The Life and Light of Jesus Part II

In my last post I was speaking about how the Disciple John perceived and understood the truth about Jesus which caused him to write about the Lord slightly different than the other Gospel writers did.

John didn't just have revelation knowledge about Jesus, he learned who Jesus was as he walked with Him.  He got to know Him intimately as he rubbed shoulders with Him.  And I believe like any other young men in their thirties, they had to have horsed around with each other.  I have often said of these two ... if they would have had a basketball they would have shot hoops together. 

Look how John puts it in 1st John 1:1 ... "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled ..."

This man Jesus, who from before eternity was invisible as the Word of God ... now becomes visible when He was manifested in human form, and was seen and handled by John and others as He passed thru thirty three and a half years of life on this earth.

One theme John pursues in his writings, is this one ... there is life in Jesus.  He doesn't just speak about the life of Jesus ... but that "Life" itself resided within Jesus.

John 1:4 ... "In Him was Life, and the life was the Light of men." 

The Life that was in Jesus, the true heart and soul of the young man John knew and loved, also said that Jesus ... was the Light of men.  Notice that John did not say that the Word was the light, even though Jesus was the Word and the Word is light … but rather that the "Life" that was in Jesus … was the light of men.  His breath, His spirit, His soul, His whole being, His … Life Force ... is the "Light."

The fact that men are fallen by nature and are "in the dark" about sin and the evil there is in the world has bound man in ignorance and unbelief.
 
The fact that they are "in the dark" and do not know what or who they are, where they are, or where they are going, is one reason God sent Jesus into the world so that the "Life" within Him would become the light of the world.

John 8:12 … "Once more Jesus addressed the crowd.  He said, I am the Light of the world.  He who follows Me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the Light which is Life."
   
John is explaining one of the things that happens when a person begins to follow Jesus and His teachings ... he is no longer in the dark just wandering through life.  Why is that?  In his first letter to the Church he writes in ...

1st John 1:5 ... "This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

Since God is light, He must be the source of light.  What can be said of God ... must also be said of Jesus.  If God is light, then Jesus is also the light now shining in the believers soul.  This Life in Jesus that John said was the Light of men ... is the source of wisdom, knowledge, holiness and peace that Jesus brings to the heart and soul of Christians.  You know ... Christians ... sinners saved by the grace and mercy of God through the blood of Jesus.  

Just as God is not the author of sin, He is also not the cause of darkness in the world ... He is the cure for darkness.  Are you in the dark?  You don't have to be ... turn on the light.  Turn on to Jesus.

His "life," the Spirit Being within Jesus, meaning His inward man, His heart, His purpose, His will and the desire of His Soul, the hidden part that made Him who He was … the love and "Life" of God resident within Him … was the Light of men.

The Life and Light of Jesus is to the human soul, what natural light is to the world.  Without it, the world would be very uncomfortable, cold and dismal, and the terror of evil, and it's companion, the fear of death, would universally prevail over all men in a dark world.

Is it any wonder that the Apostle John lays down first this most important principle which he learned personally from observing and listening to Jesus for three and a half years.  How ever Jesus did it ... He somehow filled John's soul with the Life and Light that He carried with Him as they lived together those three short years.

And what did John receive from Jesus?  Here's his words again ...

"This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

If the Sun was an example of the Trinity ... the Father would be the great ball of gas burning without end ... the Holy Spirit would be the heat and energy we feel ... and Jesus?  He would be the sunshine.

Sunshine brings a smile ... sunshine brings healing ... sunshine brings warmth ... sunshine brings a rainbow after the rain ... and sunshine brings Life and Light.
 
So ... as I asked in Part I ... do people see any of Jesus in me?  If not Lord, let them at least notice a small flicker of light from your life in me.

Thank you Jesus ...