Post Tenebras Lux

This weeks posts, I am working through important Latin phrases that the Reformers used to drive home Biblical truth in the face of heresy. Yesterday I worked through the phrase, Coram Deo. That phrase means, "living before the face of God". Today I want to work through the Latin phrase, Post Tenebras Lux. Again, these are Latin words that the reformers put together into a phrase that they would use to pass along Biblical truth.

Post Tenebras Lux
First, unlike Coram Deo, this 3 word phrase, when translated into English remains only 3 words. But the difference from Coram Deo is that in this phrase when translated into English does not reorder the words. Post in Latin is where we get our word post, in the sense of after or coming after another thing or action. The word post in Latin means after. The Latin word Tenebras means darkness. The Latin word Lux means light. So in Latin this word order would be read as after darkness light. And the Reformers used this same exact Latin word order to mean exactly what they wanted to say. They sued this phrase to drive home the point they were bringing light after the darkness that had been residing in the church for over 1000 years. The reformers had this phrase as a battle cry, a war cry on heresy, and a motivational phrase with one another to make it clear they were Gospel ministers of light. Luther, Calvin, Knox, and the rest understood that before the stance they brought against the Church, there was only darkness. Darkness in the church. Darkness in the world. And darkness in the souls of people. And they also understood that they were bringing light into the dark world, light into the church, and light once more into the souls of men. So they would cry, Post Tenebras Lux.

But Post Tenebras Lux was not just a battle cry by the reformers, it is also a phrase that we use 500 years later to describe the truth that they brought with their Biblical stance. Justification by faith alone, assurance of the believer, Scripture and Jesus alone, faith alone, and the doctrines of grace, are all the light that the Reformers brought back into the world. These are all Biblical truths that for over 1000 years were lost and the darkness hid from view of most people. But the light of salvation from God alone, is what this phrase can stand for. The truth that salvation is only God justifying a person. The truth that God only justifies a person based on their faith alone. The truth that faith only comes to a person when God gives it to them first as a gift. The truth that God chose to give the gift of faith to certain people.  And the truth that this is all found only in Christ alone and His eternal plan with the Father to save the sheep. These truths that the Bible alone makes clear, are all truths of light that this phrase points too. So I love the phrase Post Tenebras Lux becasue it first reminds me of the courage, confidence, and convictions of men I owe my understanding to, men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox. I also love this phrase becasue it points me back to the truths of Scripture that were lost for centuries and that are still lost on most people in the world today, and sadly even those in the church, even those who listen to me every Sunday. God chooses to bring light after darkness becasue He is God, so I simply respond with gratitude and obedience to the light that God brings. Post Tenebras Lux