Passage: Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:78-79; 1 John 1:5-7

The Big Idea

After Malachi, heaven was quiet for about four hundred years. But God’s last word had been a promise: the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. Then Zacharias announced that, through God’s tender mercy, the Dayspring from on high had visited us. Jesus is the dawn of a new day, giving light freely to those in darkness. We walk in that light by keeping a single eye on Him, believing what He says about us rather than the enemy’s lies, and offering ourselves to God. You’re not a sinner trying to become a saint; you’re a saint who sometimes believes a lie. Let the dawn of His new life rise over your heart.

Four Hundred Years of Darkness

It had been dark for about four hundred years. The sun still shone and the birds still sang, but souls were in darkness: confused, discouraged and running out of hope.

God’s last message through Malachi was essentially, “Your hearts are far from Me, but I’m going to come and fix everything. A new day will dawn that changes everything.”

To you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2).

The fix for our darkness isn’t a new rule, requirement, plan or resolution.
It isn’t a promise we make to God, but a promise God keeps for us.
The promise is a Person: a Son who is the Sun.
His light is the healing we so desperately need. Our souls have been wounded by others’ sins and our own. No one escapes sin’s pain.
Jesus brings that healing when we need it most. God has no intention of bringing shame or condemnation on you. That’s been done away with.
His grace is like a sunrise after a long, dark night, with unlimited healing and refreshment for weary souls.

The Dayspring Has Visited Us (Luke 1:78-79)

After four hundred years, God repeated His promise through Zacharias, father of John the Baptist. After months unable to speak, he was filled with the Spirit and said:

…because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

The Dayspring, the dawn of a new day, is Jesus!
What does He bring? The tender mercy of our God: His fatherly compassion and love. The Greek word (splanchna) refers to the inner parts, the gut. God loves you from the very core of His being.
Jesus reveals that deep love to us like light spreading across the world in the morning.
He comes to give light. Not to be earned. That’s the language of grace: always given, never earned like a paycheck. If anyone could earn it, it would stop being grace.
And it guides our feet into the way of peace. Jesus cares about the condition of your heart. His light shows us the path, and His grace carries us along it.

It’s a new day. Jesus has grace and love for us to delight in. So how do we walk in this light?

A Single Eye (Matthew 6:22-23)

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

A lamp holds a light; it isn’t the source itself.
“Good” here can mean single: focused, not double-visioned.
How do we have a single eye? By focusing on a single Person: Jesus.
He’s the single source of my life, so my eyes are on Him.
He allows everything in my life, good or bad, so my eyes stay on Him.
He wants to show me His love daily, so my eyes are on Him.
He wants me to trust Him even when I can’t see the path or the reasons for my pain, so my eyes are on Him.
Eyes on Him is faith. I can’t see the reason, but I can see Him.
When Jesus is my one life, I have light, and I can see clearly even when hope seems gone and I feel forgotten.
How great the darkness when I look to myself for life, joy and meaning I can never produce, or keep searching my circumstances for meaning. That’s the double eye.
So don’t be cross-eyed. Be cross-eyed! (Why did the cross-eyed teacher lose her job? She couldn’t control her pupils.)

Walking in the Light (1 John 1:5-7)

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

God is light. If you’re a Christian, you share in His light. You have full access to Him.
Yet John says we can choose to walk in darkness, living a lie. It’s a lie because it isn’t true: Jesus has united us with Himself and brought His light into us.
Walking in the light leads to loving fellowship with each other and the rock-solid assurance that we’re forgiven of all our sins.
So: Do you believe you’re forgiven? That God isn’t angry with you? That you stand pure and righteous before your Father? That He isn’t just pretending when He says, “You are forgiven”?
Or are you living a lie, looking at your sin and failures and believing that’s you?
It comes down to believing the gospel.
Do I believe I’m still just a sinner, or do I believe what Jesus says: that I’m a saint? The New Testament calls believers “saints” dozens of times.
Yet we’re so used to walking in the dark of self-focus that we readily believe the lie that we haven’t been made new.

How do we grow, then? In faith: believing what Jesus has already done in and for us. Our minds are renewed as we learn the promises Jesus fulfilled for us and choose to believe them. We’re not promise-makers; we’re promise-believers. This faith roots and grounds us in His love, and righteous living flourishes from there (Ephesians 3:17).

The enemy attacks this truth first: “You’re not forgiven. You’re not holy. You’re a failure. You really want to sin. God’s trying to keep you from having fun.” When we believe his lies, we walk in darkness and can’t see how free we are, so we keep struggling.

Paul describes that struggle: What I want to do, I don’t do; but what I hate, that I do (Romans 7:15). Like all of us, he tried to be a good Christian by rules, and failed. He only found freedom in the way of grace.

We have to learn that we’re already saved and already set free by our union with Jesus. We’ve been given a new spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That’s the real you: the inner you, made new, holy and righteous in the light. Believing that isn’t pretending. It’s faith. Believing the lie is what’s fake.

When we fall into sin, we’re believing a lie. Our minds, wills and emotions are vulnerable to lies because they learned self-serving patterns long before we were born again. But the flesh isn’t in charge anymore.

So if we look to Jesus, believing His truth, we walk in the light. If we look to our flesh (how we feel, what seems logical, the enemy’s lies), we’ve flipped off the lights and are groping around in the dark.

The Light of Life

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Following is an action: drawing near, listening and believing. That’s how we focus on Jesus.
Humility brings me to Jesus regularly, because I’m convinced I won’t find life or light anywhere else.
Faith grows as I become more confident that He’s really done all He said. “It is finished.” Can you believe those words? That’s all you need.
And notice: it’s the light of life. His life, lived through us. His light shining through us.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14).

He’s the light, and I’m the light? Yes, because we’re one. He lives in me, and His light shines through me.

How Do We Live It?

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20).

Our part is to live in union with Jesus: to let Him live through us.
It isn’t hard. Believe you died with Jesus and He lives in you, and ask Him daily to live through you.

Present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:13-14).

Give God your life, mind, body, hands and words for His kingdom.
You don’t have to try. If you’re straining, you’re doing it wrong. It’s surrender:
I’m loved, but I’m not in control.
I’m valuable, but I’m not in control.
I’m His tool, His voice, His hands.
Then we’re free. Fear is broken when we surrender to God. The enemy’s accusations are silenced. Sin has no dominion because we’re under grace.
Under law, we’d have to maintain our performance to feel secure. Under grace, we’re freely forgiven and accepted because of Jesus. We’re not sinners anymore; we’re saints who sometimes sin when we believe the enemy’s lies instead of Jesus’ truth.

What does Jesus say about you? What does the enemy say about you? Which will you believe? That’s the difference between walking in the light and walking in darkness.

Do You Have the Light of Life?

You can know for sure.

Have you admitted your need for God, that you’re a sinner?
Do you believe Jesus died on the cross and your sin died with Him?
Have you asked Him to forgive you and fill you with His Spirit, giving yourself to Him completely?

You can pray something like this: “God, I believe Jesus is God. He died for me on the cross, and He rose again so I can live through Him and He can live through me. Please forgive all my sin, and live in and through me. Amen.”

Grace Takeaway

The long night is over. The Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in His wings. Let the dawn of His new life rise over your heart today. Believe what Jesus says about you, and let His light warm your face each morning as you look to His promises in humility and faith.

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The Dawn Has Come