Saturday, January 15, 2011
John 1:4-5 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
JESUS, JESUS, ONLY JESUS
Eternal life is only in Jesus the Christ. When you have life from him you have of light as well. That is why there is no possibility of understanding the world and the universe in which we live without eternal life from the Son of God.
Everywhere in Scripture we are invited to pursue knowledge and discover what is around us in all the exciting mysteries God has hidden in life. We can pursue science, medicine, art, literature and politics, and all that is right. But still there is something more. If that is all we have, life at that level is narrow and limited, and we can never understand what is really going on.
It is only as we gain God's view of life, revealed to us in His Word, centering on Christ and the words coming from the lips of Jesus, that we begin to put all the pieces together. Only then can we see who we are, why we are here, and get the answers to life's serious puzzles.
So as John here introduces his gospel he wants us to understand this: That the One he is going to talk about, this amazing man from Nazareth, is God himself somehow become a Man. He is the very Creator become part of his creation, the Originator of life and of wisdom, Who somehow limited himself to learning as a little child,
growing and partaking with us in the search for truth, and, at last,
manifesting the fullness of it in his resurrected power.
This is the One who is at the center of our faith, the One with Whom every human must deal sooner or later -- Jesus of Nazareth. He is the ultimate crisis in every human life. It was John's prayer that through the message he brought to others many would put their faith in Jesus as Son of God and Savior.
May that be our prayer as well. And our work. For the light we have received, the life that is ours through Jesus Christ, that is not intended just for us.
