The Divine Light
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2020 · 14 June 2020
Jesus is presented to us, as John opens the Word, as the Life and as the Light. Each of those is a way to speak of His deity. He is the Word because He is the communication of God. He is the Life because He is the very eternal Life itself who gives life to everything that lives. And He is the Light because He is the one true illuminator who illuminates all spiritual reality.
John 1:6-13 says, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”
“11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In the gospel of John, we have learned that Jesus is the Word and the Life. And this evening we learn that He is the Light. In verse 4, it is said of Him, “The life was the Light of men.” And then five subsequent times He is referred to as the Light. Let’s understand why this idea of light is attached to the Lord Jesus Christ. We typically experience light in a static way.
Light in fact, is energy. Science defines light as luminous energy, as radiant energy, as electromagnetic energy, and light is moving at a speed of 186,282 miles per second. It is not static. Remember Matthew 17:2, “And Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” Light is considered as a quantum phenomenon that cannot be comprehended.
When the spiritual light of Christ, hits the living soul, everything is illuminated in the spiritual realm. The Light, according to John, is none other than eternal life who is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word that comes from God. He is the Light because by Him everything in the spiritual realm is illuminated. Without Him, there is no Word from God, there is no life and no understanding.
John has captured some basic things, which are simple on the surface and yet profound to express, about who this person is that we call the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word is the Life, who is the Light that overpowers the darkness. The darkness, verse 5 says, cannot overpower the Light. Our Lord Jesus Christ makes everything spiritual discernible and visible. The spiritual realm is only visible in the light of Christ.
The Light will shine and reveal the nature of the Savior Himself. The Light will shine and also reveal the nature of sinners. It will shine and reveal the nature of believers. John has a gospel objective here. He says that he has written all these things that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing, have life in His name. So this is a gospel effort, this is an evangelistic book.
So we’ve been talking about the eternal Son of God, the second member of the Trinity. Verse 14 says, who “became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” So we’ve been talking about God who became a man. Now we have a shift in verse 6, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” We move from the uncreated One, the Creator, to a mere man.
He begins by pointing us in the direction of this testimony that comes from a man named John, the Baptist. Here, he’s referring to a different John. He’s talking about this John whose ministry was baptizing people who needed to repent and get their hearts right. John had people coming from Jerusalem and Judea to prepare them for the Messiah, on a superficial level, and he was baptizing them.
And his ministry is defined in simple terms in verse 7, “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” Looking at verse 6, it tells us that God sent a man whose name was John. This John was prophesied to come in Isaiah 40:3, he would be the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, and straighten out the highway.”
Secondly, his parents were barren. They were in their eighties. They would never been able to have children. John is miraculously conceived, which adds another component to the fact that he is definitely sent from the Lord. In Luke 1 his arrival was announced to his father by an angel who came from heaven. So this is a man sent from God in a very special way.
Even his timing was miraculous. Luke 1:80 says, “So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.” There was a day for his public appearance, and God had ordained that very day. And, in Matthew 14 and Matthew 21, we read that everybody knew he was a prophet because of the nature of his ministry and the nature of his preaching.
John came to give a message; he came to give a testimony. He came as a man who had true evidence from heaven regarding the Light. He had the facts by which to give the message, the testimony to the court of the world, so that they would understand the truth about the Light. He is giving the facts, the evidence concerning who Christ is, why He came, and what He has done.
Verse 8 says, “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” In John 3:25, the disciples of John the Baptist are having a dispute with the Jews about purification. 26 They said to John, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, (Christ) behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”
And John answered in verse 27, ‘A man can receive nothing unless it’s been given him from heaven.’” Which means, “Look, I received from God the commission and I have fulfilled it.” 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I’m not the Christ, but I have been sent ahead of Him.’” And that’s why in verse 30 John says, “He must increase, I must decrease.”
If they don’t hear the gospel, they can’t be saved. In Romans 10:13 it says, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Then verse 14, “How will they call on Him in whom they haven’t believed? How will they believe in Him whom they haven’t heard? How will they hear without a preacher? 15 How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things.”
Verse 17, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word concerning Christ.” So John is a model. John came to give testimony about the Lord Jesus Christ, so that all might believe through his ministry. That’s why Paul says in Romans 1:16, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It’s the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.” 1 Corinthians 1:24 says, “To those who are called, Christ is the power of God.”
