“Kingdom of God: Christ, The Light of Life”

We go on tonight with the subject of the “great light” that Isaiah prophesied would come in order to deliver those in the land of the shadow of death, those dwelling in darkness.

Jesus spoke of Himself as the personification of Isaiah’s prophecy when He said, ‘I am the ‘Light of the world’, in Jn 8:12. 

Earlier, in the first chapter of John, we are given some important information concerning this ‘great light’ Who had come into the world.

‘In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.’ In relationship to all men, He is ‘...the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ (vs 4 and 9)

The word ‘light’, as it is used in these verses, suggests both a physical and an ethical condition, similar to how Mt 6:23 and Lu 11:35 read.

That is, He is the ‘light’ that lights every person who comes into this world, in the sense that each human being has been given an inner moral compass.

It is as Rom 2:15 states, ‘those who have no knowledge of God’s moral law exhibit the effect of the law written on their hearts, their consciences corroborating it, endorsing the existence of such a law.’

So, Christ is the ‘light of men’ that lights every human being  with a conscience that holds each man morally accountable. 

Now, let us turn to Jn, chapter 8, to see the distinction Jesus made between the man’s moral aptitude and the actual spiritual divine illumination that Jesus is to man.

There, Jesus included being the ‘Light of Life’ in contrast to the ‘dark’ of the darkness which was being shown in the episode of the woman caught in an act of sin.

The religious and moral leaders condemned her outrightly, but - their judgment and condemnation of her was for the express purpose of using her misdeeds as the way of trapping Jesus. 

Here was a good example of the ‘blind leading the blind’, of those described in Rom 1:19, who persuade themselves as being perfect guides ‘to the blind, a light to their darkness.’

Yes - they were confirming, by their natural instinct, the existence of the moral law.

Yet, the inconsistencies of a man’s judgments over the moral law was also being exposed! 

To discriminate about this matter of sins when sitting in judgment over others is quite different from judging one’s self. 

So how much darker the darkness was, became even more so as they tried to censure the ‘great Light’ before them in the act of judging this sinful woman!

But Jesus identified the darkness of sin: sin is sin, and the darkness of that dark demanded an arousal.

So He said to them all: ‘Whosoever among you is sinless, let him cast the first stone.’

Thus, He activated their consciences and used their consciences as the vehicle to impel them onward.   

Look at verse 9: ‘And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out, one by one...’.

And, through that, their own little bit of moral and ethical light they had (just by virtue of being human beings), stamped “Guilty!’ across the darkness of their hearts!

But how did Jesus differentiate between their moral consciences that laid that guilt upon them and the ‘Light of Life’ that could absolve them from sin and guilt?

He identified the difference by saying: ‘...he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life.’

Arthur Pink wrote about this qualifying condition, and I quote: ‘In these words, Christ defined the state of the natural man.

The unregenerate have ‘light’; they are capable of weighing moral issues: they have a conscience which either accuses or excuses them; and they have the capacity to recognize innumerable evidences which testify to the existence and natural attributes of the great Creator; so that ‘they are without excuse.’ 

But spiritual light they do not have. Consequently, though they are endowed with intelligence and moral discernment, ‘spiritually’ they are ‘in darkness’.” (End of quote)

The shining of the fullness of God’s Light is designed to pierce through the darkness of understanding and moral knowledge because having that form or framework of knowledge and the essentials of truth alone does not absolve nor excuse a man from accepting God’s great work. (Rom 1:20)

Man still stands in dire need of following the ‘Light of Life’, to fully come out of the ‘shadow of darkness.’

And he needs the challenge of seeing how ‘dark’ the darkness really is!

Thus, Jesus struck the conscience first.

And the quiet exit of these men after His incriminating challenge demonstrated the power of exposure to His Light!

To the woman, He said: ‘Go and sin no more’. He challenged her in the purity of His sinless Light.

She could choose to follow Jesus and have His ‘Light of Life’ in order to live in the clearness and the cleanness of it and no longer be slave to the sin that had condemned her. 

Was her conscience motivated to take this further step into the higher life?

The Scripture does not give us the answer to that question.

But it does go on to open to us the further teaching of Jesus about His ‘Light of Life’.   

And, here, He set into motion a mighty force of teaching that has gone on through the centuries - swelling and increasing, becoming larger and larger, stronger and stronger - teaching that will one day outstrip all else!

