...the life and light of Christ...

“What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.   The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  John 1:4-5.

I want to spend some time in the beginning of John looking at the text a few verses at a time because it is so important to understanding John from the beginning of his Gospel.   Two (2) very important words appear here in this verse, two words that are foundational to understanding John’s Gospel: Life and Light.   Perhaps no two (2) other words best express John’s view of Jesus, because they represent the focus and intentions of John to write this Gospel.   The bookends of all the books in the Bible are important — the beginning and end.   This Gospel begins and ends with Life!   Here in verse 1 we see that John sees Jesus as Life!   At the very end of his Gospel consider these amazing closing words:  “30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His name”  John 20:30-31.   Now consider putting these two (2) verses together:   Jesus is life, and through believing, you may have life in His name!   Dear friends, here is the purpose of your life, the answer to the age-old question of life: Why am I here?  Answer: You and I are here because Jesus is life, and through believing, you may have life in His name!

It follows then, does it not, that we can say that Jesus’ greatest disappointment is that you and I will not come to Him and have Life!

God so regretted our choice not to come to Him that He sent His only begotten Son to save us from our decision not to come to Him and have Life!   And it also follows, and I hope so obviously, that Jesus is Life!

There is no other meaning, no other understanding, no other definition of life except Jesus.   To live, to have life, is to come to Jesus and to believe in Him!  To live, then, is to have a faith-filled relationship with Jesus for eternity!  Jesus’ very own self-understanding, and Jesus’ very own understanding of your life and my life came from the lips of Jesus when He said:  “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly” John 10:10. And obviously the Life Jesus speaks of is not just human physical life — but eternal life!   Surely the Son of God would not come and die on the Cross to help us live a few short and quick years here on earth, and then vaporize into nothing again at our death!    And let’s be honest and clear here, Jesus is the One and only One who bestows life on all men and women:  Jesus said, “28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand”  John 10:28.   What Jesus is saying here is that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”  John 14:6.

So in John’s Gospel we will see in page after page that Life is the opposite of death and destruction.   Remember that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life” John 3:16.  Whomever God gives Life to will never perish — “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish” John 10:28.  Until we accept Jesus as the Savior of the world, until we believe in Jesus, until we acknowledge Jesus as the only God who sits on the throne, we can surely all agree that we have not yet lived!

John also says time and time again that God is the giver of life.  John and the whole bible refer to Jesus as the living God.   In perhaps the most powerful revelation of who God is comes from Peter in a dramatic confession to Jesus: “We have come to believe and know that you are the Living God” John 13:34-35.   In fact it is the will of the Father who sent Jesus that everyone who sees Jesus and believes in Jesus will have life:  “40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day”  John 6:40.   John wants to say that Jesus is the giver of life because God the father has approved of Jesus in this way:  “27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on Him that God the Father has set his seal”  John 6:27. 

For John, Jesus presents life as eternal life, a life not of duration this side of the grave but the quality of life forever with God.   This life comes to us as pure grace, pure gift, and is entered into by believing in Jesus Christ.   “Whoever believes in the Son of God has eternal life”  John 3:16.   Jesus said it clearly Himself: “Whoever believes has eternal life”  John 6:47.  To believe means that we must be fully convinced that Jesus is who He says He is — the Son of God and the Savior of the world.   This is not at all just an intellectual belief, but a belief that shows up in obedient living of the commands of God!   Belief is a matter, not of book learning, but a matter of shoe leather.   Our believing must put holes in the bottom of our shoes.  In other words believing is all about the way we live and the choices we make each day of living.

Lastly dear friends, a few thoughts about the other seminal word in John’s Gospel: Light!  Jesus Himself says that He is “the Light of the World”  John 8:12; 9:5.  This Light can be in all human beings (John 11:10), so that they can become children of the Light (John 12:36).  Jesus said: “I have come as Light into the world” John 12:46.   Jesus was like a flashlight in a black room — He opened up the darkness in life by coming and being the Light that shines in the darkness.   Out of the utter failure of the darkness of sin comes the One person who can save us all.

But Jesus who is the Light is like a mirror that reflects back to each of us who we have become.  The Light then is a condemnation on us all.

“19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed”  John 3:19-20.  As the Light For All Jesus forces us to look at ourselves, and turn to Jesus as the Guiding Light.   Jesus guides us out of the darkness into the Light — into the very heart of Jesus: “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness” John 12:46.   And when Jesus guides you — you must believe in the Light who is Jesus!   “36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light”  John 12:36. 

So dear friends, there is much to ponder in these two (2) images of Jesus: the Life and Light of the world.   Take time today and reflect on how Jesus has been Life — For You!   And how Jesus has been Light — For You!   When you are finished fashion a personal prayer of thanks to God, the Life and Light of the world!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.