Christ is also the light to be the salvation of God (Isa. 42:6b; 49:6b). Isaiah 49:6b says, "I will also set You as a light of the nations / That You may be My salvation unto the ends of the earth." Thus, God gave Christ as a light to the nations that He might be God's salvation to all the world. This light issues in Christ as the divine life to us (John 9:5; 1:4, 9; 8:12). John 1:4 says, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." In reading such a verse, we might ask whether light came first, or life. It is difficult to answer such a question. Verses such as John 1:4 and 1 John 1:1-7 indicate that life issues in light. But, based on Genesis 1, it is also possible to say that light issues in life. First, God said, "Let there be light" (v. 3). Then, there was light, and after that, the different kinds of life—the vegetable life, the animal life, and the human life—came out of the light (vv. 4-28). In the experience of a sinner, the first thing that comes in is not life but light. When we heard the preaching of the gospel, light came to us and shined over us (2 Cor. 4:4-6). Then, when we received this light, it issued in life, and we were regenerated. After our regeneration, light comes out of life. Therefore, first we receive light, and then we receive life. Then we live by this life, and this life issues in light.
The life of this light becomes God's salvation to us in His righteousness (Isa. 49:6b). We have seen that life is the consummation of God's salvation. But God's salvation still needs a foundation. The foundation, the base, of God's salvation is righteousness. Thus, the life of this light becomes God's salvation to us in His righteousness.
The life of this light also ensures us, guarantees us, the heirs of God in His life, the right to inherit God with all His riches as our eternal inheritance (Acts 26:18). If we do not have such a life, which is of the light, we do not have the assurance that we will be able to inherit God as our inheritance. Since we have such a life, this life is our assurance that ensures our right to inherit God as our inheritance in life.
The life of this light, as the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16b), the incorruptible life (2 Tim. 1:10b), and the real and eternal life that we should lay hold on (1 Tim. 6:19, 12), grows in us all the time, issuing in our church life today and consummating in the New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 9b-11, 18-23; 22:1-5). Today we are living the church life by this life, and we will also enjoy the New Jerusalem by this life. This is the consummation of God's full salvation.