So the light is shining, first on the nature of true ministry. Secondly, the light illuminates the true nature of the Son of God. We know the Trinity because we see all three persons of the Trinity engaged in the Old Testament. We see that there are conversations between the members of the Trinity. In Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
We would know a little about the nature of God because His attributes are disclosed in the Old Testament. But there would be a measure of darkness until the light appears, and the light illuminates Himself. The light shines to reveal the very Light itself, the very essence of Christ. And what we learn in verse 9 is “there was the true Light, which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
Now the second member of the Trinity becomes clear to us. When Christ arrived, we see who He is. We know that He was working in the Old Testament. He was the commander of the Army of the Lord in Joshua 5 before the fall of Jericho. We know that He was the One on the throne in Isaiah 6 of whom the angel said, “Holy, holy, holy.” We know that He is the Savior of Isaiah 52 and 53.
When we come to the New Testament and the Light arrives illuminating Himself, only then do we see the light of the glory of God like never before, shining in the face of Jesus Christ. He is the expression of the Father’s glory, the image of His person, says Hebrews 1. He is the One in whom the Godhead dwells bodily. He is the one in whom the glory of God is revealed, full of grace and truth.
What does it mean, “To give light to every man”? This was not available in the Old Testament. No one really could see the full glory of Christ until He came into the world. He is the only Light for every person. Everybody who experienced salvation and His role as the Savior, everyone who understands that, understands it because they see Jesus Christ for who He is.
Everyone who sees and understands spiritual reality, who sees the supernatural world the way it really is, is enlightened because he has seen the light of Christ. You can’t be saved apart from Christ. He says in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world. No man who follows me will ever walk in darkness.” The only light the world has is Christ. He is the only light that can enlighten anyone.
The light of salvation shines only in Jesus Christ. Christ is to the souls of men what the sun is to the world. He is the center and source of all spiritual light. He shines for the common benefit of all mankind, for rich and for poor, for Jew and for Greek. Christ is free to all. If people on earth were mad enough to reject the good news outright, their darkness would be their own fault.
How did He manifest Himself? Verse 10, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him.” He was in the world for thirty-three years. He came into His creation. For thirty years in Nazareth, the people knew Him, but the first time He came back to preach, they tried to kill Him. For three years, He ministered in Israel, banished illness, banished demons and demonstrated His power over nature.
And He demonstrated His creative power. He gave people limbs, gave people organs, gave people eyes, and new hearing. He gave people life from the dead, controlled storms, walked on water. He showed His creative power. He put Himself on display by being in the world. This is the greatest manifestation of the Savior, the second member of the Trinity, who would be our sacrifice.
Thirdly - Christ illuminated the true nature of sinners. Verse 10 continues, “And the world did not know Him.” He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. We understand that men are sinners and that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked in Jeremiah 17:9. We understand the fall in Genesis 3. We understand the depth of human depravity.
But never has that profound nature of darkness been more on display than when people reject the Light. Rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the most devastating indication of the depth of human sin. Engulfed in spiritual death and blindness, they love their sin. Men love darkness rather than light. They don’t know the Son of God in John 1. And that is still true today.
And in verse 11, “He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.” Well, it means His own place, His own people and His own nation. It wasn’t just the Gentile world that didn’t know Him. Even today, it is the very Jewish people who claimed to believe in the true God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Old Testament that do not receive Him.
Christ came to His own people, and those who were His own people did not receive Him. How deep is depravity? The greatest illustration of human depravity in history is the Jewish rejection of Christ when He was here. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” John’s going to show us the history all through this gospel of Jewish rejection of Christ.
Fourth. The Light illuminated the true nature of believers. We are told that the plan was not thwarted in spite of the world’s rejection and the rejection of Israel. Verse 12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” That’s the true nature of believers. We cry “Abba, Father,” we speak to God as our personal Father because we are His children.
This is the second creation. That’s why it’s called “the new birth” or being “born again. The One who created us physically, will create us spiritually. Verse 13, “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” So the true nature of a believer is that that person is a new creation, a child of God forever. The Light coming into the world also illuminated the true nature of God.
To be a child, you have to be born again, “who were born not of blood.” You don’t become a child of God, because of your parents or your ancestry. “Nor of the will of the flesh.” Not because of personal moral effort, personal spiritual effort or personal religious activity. “Nor of the will of man.” You’re not going to become a child of God by your own choice or by some manmade system.
Only God can do this miracle. God is by nature a Savior. He is a Savior whose mighty power causes us to receive His Son and to believe in His name. At the very foundation we need to know that in the ministry of evangelism and gospel presentation and giving testimony and witness to Christ, God will work to give life to dead sinners. It is in His nature to do that. Let’s pray.