One God.
Before we conclude this post, we cannot forget the Person of the Holy Spirit. Scripture attests to how He as well is "Light". We know for instance when He came on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, He lighted upon those present as flames of fire. By the Scriptures which He inspired, the Holy Spirit enlightens our eyes (Psalm 19:8); our minds (1 Corinthians 2:10-13); while shining the light that shows us the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:19).
Endnotes:
1. There two key terms in this part of the Creed that I underlined. The first as to do with the Son being "begotten" of the Father. We've spent a great deal of time in previous posts detailing the meaning of the term "begotten". The second underlined term that we will get to in later posts is "being of one substance", a translation of the Greek noun "homoousios", which was a term wrestled over in the events leading up to the Council of Constantinople in 381. The former term deals with the equality and distinctiveness of identity the Son has with the Father in the Trinity. The latter phrase "being of one substance" handles how the Son is an equal sharer, equal participate in the Divine essence with the Father, with both Divine Persons distinguished as Begetter and Begotten.
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