Picture 6:20am.
Journaled 5:30am. Coffee on the cold stone porch. I woke before the birds. They sing now in increasing number as light reveals treetops atop easterly hills. Stars fade one by one and the faraway campus clock tower light turns off. The Sun has not yet peeked over the horizon but her light goes ahead of her. She never sees the darkness she has vanquished. Millions of years and she’s never seen it. No wonder God compares himself to the bright sun. “God is light. In His presence there is no darkness at all” because unholy cannot be in the presence of holy. Once we were in darkness, utterly unable to enter God’s presence like the unclean priest entering the Holy of Holies with a rope tied around his ankle so someone could pull him out if he dropped dead. We laid dead in sin’s darkness then Jesus left his own holy presence to plunge into darkness and tie that rescue rope around our limp ankle. Except Christ did not pull us OUT of the Holy of Holies, he pulled us IN. He robed us in salvation apart from our own efforts. When he died, the veil separating the inner temple from the Holy of Holies tore apart. When he was resurrected, he brought us with him into new life in the light. So now we can come boldly into God’s presence, holy. That is the gospel. That is amazing.
See Ephesians 2:4-5 and Hebrews 9:12 & 10:19-20.