In arousing their consciences, Jesus was dealing with the great doctrinal system God had instituted from the beginning and showed how this light of the Eternal system will never die out.

He implied that they were all in the same spiritual darkness. 

Although, in them, there was a ‘form of godliness’, yet the power of it was not there. 

The ‘Light of Life’ was not in them.

Had there been a recognition of Who Jesus was, there would have been a seeing of the true character of God now. 

For the light of the world infuses man with a conscience that has the potential of seeing God through the ‘Light of Life’ clearly.

As each human being follows Him to come out of his own darkness ‘into His marvelous Light’, conscience - of  necessity - will need to bend to this ‘Light of Life’. 

So that, if conscience is fully and truly honest before itself, it will eventually surrender to the will of God and say: ‘I surrender my will to yours, God.’

And what is God’s will? 

Jesus expressed it: ‘This is the will of My Father Who sent Me, that everyone who sees (that is, to all who have the ‘Light’ of Life) - everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him, may have everlasting life...’. (Jn 6:40)

It is expressed in the well-grounded proposition that God’s will includes ‘seeing’ His Son and believing on Him.

That is made clear to every man who truly surrenders to the actual will of God - for those who claim to know God will surrender to His perfect will and follow the Light of Life.

In that way, the door to the ‘Light of Life’ swings wide open and a man can walk through it into that ‘Light of Life.’

This is what is to be universally spread abroad to bring all to the final end when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as the Christ and as Lord.

Thus, since Jesus knew their need of acknowledging and appropriating His Light, He challenged these leaders, in Jn 8, to understand the claims He was making about Himself and God, His Father.

To their claim of He being a liar, He said: ‘I know Who I am; I know from whence I came; I know where I am going.’

‘Eternal Truth and Light is consistent against the inconsistencies of darkness and time’, He was indicating.

He was just letting these men know that - whatever He said, whatever He did - it was all based on the infallible certainty that He and God, His Father, were one. 

And, if they really knew God, they would know Him also. 

If they really knew God, the Father, as they claimed, they would also know Him for He had come, not only as the Light of His Father to the world, but, also, as the Light of Life to ‘whosoever will’.

And in that Light, all perceptions and understanding are
centered: they are all rooted in the things of heaven. 

Were they doing their ‘own thing’ in respect to private piety and religious preferences?

To be sure they were!

They were judging ‘after the flesh’ so they were not totally devoid of a moral conscience, as we have already seen.

But, they were not really in contact with God so they were unable to understand when Jesus spoke from the Father to them.

And Jesus had to tell them they would ‘die in their sin’ for theirs was the central, decisive sin of not recognizing God in Jesus: ‘...for if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins’, He told them, in v 24. 

Some of the Jews who heard Him speak this believed Him.

And, to them, He went on to say, ‘If you abide in My Word, then are ye truly My disciples.’ 

Yes! There was the secret that was consistent with the qualification of following Him as the Light of Life: ‘if ye abide in My Word...’.

When the Light of Life crashes through a man’s moral goodness, it will manifest itself in conscious repentance by following Jesus.

Then, ‘ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.’ (v 32)

Darkness cannot remain darkness when the Light of the Eternal has overcome the darkness. 

A dark room is no longer dark when the light has been turned on. 

Before it goes on, we can only imagine what might be in the room.

But - when it is on, we see the room’s content.

So - when the Eternal Light reaches the heart in its fullness, truth opens the eyes of the heart and we are free to walk in its unconscious holiness for all time and eternity.

‘Come - come to Something - Someone - greater than what you now know’: this is the summons Jesus gave.

I think, to each one of us, there come times when we feel so much ‘at home’ in walking in the ‘Light of Life’, we find we cannot walk otherwise.

We find it to be a glorious Light which we cannot be without.

There is a radiance at the very center of our faith in Him that makes us realize - and see - that Christ is the one certain, natural Light in all the universe.

In Him, everything is gathered into harmony and truth and knowledge.

It beckons us to attain to its enlargement and reality each day of our lives.

May our hearts gladly and willingly keep opening to that fullness.

And may our understanding of it be constantly increasing in and through the ministry of His Holy Spirit working so mightily in each of us.

Let Him go on and let us keep yielding to His Light of Life each day of this new week.

May He bless you to that end.

Amen.

Let us pray.