How God Translates Christians From Darkness To Light

By James Quansah, Pastor

WE NOTED in a previous edition that light and darkness are two things that are common and familiar to all human beings. The reality of man’s relationship with light and darkness features prominently in both physical and spiritual discussions. And we know that God considers light whether spiritual or physical as a good thing.

In this article, we wish to explore who man was before his fall, and the restorative work God wrought through the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for all those who hear the gospel and believe in Jesus Christ. As you read the article, you will realise how God demonstrated His love to man by restoring him to his former nature prior to his fall.

It is imperative to point out that man was clothed in glory and the light of God before he fell into sin. He was crowned with glory and resided in light. “Yet you made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned with glory and honor” (Psalm 8: 5). There is no doubt that Adam and Eve were naked before the fall, but clothed in God’s glory. Everything about man was the divine light and glory. And everything he enjoyed before the fall was tied to this.

However, man’s transgression and fall switched him from the domain of light under the control of God into the domain of darkness under the control of Satan, leading to spiritual death. Consequently, spiritual death with its accompanying effects including sicknesses, diseases, poverty, and various forms of unpleasant and corrupt things dominated, ruled and reigned over man. You will understand this clearly as you read on.

Now, thanks be to God that He did not leave man alone to wallow in darkness forever. Through Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the world, man is set free from the grip of darkness with its troubling effects and ushered again into God’s marvelous light. Thus, in the new birth in Christ, the light of the glory of God shines in the hearts of believers and are made light in the Lord.

This is why Paul writes to remind Christians in Ephesus that, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:8-9). If you look up to the verse again with rapt attention, you will see Paul pointing to the Ephesian Christians the fact that at a time in their lives they were darkness. That was time they were unbelievers and without Christ in their lives.

This clearly means that in Christ Jesus, believers are not darkness but light. And Paul adds that the fruit of light is in all that is good, right and true. This obviously does not include sicknesses, diseases, poverty, and various forms of unpleasant and corrupt things which are predominant in the realm of darkness.

Christian believers, therefore, have this great treasure within them. “For God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6-7). Again, Paul states that followers of Christ have been translated from the kingdom of darkness, the dominion of the powers of darkness and the control of spiritual death into the kingdom of God’s dear Son (Col. 1:12 -13).

We must understand that in this new position of the believer in Christ, he enjoys every blessing, benefit and provision in the Kingdom of God. In God’s kingdom or in His marvelous light, we have been made partakers of His inheritance of the saints in the light. In the domain of light, God expects us to arise and shine (Isaiah 60:1).

James Quansah is the Executive Director of Christ-Conscious Leadership Centre (CLC) and lead Pastor of End-Time Christ’s Commissioners (ECC), Kumasi, Ghana. James is also a journalist by profession. He is married with four children.

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