Genesis 1:3-5 (One Day)
Genesis 1:3-5:
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
John 1:4-5:
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Rev 22:16:
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
 Mornings are all about Jesus. Jesus as the preincarnate, eternal Word of God ushered in the first morning. Jesus as the incarnate, life-giving Word of God brought the dawn of the new day as prophesied in Isaiah 9:1-2 and fulfilled in Matthew 4:16. And Jesus as the radiant, glorified Word of God is the bright morning star whom we look to with expectant hope during this age of present darkness. So whenever you think of mornings you should think of Jesus. Wake up every morning saying, “Hey, it’s a new morning — that reminds me of Jesus!”
Then God said
 Each of the six days of creation begins with, “Then God said”. Observe:
- All things came into being by the Word of God. Of all the things which have come into being, nothing came into being apart from Him.
- When the Word of God is not imminently present there is darkness. The presence of the Word of God brings light and the dawn of a new day.
- Already in the first three verses of the Bible we have been introduced to God, His Spirit, and His Word as the One Maker of all creation.
“Let there be light”
 The apostle John, in his gospel and first epistle, once again points back to the early verses of Genesis and lets us in on the rest of the story:
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it [or: the darkness did not overcome it]. John 1:4-5
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. I John 1:1-7
 Jesus is the Word of Life who was from the beginning. God the Father has granted that His Son, the Word, would have have life in Himself (John 5:26). And the divine Life in the Son radiates light to the whole world (John 1:9, John 3:19, John 8:12, John 9:5, John 12:46). Yes note it once again: the presence of Jesus Christ is Light, but walking in His absence means stumbling in the darkness.
 God’s first act of creation in the beginning is precisely the way He still begins a new creation in His people today. He calls His Light to shine in the darkness of our hearts to illuminate us with the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (II Cor 4:3-6). Only the Light can show us the light. We who have believed also speak, “Wake up, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
And there was light
 The Word sent from heaven perfectly accomplishes the will of the Father:Â
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Isa 55:10-11“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. ” John 6:38
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” John 4:34
“I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” John 17:4
God saw that the light was good
 At one point the Light of the world said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” The reason God was well pleased with the light was because the light was a reflection of His own radiance. There is nothing good except that which comes from down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
He separated the light from the darkness
 How do you separate light from darkness? Certainly there is great mystery in this verse because part of God’s overwhelming rebuke to Job included a challenge to explain the division of light from darkness:
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light?
And darkness, where is its place,Â
That you may take it to its territory
And that you may discern the paths to its home?Â
“You know, for you were born then,
And the number of your days is great!Â
… “Where is the way that the light is divided,
Or the east wind scattered on the earth? Job 38:19-24
 It is interesting to compare Genesis 1:4 with verse 14, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.” What does it mean that the sun and the moon separate the day from the night? It means that the very presence and absence of the sun and moon themselves cause night to turn to day and vice versa. The sun and the moon do not invoke another instrument to separate day from night, they themselves are the instrument.
 Could verse 4 be read the same way? Could it be that “God separated the light from the darkness” speaks of God not merely as actor but also as agent? I believe the answer is yes — but once again we need to take hold of the key of Christ and the gospel in the New Testment to unlock the doors of the Old. And once again, we need to look far back to the end of the book of Revelation to tie together the mysteries of the early verses of Genesis.
 The new Jerusalem of the the new heavens and earth has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. There will no longer be any night because the Lord God will illumine the entire city. (Rev 21:23-22:5) In other words, were God or His Lamb to be absent then there would be darkness and night. But instead there is eternal day because of His eternal presence. I therefore conclude that God separates light from the darkness the same way that the sun does: by alternatively manifesting or else hiding His presence.
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:4-5
“You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” John 12:35-36
  In contrast with new Jerusalem however, there is both day and night for the inhabitants of hell (Rev 14:10-11, Rev 20:10). In this we see the two-pronged horror of hell: the presence of God in His wrath, and the absence of God in His lovingkindness (II Thes 1:8-10). The warmth of God’s radiance is comforting to those of us who are hidden in Christ. But if you are a branch that is dried up and cast away then when the light of God comes near it is like being cast into the surface of the sun, which could just as well be described as a “fiery lake of burning sulphur.”
“He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.” Rev 14:10-11
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Rev 20:10
God called the light day, and the darkness He called night
 Amidst all the debate about the lengths of the “days” (Heb: “yom”) in Genesis 1, it is not frequently enough observed that the passage itself explicitly states God’s intended definition of the word “day”. “Day” is the name God gave to the light, just as “night” is the name God gave to the darkness. (Naming something is often related to exercising authority over it. God gave names to the things He created, and everything answers to Him.) I believe the significance of “yom” has more to do with God’s eternal plan to bring glory to Himself through His Son than it does about resolving the age of the earth. We’ll look more at that when we reach the seventh day.
And there was evening and there was morning, one day
 Because of Genesis 1 the Hebrews reckon days starting from sundown, through the night, to sunrise and into a new period of daylight. God is in the business of turning chaos into order, emptiness to fulness, darkness into light, night to day, not the other way around. The Biblical (i.e. true) story of the universe begins with darkness, but ends by looking to the consummate arrival of a beautiful Morning.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” Rev 22:16