Darkness Cannot Win
In Jesus' darkest moment, the day of greatest evil, he was overcoming the darkness.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
Christian, do you believe these words? I suspect that you assent to them and acknowledge them as true. They are in the Bible and about Jesus, so you have to. But do you believe them? Do you look at our world, breathe deep and easy, and know that the darkness has not won, will not win, and cannot win?
More brilliant writers and thinkers than I have pointed out that without light there is no darkness; darkness is merely the absence of light. Darkness–evil, sin, injustice, sorrow–is a corrupting parasite on what God intended as good and is working for our good. The Light of the world, Jesus himself, shows us this.
In his darkest moment, the day of greatest evil, he was overcoming the darkness. In the very act of killing the Light, the darkness doomed itself. “God did not abolish the fact of evil: He transformed it. He did not stop the crucifixion: He rose from the dead.” (Dorothy Sayers)
In rising from the dead Jesus declared victory over the final enemy. He ensured that one day the darkness will be driven away and “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” (Isaiah 60:19) It was finished. The Light has overcome the darkness. Christian, you can believe this today and every day.