“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light” (Psalm 36:9 ESV). By viewing the world with knowledge of God, people can see reality, purpose, and meaning. The psalmist declared, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” God’s Word displays reality for all people from the highly educated and the wise to the simplest thinker and the mind of a child. “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:105, 130).

Jesus enlightens the eyes of the faithful. By Jesus, Christians are able to know and perceive by their hearts the eternal blessings from God. The apostle Paul prayed that God give “the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation” to Christians (Ephesians 1:17). The apostle explained that the Spirit of wisdom and revelation comes by the knowledge of Jesus Christ that enlightens of the eyes of the heart (1:17–18). This light within hearts by Christ is to know the hope of the riches of the glorious inheritance that Christ calls the faithful to receive (1:18). In other words, knowing Christ gives light to see the blessings of eternal life. God works all these great eternal blessings through Jesus’s resurrection and His authority over all at the right hand of God (1:19–21). For this reason, Christ is over all things to the church (1:22–23).

Knowledge of Jesus’s resurrection gives light to reveal hope to faithful Christians. For this reason, Paul declared that the Christian hope is Jesus (1 Timothy 1:1). Jesus resurrected so that the faithful would physically rise to eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:20–22; cf. 6:14). Paul revealed, “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” (Romans 8:23–24). The apostle reported, “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” to inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:53; cf. Philippians 3:20–21). When Jesus returns, He will resurrect the dead to physical life again (John 5:28–29; 6:40). Paul taught, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). For the resurrection of bodies, Christians wait for the place that Christ promised to prepare (John 14:2–3). Christians await the city built by God in the heavenly country where they will live in their changed immortal bodies (Hebrews 11:10, 16).

By the light of Christ, the faithful see reality (John 8:12; 9:5). We see that the Creator will restore the bodies of the faithful and His creation from corruption and death unto an incorruptible state. God gives life again (Isaiah 26:19). Because God has created everything, nothing is too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:17). In this hope, Jesus has enlightened the eyes of hearts to know the hope of eternal life for this we live by faith and rejoice for God’s love (Ephesians 1:17–18).