Friday, February 13, 2009
John 1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
IN HIM WAS LIFE
What is life? Everybody senses the difference between life and death. And a scientist can analyze what elements make up a living substance, but when he puts it all together, the result is not life. The elements are there, the chemistry is there, but something is missing. It will not grow. It will not develop. It is not alive. What is life? No one knows. Life itself is one of the great mysteries of life.
But what the Word declares to us is that God alone is the source of life. Jesus is life! Plants have life. He gave it to them. Animals have a higher form of life. He gave it to them. Human beings have a still higher form of life, and He is the source of it. Jesus stands at the beginning and the end of every human life.
But the life of which John speaks here is more than mere breathing -- even human breathing. We see this in the linking of life and light. In the physical world, light is necessary for life. In the spiritual realm, the same is true.
Light here is a symbol of knowledge, of understanding, of truth. Jesus alone gives the knowledge that makes for eternal life, a life that does not die, and it is in the message of who He is and what He has done for us through His living and dying in our place. As He Himself says, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6).
And as John declares in his first letter, "He that has the Son has [that kind of] life, and he that does not have the Son of God does not have [that kind of] life" (1 John 5:12}. So eternal life comes only from Christ. And when you have life from Him you have light as well -- the light of life.
Without the sun there would be no physical life on earth and no light by which to live. Without Jesus there can be no spiritual life, no life with God, and no light by which to live as God's people.
