The Sun radiates, it’s in its nature to do so. It is not something it does deliberately, but the sun, in being the sun, radiates light and heat throughout the earth. You can see and feel its effects on everything. Anyone who spends any time outside knows that the sun is a factor to be reckoned with. We wear sunglasses, sunscreen, special clothing, make use of shade, and alter our activities all to avoid the radiant power of the sun. If we do not, we will be changed. Maybe we will get a tan, maybe heatstroke, maybe skin cancer, or maybe our eyes will simply have a hard time adjusting to low light for a few minutes; but there will be an effect, that is certain. You simply cannot spend time out in the sun without protection and not feel its effects. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar, pure and simple.
God is Light. God is not similar to light, or comparable to light, God is light. It is in his nature to radiate his character and nature to everything that comes in contact with him, so much so that Seraphim veil their faces before him and man cannot behold his unveiled glory in the flesh. Yet we have the audacity to claim that we have fellowship with God, and yet his nature does not affect us in any real way. We find words like “backslidden” and create theological concepts to justify this thought because we do not want to come to terms with a very simple truth: anyone who claims fellowship with God and remains unchanged is a liar. Darkness and light are fundamentally incompatible, and since God is light, it is a physical impossibility to walk in darkness while having fellowship with him.
But we can shield ourselves from his effects, and we often do just that. We do not walk in the light, allowing it full access to our being and changing us as God desires; we seek to control the light, limiting its effects on our soul. We have created spiritual “tanning beds,” in which we can chose a specific change we wish to make, allow a controlled, limited light to access our souls, and achieve the predictable, limited result we desire. This is not walking in the light; this is a blasphemous attempt to use God to suit our own spiritual vanity. Walking in the light involves taking down the barriers: Removing the sunscreen, sunglasses, and protective clothing, getting outside the shade that protects us from Him, and walking in his presence. This is scary, because there is not telling what effect the light will have on our personality. Allowing the light of God unhindered access to every part of your being will not just help you get rid of a habit you dislike; it will change who you are; and often, we really don’t want that. But it is when we walk in the light that that ministry of our mediator is most effective in our soul.
Christ is the mediator, because he possesses the light of God in its absolute fullest sense. He is light because he is God. Yet he is man. The unveiled brightness of the glory of God would consume us, but Christ possesses all of the brightness in human form, and we can bask in that without fear. Even now, he stands before the Father as the God-Man, and he stands there for us. In the full light of God, he deals with our indwelling sin, faithfully cleansing and forgiving us, and making us acceptable with God. He does this work only in the light. Oh, how long I have settled for partial cleansing! I love to look at the light from a window, shielding my soul from the change I fear, and taking from Jesus a mere fraction of the blessings he has available for me. Cleanse my hands, but leave my thoughts and affections the way they are! I no longer want that. I want to walk in the light, exposing every part of my being to the radiant nature of God, and allowing the blood of Christ to cleanse the deepest parts of my personality. How simple it is, yet how difficult. All I have to do is walk in the light, and the very nature of God will do the work I so desire. I can have no doubt of his working, because God is light.
