The word light has many connotations. It can mean wisdom, knowledge, purity, righteousness, insight, prophecy, etc. Light can also refer to a personal spiritual condition, a right relationship with God.
1 John 1:7 NKJV But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
There are many lights in the world and not everyone is a testimony of the truth.
Matthew 6:23 NKJV But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Jesus was wanting us to examine our spiritual light. We need to know if we have true Light in us.
1 John 2:8 NKJV Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
Notice that John is showing the impact of Jesus Christ in a believer’s life. Here in 1 John, the true light is already shining. Throughout John’s Gospel, this true Light is revealed, Jesus is shown in His glory.
John 1:9–11 NKJV That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Verse 9 says: “The true Light” was Jesus Christ. What does this mean?It means that Jesus Christ was what other men are not. The revelation of true Light is in Christ.
Jesus Christ alone is the true Light.
Being the pure and holy Son of God, Jesus makes a distinction between good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness. Jesus makes it possible for us to find the way, truth and life. He is the only way out of the darkness of ignorance and sin. Jesus Christ is the only escape from the judgment and danger that is coming on the face of the earth. Jesus Christ’s mission is to give life and light to men.
Something is unique about the way that Jesus Christ gives light. The Bible shows us how God has given light and revelation to men.
Psalm 19:1 NKJV The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Psalm 97:6 NKJV The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples see His glory.
God’s works have shown His glory and handiwork. There is a degree of light there. Whenever we look at creation, we see the glory of the Creator.
Romans 1:20 NKJV For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
God has made it possible to see His invisible attributes through the things that are made. According to the Scriptures, God gave enough light so that anyone can see and know.
Acts 14:17 NKJV Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
A long time before the manifestation of Christ, God revealed truth by the many things He created. Every good and perfect gift is a declaration of God and His power, glory, holiness and being.
James 1:17 NKJV Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Take a look around you at this world and universe and you will see God’s power, glory, holiness, and being. In Jesus Christ, God has given even more light into the world. God has not only revealed Himself by the things He has done, He has sent the true Light of Jesus Christ into the world.
Jesus is the Savior who stands before the world as “the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world” (John 11:27). Everyone can now see the truth. They may reject it, but they can see it. Jesus the Christ is God’s revelation of the Truth.
John 1:12–13 NKJV But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Where do we find truth? From the beginning, man had a fascination with finding and knowing truth and light. When the man and the woman were tempted in the garden, Satan questioned the truth of what God said. Since then, people have attempted to find true light any way they could.
In Deuteronomy 18, God had been coming down on Sinai to reveal His truth to them. God made a difference between true and false light, (vss. 9-14). God condemned the practice of divination, fortune telling, interpreting omens, sorcery, charmers or medium or necromancer or one who inquires of the dead. He was showing what was an abomination and what is true.
Everything that claims to point to truth and enlightenment is not really truth. God was saying all of these things are an abomination to God and are false lights. They propose to have truth but they are full of lies and darkness. Egypt had been filled with all manner of these practitioners.
The people of Israel were not familiar with God’s true light. Although God had been coming down on Mount Horeb, the assembly was frightened when they heard God’s voice. They said: “Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die,”(Deuteronomy 18:16). They were too frightened to dwell in God’s presence. The revelation of His truth and Light and was too much for them. They asked God to send someone who would speak for God.
Deuteronomy 18:18 NKJV God said: “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.”
God promised to send a man that would have true Light. In conjunction with promising the true Light, God condemned every falsehood. As a result, when Christ appeared He said, “The Father in Heaven has sent Me to speak to the world.”
John 8:26 NKJV “I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.”
John 12:49 NKJV “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.”
Jesus the Christ came into the world as the true Light from God.
John 12:46 NIV I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Through Christ everyone can now be delivered from the darkness of sin, despair, death, and hell.
John 8:12 NKJV Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Ephesians 5:14 NKJV Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.
This is good news for anyone in darkness of sin. There is a way out of the darkness, the Light has come. In order to continue His great work, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be sent into the world.
John 16:13 NKJV “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
John 16:8-11 NKJV “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
John 3:19 NKJV And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
All of the true light that exists in the world is a result of Jesus Christ.
The light from nature and the light from heaven come from Christ. The light from the physical world and from the spiritual world comes from Christ. Christ is “the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” (John 1:9)
It is important to remember the pattern of what was established back in Deuteronomy with Israel. God came down to reveal His glory and give them His Word. The people were terrified at His power and reality of the supernatural presence of God. As a result of their terror and fear of God, they wanted to gain access to God through human intervention.
God was acutely aware of human tendency.
He knew they would follow the pattern of Adam and Eve and the people of Babel. They would use any method or spiritual aide in an attempt to find truth, spiritual knowledge, and life.
God said He would send a Prophet Who would come in His Name. The assembly said: “that is a good thing!” It was a good thing, until God sent His prophets. They rejected them, stoned some, and killed others. Then God sent His Son, who was the perfect fulfillment of His promise. Just as they had rejected the glory of God and the Word that was revealed on Horeb, Jesus Christ was despised and rejected by the world.
John 1:10-11 NKJV He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Jesus the Christ, the Word and the Light was in the world.
Jesus Christ is more than a child in a manger. He is more than a miracle worker, Healer, Savior. We must see more than a suffering Savior. He is the victorious resurrected Lord. Jesus is the ascended King of glory.
See Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of the living God. He was the Maker and Creator of the world. He sustains all things by the word of His mouth. He loves and deeply cares for the world. See Jesus Christ as He actively works to help the world and its people from the very beginning of creation. He gave the light of order, purpose, and beauty to the whole universe. He supplied the universe with everything that is needed to take care of man’s needs. The world shows the glorious imprint of His power and glory.
He created all things by the word of His mouth. He is the One who gave us a spirit and soul. The spirit is the light of man that gives us the ability to know and worship God. The spirit of man gives us life forever. He made us a little lower than the angels. He gave us the ability to learn, reason, and choose. We can love, care, work and serve. The very life of God was breathed into man’s nostrils.
God gave messengers to men. He gave prophets that proclaimed the truth. They encouraged humanity to follow God. They clearly revealed who is the Light of the World. They told what He would do, where He would be born and how He would live.
John said the world did not know Him. The problem still persists today. They rejected Christ. Their eyes were filled with darkness and they failed to see Him.
Christ came to His own people, but they also rejected Him. “Unto His own” literally means to His own possession, home, to His own people.
There are two meanings here.
The world is His, and all people are His by creation. He came to all the people of the world, but they rejected Him. The world did not recognize Him.
“He came to His own,” the nation of Israel was His unique home. They were the chosen people. They were to be God’s messengers to the world. They should have known better because of the special privileges, but they rejected Him.
Matthew 8:34 NKJV And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.
Mark 6:3 NKJV “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.
Luke 4:28-29 NKJV “So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.”
A synagogue is an assembly of people who gather together, specifically to worship God. Jesus came to the place where God is worshipped and they cast Him out.
John 1:11-13 NKJV He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
When they “believe on His name” they “received Him.” As they receive Him, they are given power to become children of God. The word “right” means both power and right or authority. The words “to become” means to become something a person is not. The word “children” means child, daughter, or son of God.
When a person receives Jesus Christ into their life (as Lord); they are given the power and right to become something they are not—a child of God. How deep does that go? This gift from God is enough to bring us out of the darkness and make us LIGHT in this world. It is enough to take the things that constitute, structure, and define us and change them, so that we are a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:15-16 NKJV For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
