Opinion column

The light that shines through the darkness

Regular contributor James Knight explores the link between light and truth, and helps us understand why Jesus is the Light of the World.

Most people know this quote by C.S. Lewis - it is one of the best of the Christian quotes:
 
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
 
You may be less familiar with a similar quote from GK Chesterton about Christian mysticism:
 
"The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything. Like the sun at noonday, mysticism explains everything else by the blaze of its own victorious invisibility. Detached intellectualism is (in the exact sense of a popular phrase) all moonshine; for it is light without heat, and it is secondary light, reflected from a dead world".
 
Chesterton’s is also a brilliant quote, because it’s right at both a scientific and spiritual level. At a scientific level, all artificial light, be it from a flickering candle or a stadium’s floodlights, owes its existence to the harnessing of the earth’s natural resources, and ultimately, the sun. When we burn fossil fuels to produce electricity, what we are doing is releasing the sunlight gathered long ago in the lost time of history. The sun’s energy is a testament to the untamed heartbeat of creation that continues to sustain us, whether we are aware of it or not.
 
Similarly, just as our artificial light has a universal link to solar energy, so too do our most profound qualities, like truth and love, have a universal link to the Divine. The truth of Christ, in relation to earthly truths, is much like the truth of the sun's light in relation to Earth's artificial lights.
 
Suppose, if it were possible, that an individual had lived on Earth and only ever derived light from artificial sources. For them, stepping out into the valley and feeling the full force of sunlight would be startling; it would make all those artificial devices seem quite dim in comparison. Similarly, just as artificial lights ultimately derive their energy from the sun, so too do our earthly truths have their provenance in Christ's truth and await discovery by those who have not yet encountered them.
 
Image by Marion Wellmann from Pixabay
 

James Knight is a local government officer based in Norwich, and is a regular columnist for Christian community websites Network Norfolk and Network Ipswich. He also blogs regularly as ‘The Philosophical Muser’, and contributes articles to UK think tanks The Adam Smith Institute and The Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). 

The views carried here are those of the author, not necessarily those of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.