Many people describe the prophetic words of God in Genesis 3:15 as “the Bible’s first prophecy”: God tells the Serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Indeed, it is the first recognizable prophetic language used in the Old Testament.

However, this declaration passes over a critical prophecy subtly embedded in the Bible’s first paragraph. Notice Genesis 1:1-3:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

For most people, it is a bit hard to find a prophecy in these early lines of Scripture—but leave it to the apostle Paul to do so. In II Corinthians 4:6, the apostle recognizes the first command in God’s Word, “Let there be light,” to contain Scripture’s first prophecy as well. His comments in this verse contain crucial commentary on Genesis 1:1-3.

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (New American Standard Bible [NASB])

Paul’s words express more than his penchant for metaphor. By linking “Let there be light” with the light Christ shines in the minds of those the Father calls, the apostle maintains that God’s ancient command prophesies of the nature and scope of God’s work with mankind over the millennia.

Future Light

Under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, Paul “translates” God’s command for light into Greek with a future tense verb. The World English Bible, the Evangelical Heritage Version, the Lexham English Bible, and the Disciples’ Literal New Testament all render Paul’s translation as, “Light will shine out of darkness.” Both the American Standard Version and the NASB translate it as, “Light shall shine out of darkness.” The Berkeley Version of the New Testament renders it, “Out of darkness light shall shine.” These translations are faithful to the several Greek texts that express the verb “to shine” in the future tense.ⁱ

Paul links God’s ancient command, uttered on the first day of the creation of the physical world, to His ongoing spiritual work with humanity. The same God, he asserts, who way back when created the heavens and the earth, the same God who commanded illumination of the vast deep, commands light to shine in our minds, thereby revealing the deep things of God (compare Job 11:7; Job 12:22; Daniel 2:22). If He did not shed that light about the “glory of God,” our knowledge of Him would be limited to that of His nature and power as exhibited in the physical creation (Romans 1:20). Without God’s revelation in our mind, we would know—could know—virtually nothing of His purposes and plans for us as individuals.

Elsewhere, this same apostle connects dots that give us insight into how humans learn of God’s plans. He writes in I Corinthians 2:9-11:

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Jesus Christ, the genuine Light-Bringer (II Peter 1:19, Revelation 22:16), is that Spirit (II Corinthians 3:17) who by His Word brought light to a darkened earth approximately 6,000 years ago. He is the same Spirit who enlightens the darkened minds (Ephesians 5:8) of those the Father has called.

Lights of the World

David also writes of that Spirit: “For You will light my lamp; the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness” (Psalm 18:28). That God provides a second witness of this truth in II Samuel 22:29 suggests its weight. The God-ordained circumstance of His true children is simply this: Collectively, they serve as the light of the world, situated where everyone can see them. Hiding His people in monasteries, sequestered from those of a darkened mind, is not God’s way:

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Paul agrees, writing, “You are the children of light” (I Thessalonians 5:5; Douay-Rheims Bible). Aside from this categorically definitive statement, God refers to His elect as “the children of light” three other times: Luke 16:8 (parabolic); John 12:36; and Ephesians 5:8. We should also compare Philippians 2:15, where Paul reminds us we are “lights in the world”; it is God’s will that we shine “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.”

Light Out of Darkness

Paul’s use of the Greek preposition ek (“out of” or “out from”)ⁱⁱ in II Corinthians 4:6 tells us a great deal about how God lights things up. Ek connotes “separation” or even “parturition,” the separation of mother and newborn child. For instance, the first use of ek in the New Testament is in Matthew 1:3: Perez and Zerah were “of” (that is, “out of”) their mother, Tamar.

On this, one commentator perceptively writes that ek “has a two-layered meaning (“out from and to”) which makes it out-come oriented (out of the depths of the source and extending to its impact on the object).” It is unsurprising, then, that ek appears repeatedly in John 1:13; God’s people are not born of blood, but “of [ek] God.” They are like God but distinct beings.

