Verse 6
Seeing it is God that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Light shall shine out of darkness ... This verse carries strong overtones of Paul's conversion after the blinding light he witnessed on the Damascus road. Furthermore, the reference to Genesis 1:3, where it is written, "Let there be light," links the original creation with the new spiritual creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Tasker gives a quotation from Chrysostom as follows:
Then indeed he said, Let it be; and it was. But now he said nothing, but himself became Light for us. For the apostle does not say, "has also now commanded," but "he himself shined."[23]
The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ... The only true knowledge of God which is available to people is comprehended in the life and teachings of the Son of God. As Wesley put it: "It is more useful for us to behold God as he appears in his only-begotten Son, than to investigate his secret essence."[24] Paul's allusion seems to be the fact that he had seen the blessed face of the Son of God in the blinding light that overwhelmed him on the road to Damascus, and that he unhesitatingly identified the face of Christ with the glory of God.
[23] R. V. G. Tasker, op. cit., p. 72.
[24] John Wesley, One Volume New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1972), in loco.
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