Radiance is one of my favorite words in the English language. It is one of those words that needs no adjective. I mean, what are you going to put next to “radiance”? Glorious? Majestic? Brilliant? No need. All those concepts are already there in that little word.
Radiance speaks of unspeakable light. It evokes images of a time when all was dark and suddenly a light brighter than the sun pierced through the abyss and revealed what was behind the curtain. “Let there be light!” God said. And as if through a pass of magic, there was light.
God put His radiance in the heavens above us. From there a voice, as it were, speaks eloquently of the glory of the Creator (Psalm 19:1-6).
God put His radiance below us in the seas where raging waters sound like the thunderous voice of an all-powerful being (Psalm 29:3).
God put His radiance over all the earth which is even now being filled with His majestic presence (Psalm 72:19).
And if that were not enough, God has also put His radiance inside of us mere mortals (2 Corinthians 4:6) when the light of the knowledge of Christ shot us right out of a hellish hole and into the brilliance of a realm where light switches will be unnecessary for God Himself will be the only source of light (Revelation 22:5).
For the next several weeks at Grace we will be studying about God’s Radiance. We will look at God’s radiance from creation to revelation. There will be no manipulation of crystals, no psychedelic lights traveling through ceilings, not even faded out glow-in-the-dark necklaces being handed out.
Instead, this will be a meditation not on light per se but on Who this light represents. We will learn together that the radiance of God is ultimately the radiance of Christ. Christ is the One by whom all things were created (John 1:3). He is the One who holds the universe together by the power of His word. And He is the One whose glory will one day fill the earth (Colossians 1:17).
We will end this series with a couple of messages on the coming of the Messiah as the frailest of all frail things on earth – a baby placed inside an animal troth in a cave in Bethlehem. A humbler beginning could not be imagined; the back lights couldn’t have been dimmer. But in the Heavenlies, where wars of eternal consequences are fought, it was the day that radiance routed out darkness once and for all.
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3).
Pastor Ivanildo C. Trindade
Lead Pastor, Grace Church, Lititz, PA
pastor ivanildo 