It is probably only when we are in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland that we don’t get asked, “So, what does Solas stand for?” Some people think it is an acronym, but if you Google that you’ll get ‘Safety of LIfe At Sea” – and that’s not us. Others have assumed that it only references ‘The 5 Solas of the Reformation’, but lovely as they are, they are not the inspiration for our name. When Solas was founded fifteen years ago in Scotland, the vision was to shine the light of Christ into culture. Our founders used the word ‘Solas’ to encapsulate that vision – as Solas is the Scots Gaelic word for light. It is related word to the English word ‘solar’ – as in solar power, powered by the light.
John chapter one says of Christ:
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
In these words describing Jesus’ coming to earth, John tells us seven remarkable things about Jesus – and ourselves.
- Jesus is the true light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
John asumes what we all understand, that there is darkness in our world that needs to be penetrated. The world we inhabit is a bewildering combination of breathtaking beauty and unimagineable horrors. In one click of a TV remote control we move from an eagle soaring over a waterfall beneath snow-capped mountains bathed in all the pastel hues of an orange and pink sinking sun, to a child starving in a refugee camp while the tear-ducts in its mother’s hollowed-out eyes have run as dry as their last clean well. The bewildering paradox of the beauty and horrors we encounter are signposts to the underlying story of the world, created for good, but somewhow lost in darkness. CS Lewis in the Narnia novels described that frozen world as being under a curse in which it was famously ‘always Winter but never Christmas’. John would have put it like this – we are in great darkness, and we need a true light. He wrote his Gospel in order that we could all see Jesus – the light who has come who will restore truth and hope.
- Jesus was involved in the creation of the world
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.
In the Jewish, and later Christian, worldview – there is a line which separates the Creator from created things. Throughout the Old Testament, worshipping anything below that line was considered to be idolatry; only God – above that line – could be worshipped. John makes a staggering claim about Jesus here; that he is not a created being like every other man but that he was an agent of creation itself. In Revelation, he would later see a vision of Christ being worshipped in heaven, as the lamb of God, seated in the centre of the throne. Jesus did not come to tell us about the light, or to tell us where to search for light, or to present mere hope that light is somewhere to be found; rather he came as the pure, uncreated light itself, the begotten Son of God. - Jesus is for everyone
The true light that gives light to everyone.
John was Jewish, and knew that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah promised of old to his people by prophets stretching back to the 8th-Century-BC Isaiah, and to King David, whose Psalms seemed to speak in otherworldly terms about a King sent from God whose reign would be guaranteed from heaven. But John rejected the idea that Jesus would bring light only for his fellow countrymen – chosen though they certainly were. Jesus is, he would later tell us, ‘The light of the world’. He uniquely would bring to fruition the calling of the Jewish nation to be a light to the Gentiles, and would send his people out with the news about his coming, ‘to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the Ends of the Earth’. That includes people of all types, classes, races, and walks of life. Jesus is for everyone. Jesus “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” 1 John 2:2 - Light exposes our flaws too
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
It seems so strange that anyone would resist the light who came into the world; yet Jesus met opposition wherever he went. He meets opposition today still, where people reject him, his message and offer of salvation. Why? Jesus himself explained it like this, later in John’s biography of him: Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. The light we need to see to navigate through this dark world – and which brings the hope of heaven into the gloom of earth – also exposes our souls. The murky nature of existence turns out to not only be something which has corrupted culture, economic systems, and led to injustice, crime, vandalism and decay – but has infected each of us too, in the secret places of the heart. For many of us, our first inclination when we encounter the light of Christ is to run – to hide from his penetrating gaze, from which no secrets can be hidden. - Jesus can reconcile us to God
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
John wrote his Gospel to tell us who have run from God, how to get back home to Him. His understanding of humanity is that we have strayed far from the Heavenly Father, but that by faith in Christ He will facilitate our adoption back into the divine family. The tempation is of course to run, to avoid the penetrating light which exposes all our flaws, but a better response it to run to the light. It’s when we entrust ourselves to Christ by faith that our sins are forgiven, and we are made children of God. Christ came to seek and save those lost in darkness – and bring us back to The Father. He gave us ‘the right’ to become children of God. Now, it’s obvious that no one can exert any rights ‘over God’ in the sense of gaining control over Him, putting Him in our debt, or forcing Him to give us things. Such rights can only be ours if they are freely given by God. So here John tells us of a God who is so good He wants to give us the right to be His child. He wants to hand us our eternal adoption papers and give us a home forever. The mission of Christ is to bring you home to God. - Jesus can give us our true identity back
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
We live in a world in which many people struggle with the question, “Who am I?” In his influential book, Meanings of Life, the social psychologist Roy Baumeister argues that ‘Who Am I?’ is one of the great questions of our age. People everywhere curate a version of themselves for public consumption, in the office or on Instagram – which can be a world away from their true self. Others wrestle with the herculean task of seeking to construct their own identity, and to shore it up with all kinds of mental gymnastics and defence mechanisms to protect its inherent fragility. Jesus offers somthing better. He says that true identity comes from being part of family – knowing where you are from and to whom you belong. True identity is to be found in becoming a child of God. And because that identity comes when God graciously adopts you when you trust Christ, it is unchanging, not dependent on your moral performance and therefore stable and secure. Jesus gives the kind of security we need in order to truly flourish. - Coming to faith in Jesus is a spiritual rebirth
children born not of natural descent,……., but born of God.
When John wrote these words he knew that the implications were massive. As a Jewish man living in the light of all the promises of the Old Testament, he might have written that he was basing his security and faith in his biological ancestry, his tribal lineage in the people of Israel. But he didn’t. In fact, he says that the light that Christ brings is open to people of all nations who (while they might not be born physically into the Jewish nation) can be spiritually re-born into the family of God. It was John who would later recall the words of Jesus to Nicodemus, “you must be born again”. Those words (which have been so misused and misunderstood, not least by several American politicians over the last four decades) do not mean some kind of fanaticism, nor do they mean glitsy commercialised televangelistsic cringe. Rather, they are Jesus’ own words to describe what happens when we put our faith in Him. His light shines into our souls, we are changed, renewed, filled, transformed – and adopted into the family of God. It’s a process so complete and all consumming that it is best described as a rebirth. Or as Jesus would say in Matthew’s Gospel, when describing his ministry: the people dwelling in darkness, have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. All of this is yours if you come to Christ by faith.Solas exists to help shine the light of Christ into this dark world. If you want to know more about how you can encounter, and be transformed by the light of Christ, we’d love to hear from you. Please do get in touch.
