What does it mean that the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5)?

Note the remarkable contrast between John 1:5, "The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not," and 1 John 2:8, "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." We get the full character of the living Christ in the presence of men brought in by redemption after the Lord's death. In life He was the Light of men, but men were darkness, opposite in nature, and the Light did not dispel the darkness at all. It remained, as before, darkness, and did not comprehend the Light. But redemption came in - there was a new state of things - Christ had overcome the power of darkness, and brought a new condition of men in resurrection into existence, and vivified according to the power and place of this life, which was in the light as God was in the light, and had left the darkness and the whole scene and power of it where it was, behind, the other side of the Cross. Thus those who had received Him, had received light in life in their souls - cleansed by the blood, they walked in the light, and were light. It was not the strange phenomenon of light shining and darkness remaining, but the darkness was passing and already the light shone as light, not in darkness merely. This is an immense change indeed. It is then easy to see how it connects itself with "Which thing is true in him and in you." It shows the relative place of the Gospel and Epistle very clearly, and more, it shows very powerfully the difference between Christ's position and witness on earth, and the light brought in after redemption was wrought, and He was risen. It is a very important comparison.

131 Redemption develops and manifests all the moral qualities of God Himself, and above His qualities, His nature - love and light, and that in man, and in connection with men. We are, as being in Christ, and Christ in us, the fruit and expression of all that God is in the fulness and revelation of Himself. He will shew, in the ages to come, the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. But then, in order that all this should be brought out, love and even light, an occasion must present itself; and that, not in an object amiable and intelligent in good (for then man could love), but there, where all the opposite of this nature shewed itself; it was necessary also that good should be proved superior to evil, in letting evil have its free course. "The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Not only was man not light, not only was he darkness, without any glimmering of the nature of God, but there was no power in him of receiving this light; there was opposition of nature. They saw no beauty in Him to desire Him. In that which was nothing else than the exhibition of the divine nature in itself, it was impossible to go further. In natural things, if there is light, there is no more darkness; but in the moral world it is not so; the light, that which is pure in itself, and manifests everything, is there, and it is not perceived who is there. "Is not this the carpenter's son?" "If thou knewest who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink." "If this man were a prophet" - it is a definite judgment, pronouncing Him not to be a prophet, when God is there, and shews Himself as such. For since that which God is in this world reveals that which is above, the mind that reigns there does not associate itself with a single principle which governs the heart and the habits of men. There is in that heart no knowledge of sin, no knowledge of God, no knowledge of the state into which sin has plunged us; sin itself is estimated according to the evil which it has done to ourselves, not according to its opposition to God's nature, although I admit that a conscience has been acquired by the fall; egotism has become the starting-point for everything. Then, when the light comes, which, on the contrary, shews what sin is, where this has placed man morally before God, everything is judged of according to egotism as a starting-point; and the manifestation of God finds no entry into the heart. This is an unknown field for man: it is the truth, and man is in a state of falsehood, as he is without God, and he understands nothing here. God is light; and when He is manifested such as He is, but adapted to man, man's state is such that nothing responds to this manifestation. If the conscience, which is from God, is reached, the hatred of the will is awakened. (See the end of Acts 7 and John 3:19.)

The light in which men are to walk is not merely that of creation — wonderful as that is — but in that which has been displayed in the actions and words of the Word. When the Word was manifested, the light shone, but the scene, wherein the manifestation was made, was one of darkness. In Genesis 1 we read how by the Divine word the light of creation burst upon the darkness; and, lo! the darkness vanished. Here, we have light of a far higher order and it appears amidst moral and spiritual darkness, which could only be dispelled by a true apprehension of the light. Alas! that apprehension was lacking. Yet though the darkness remained there was no other light for men than "the life." There is no contradiction in these statements for, as so often, John is speaking here of things according to their abstract nature, and has not yet arrived at the historical relation of events.

