“And we have this prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  2 Peter 1:19

Have you ever felt yourself in a dark place?  Friend, even without feeling it, without Christ you are there now!  So please, pay attention!  I’m about to shine a lamp for you and Lord willing daylight will dawn, and the Bright and Morning Star will rise in your heart. You see, without Christ, your situation is just like that of the Israelites in Isaiah 59:2,3.

“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden HIs face from you so that He does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity;  your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.”  

In verse 9-13 Isaiah describes clearly the human condition because of our sin.

“We hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes… We hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.  For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us;  for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.”

This is a dark and hopeless situation indeed.  But Isaiah continues and offers the very kind of illuminating and hope-filled prophetic word Peter was confirming in the passage above.  In verse 16, God affirms that due to fallenness of our nature there is not a single thing we can do to make things right with Him.  So get this.  “His own arm brought him salvation.”  He knew we couldn’t save ourselves so He came down and made atonement for us.  But how?  The very next chapter in Isaiah gives us a hint of what’s to come.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;  but the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you.  And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

First, Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, was born in human form.  Right before that a man name John was born who was appointed to

“go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of  death.”

Next, Jesus lived a perfect sinless life, fulfilling the righteous requirements of God in every way thus becoming the spotless lamb, willing and able to give His life as a sacrifice for all who lived in rebellion against Him.  The Son of God handed over His body to be brutally beaten and hung on a Roman cross, a laughing stock to those He came to save.  And as he He hung there, this rejected Savior of man, this forsaken Son of God, thick darkness came over the land.  He died.  He was buried.

Three days later, after the sun had risen, Jesus’ friends came to His tomb.  But THE SON had RISEN!  Not only had He conquered sin, He had beaten death!  And He offers that same sin slaying, death destroying power of new, everlasting life to all who trust in His righteousness alone as the means by which they can stand before a holy, wrathful, and yet graciously merciful God.

Do you see this lamp shining, showing you the only way out of your eternal peril?  Has the Son of God, the Bright Morning Star risen in your own heart?  He IS risen, friend.  He IS risen indeed.  And He’s coming again as judge.  Are you ready to stand before His soul- penetrating light in life or in death?  Today can be the day of salvation for you!  Call on Jesus and be saved!