Notably, the apostle does not write in II Corinthians 4:6 that light was to shine on the surface of the deep, but that it was to emanate from the darkness. From or out of darkness, the light would shine. The light does not merely illuminate the surface, as a “beam” of light from the sun might, but emanates from below or within.

The God-created light is distinct from its Creator, perhaps shining forth from miles away, from the hub of darkness itself. It is a discrete light, a darkness-destroying light burning in a place estranged from Him, unlike Him, by its nature contrary to Him. In the imagery of Genesis 1, it shines in the chaos of tohu and bohu. Yes, it was God’s light in that He created it. Yet, it was distinct from Him. This light bespeaks the boundless transformative power of God’s Spirit as it worked, perhaps at a molecular level, to accomplish the Creator’s purposes.ⁱⁱⁱ

“Let Your Light So Shine”

The word “shine” first appears in Matthew 5:15, where Christ reminds His disciples that people do not hide a lamp but situate it on a stand to ensure the maximum spread of its illumination. In verse 16, He commands, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Notice the possessive pronoun: Christ says the light is “your light.” He avoids the terms “God’s light,” “His light,” or “My light,” because the light in us, though engendered by Him, sent out (ek) by Him, and sustained by Him, is nonetheless separate from Him. This light burns in independent beings, each one of whom was once just as helplessly darkened as was the tohu and bohu of Genesis 1:2.

By way of analogy, consider several lightbulbs on the same circuit illuminating a large room. Though energized by the same source (a faraway electric generator), they remain separate lights. (As Zephaniah 3:5 emphasizes, the Generator of godly light will not fail. Yet, if we cut the power cord connecting us to that Generator, our light will surely fail. This inexorable reality is the message underlying Christ’s “Vine and branches” analogy in John 15:1-8. Separated from Christ, we can do nothing.) So, Christ, dwelling in us, spiritually energizes us individually. Though empowered by the same dynamic Being, whose resources are inexhaustible, we remain separate entities, transformed by His light.

Put differently, we are not a reflection of God’s light, as some errantly claim. Rather, we are God’s light, shining inside freestanding organisms. Revelation 4:2-6 and Daniel 7:9-10 show that Christ now dwells with the Father in ineffable light. When we walk in the same light in which Christ walks (I John 1:5), we are like Him—and incredibly, in many ways indistinguishable from Him. However, we are not Him.

Billions of Points of Light

John 1:5 notifies us that the darkness could not overcome the light sent out from Jesus Christ. Anciently, He confronted the darkness of tohu and bohu, transforming it in short order into an organized and fruitful creation, one capable of facilitating His plans. Likewise, we, the recipients of God’s light

. . . are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him. (II Corinthians 3:18, The Message)

The prophesied creation of light will continue until there are billions of points of light, each one distinguished from the Father of lights (James 1:17) as separate beings, yet each one indistinguishable from Him in terms of character and purpose.

End Notes

i The verb tense is future (aorist, active, infinitive). The Greek verb is lampō (Strong’s #2989), which appears seven times in six verses in the New Testament. The King James Version [KJV] translators render it as “shine” (6x) and as “give light” (1x).

ii The preposition ek (sometimes transliterated ex) is Strong’s #1537. It appears 920 times in 760 verses in the New Testament. The word implies movement from inside to outside, from familiar to unfamiliar, from proximate to remote. The KJV translators render it as “of” (366x), “from” (181x), “out of” (162x), “by” (55x), “on” (34x), “with” (25x), with 98 miscellaneous translations. HELPS™ Word Studies notes the following about the meaning and usage of ek:

properly, "out from and to" (the outcome); out from within. 1537 /ek ("out of") is one of the most under-translated (and therefore mis-translated) Greek propositions—often being confined to the meaning "by" . . ..

iii The concept of a purposeful creation appears in the account of the heavenly throne room of Revelation 4, particularly verse 11, where the Twenty-four Elders assert that God created to facilitate the outworking of His will:

Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory, honor, and power. You created all things, and by Your decision they are and were created. (Contemporary English Version)