God had given promises; they were despised. Then the law was given by the disposition of angels; it was broken before ever it was brought into the camp. Prophets were raised up; they were persecuted and slain who "showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom" (as Stephen tells us, who gives us this inspired summary of God's ways) "ye have been now the betrayers and murderers." Or, as it is in the Lord's parable that brings us to the same point, "Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him … and they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard" — the last answer of our hearts to the last test God had to apply to them — the solemn proof, not merely of individual acts by which we were guilty, but of a condition in which we were all alike involved, and were lost. This is one aspect of the presence of Emmanuel, and more especially brought before us in the last three gospels, needed as it is to bring into our souls the full conviction of our total ruin. But there is another side of the truth: it comes before us fully in the Gospel of John. It opens with the result of all the previous testing. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not." God Himself has come into the world, and "God is love." If He is here, then, we shall find perfect love. But He is light also, so that we shall find perfect light in His presence, too. Yes, the full light of all that God is in love revealed and shining. But "the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Morally there is found what is physically impossible; the tiniest ray of morning light dispels the darkness of the night. But here the shining of the light has no effect whatever, it shines in darkness. The darkness remains as profound, as intense as ever, totally unaffected by it. But what brought in the light but infinite love? Then it has not come simply to shine, showing out the full character of the darkness. As surely as divine love has come into this lost world it has come to work, to bring in the light to transpierce the conscience, to lay bare the heart, to reveal us to ourselves and thus to reveal God to us.

(John 1:5). Man is fallen; if, therefore, the light shines before men, it is in a scene of darkness or ignorance of God. Further, we learn that "the darkness comprehended it not." This tells us that spiritual darkness is not only ignorance or absence of light; it is opposition to the light. Natural light would banish actual darkness; but, if man is left to himself, spiritual light will not banish his spiritual darkness. The light of the life of the Word brings out the moral incapacity of man, as later the love of His life calls forth the hatred of man.

It is plain to all who have eyes to see and hearts to understand that the world is in darkness, i.e., in ignorance of God. And the blame for this condition of things lies entirely at its own door, for “the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). And this is not said to be because men cannot perceive the light that shineth, but because they won't, for they love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19); they are wilfully in the darkness; consequently they lie under condemnation. This condition can only be described as death — moral and spiritual death. It is alienation from the life of God, it is bondage to sin; it is active hatred of God; it is subjection to the wicked one, for “the whole world lieth in the one (or wickedness)” (1 John 5:19); it is but the prelude to “the second death,” i.e., severance from God.

Toward the middle of man's night God raised up a great light for the people which sat in darkness, and for them which sat in the region of the shadow of death, light sprang up. He sent His Son into this world, and in His Son was life, and the life was the light of men. This true light so bright and resplendent, was that which, coming into the world, lighted every man; but the darkness, by which the mind of man is blinded through sin, comprehended it not. Alas, it was wilful blindness on his part. The Lord tells out the secret of it, "Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

Coming into a world of darkness, where men had not the knowledge of God, the Light did not dispel the darkness, for the “darkness comprehended it not.” When the sun arises each day, the darkness flees, but what is true in nature is not true in things spiritual. The coming of the Son but proved the impossibility of man in his natural condition receiving the knowledge of God. Under law, man had shown that he was incapable of keeping it; he could not have life on that ground; and when Christ came as the Light of life, man clearly showed there was no capacity in him to receive the divine revelation.

The impenetrable darkness in which we lay is referred to in John 1:4–5: ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not.’ Despite the intensity of the light that shone in Christ, fallen human nature is incapable of perceiving it. In this state no one would ever receive the Lord Jesus but in verse 12 we read of those who did receive Him. They believed on His name and did so because they were ‘born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God’ (v. 13).

But this is not all. The darkness comprehended not the light. The Holy Ghost became power (when the needed work was done to put us according to God's holy and righteous nature into that place, without which He would not have been so known, that is, in truth) to give competency of apprehension, and to reveal, not as object but as communicating power, having quickened us so as to have a capacity to apprehend. I am not saying this by mere deduction, but from the revelation of God.