John 1:3 part two

 The Gospel of John - Lesson Three

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men

It is not possible to exhaust all meaning from this verse, it seems to me as I dwell on it, it becomes richer and richer in meaning. "In Him was life".  Think about all at verse entails.  It's a great verse to meditate on and search the heart of God.  I am going to list some ideas that you may want to run with as you think about this verse and all it means.

1. Life was from Him who was with God.  Life stems from Him who was not created.  Life did not stem from that which was created.  An important point - life didn't evolve from the material world, it is a gift from the creator.  Whether you look at this as biological life, or a deeper richer eternal life/spiritual life you must understand one thing - its origin is not material, its origin comes from the heart of the creator.
2. This life came to us from a Person.  We miss this, we all miss this.  IN HIM WAS LIFE, it was in the person of Jesus Christ that life originated.  This gives us insight into what biblical life and spirituality is.  Spiritual life rests in a person - it is personal, and relational.  It is not a force, or a principle of science, it is not a series of steps, it is not an equation, a law, or a set of rules.  Spiritual life is intensely personal in nature and relational in context.  Is fasting spiritual?  It might not be according to this verse.  How about giving someone a cup of water?  According to this verse it is.  Helping others to understand the life of God and helping them see the light is a very spiritual thing.  Marriage, by its very nature is spiritual.  Friendship is spiritual.  Celebrating birthdays, helping the elderly, eating dinner with a friend...all of these hint at the root of spirituality. 
3. Based on point 2 - not all things that we call spiritual, or spiritual life are in fact spiritual.  If you look around you our daily life is full of people who want to be spiritual.  They will claim that this or that is a spiritual thing.  They will claim this is the path to spiritual living, or that is.  If you compare religions you will find certain  practices which are common to all 'worshippers'.  Here is some insight...not all practices which claim to be spiritual are spiritual, not all leaders who claim to be spiritual leaders are spiritual leaders, not everything we call spiritual is spiritual.  The object of spiritual life is to make us people like Christ.  It will be to cause us to imitate Christ.  To be like him in relation to all around us.  Many have been lead astray at this point.  Many have followed a form of spiritual life that is not centered in the person of Jesus Christ.  When we fall for that pseudo-spiritual life, we are not becoming more spiritual in the truest sense of the word.  Here is a question to ask yourself - if I do this, will it help me love people the way that Jesus loved people?  Great question and it will help us root out those false practices which make us feel holy, but make us act carnal.
4. Spiritual life is light - it guides our way and illuminates everything around us.  It reveals what is true and real, and also what is false and temporary.  It lights the way before us and draws us deeper into the Wisdom of the Logos...the ways of Jesus.  The Greek word for "WORD" from verse 1 is LOGOS.  The word Logos can point us to the written Word of God, it can point us to the Wisdom of God, it can point so many places.  There is a verse in Luke which points us to this "And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature with God".  Spiritual life and Wisdome are synonymous with each other.  Show me a man that is close to living like Jesus and I will show you a man that is rich in Godly wisdom.  If Jesus had to grow in wisdom, so do we.  We grow in our ability to look at the Word of God and apply it to life, in a way which points men to the greatness of God.  In a way which unite men in the Unity of the Spirit.  It's a life of humility and sacrifice.  Do you seek wisdom?  I am not talking about wisdom regarding how to fish, or programme, or do budgets - wisdom in knowing how to walk as Jesus walked, how to love like Jesus loved. 

Do not be fooled by false imitations of spiritual life, there is life found in no other than the Word of God, the Logos, the Christ.  Begin this life of illumination by asking Jesus to guide you, pray that Jesus would come into your heart and begin to illuminate the darkness.   "Lord Jesus, I want to know true life, I want to know the life that begins in You.  Fill my life with that life, give me Your life, and with it begin to be my light.  Reveal to me ways in which I can be more like you, and from my life drive the darkness away.  Help me to understand you better, and your ways. Amen"

John 1:4

Gospel of John Lesson 2

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men

Has anyone ever told you to 'get a life'?  I know I get told that all the time.  What exactly does someone mean when they tell someone else to 'get a life'?  Actually, getting a life is at the core of this verse.  John is writing to us telling us a very simple truth.  True life is found in Jesus Christ.  'But I am alive' one may argue.  Ah, but you see John isn't merely talking about biological life.  He is talking about true living.  I have heard it said many times "that person is alive, but they have never really lived".  That is at the crux of what John is saying.  True life, life that we all crave, is found in the Word...it is found in Jesus Christ.  Apart from him you seem to be alive, but you are not really alive.

Lets take a person who lives on the street.  We look at them, they have no steady shelter, no source of income, no steady source of food.  Perhaps they have personal issues, perhaps they have been dealt a bad hand.  Maybe they drink too much, or struggle with past shame and hurt.  Whatever the situation, many people would look at them and say "what a life".  We might not wish that type of life on our worst enemy...but people living like that are all around us.  How many of us, deep down inside, are broken?  How many of us have hurts, and issues,  and needs?   How many of us are hiding some secret shame from our childhood?  How many of us are hiding a fear of failure, or some secret sin?  How many of us are agonizing over a broken family relationship, or regrets from past friendships?  Let's face it, very few of us have it all together.  We are one or two steps up from the street dweller, BUT there is before us a ladder that reaches up into heaven.  John is telling us there are new heights to living as we grow in Christ.  Jesus offers us a fresh look at life, in fact, he offers us the only true look at life you will ever be offered.  In Him is LIFE.

Life is more than having your stomach filled.  Its more than being healthy and warm.  It's more than a corvette, or a house in malibu, or a loaded swiss bank account.  Life is more than that...we may want to settle for those things, but even the best that this world has to offer pales in comparison with what Christ can give you.  The Christ life, that is what we all thirst for, that is the only thing that can truly quench our thirst...saint and sinner alike.  Only by partaking in what Jesus is offering can we be truly free of the weakness of the flesh.  Only then can we be free of the cares of this world.

The second part of that passage, let's dwell on it....His life is the light of men!  Wow, what a picture.  His life is a light which reveals the true darkness of the imitaiton life we are all settling for.  Oh, that false life we settle for, we call it by different names.  Perhaps we call it religion, or church, or morality, or partying, or sports, or the high life, or adventure seeking, or carousing.  Perhaps its drugs sex and rock and roll.  Maybe you call it nature, or ethics, or a good book, or friendship, or family.  There are a million things that Jesus has created which attempts to fill our lives with meaning and purpose, but they can all be taken away from us.  And when they are gone, we are left with an emptiness that reminds us of our loss.  We try to get over it, maybe we do, or maybe we don't.  Maybe we find something new to fill the void.  Whatever we find, it is temporary and cannot compare to the joy of one minute in the presence of God where true life dwells.  Only Jesus really lived, and because only he truly lived, only he could have truly died for us. 

His life is offered to us today.  Will you open your heart to him?  True spirituality is finding that life in Christ.  True life is finding the fullness of the indwelling Christ and partaking of His holy nature.  Do you sense a thirst in your soul?  Do you sense that there must be something more to life?  In Him is LIFE, and that LIFE is our light...the light of mankind.

Pray with me: Lord Jesus, I want to find life in You.  I want to be filled with Your life, with Your wisdom and presence.  Draw near to me today and light my path.  Be my light and show me the emptiness around me.  But more than that, show me how to truly live - give me Your life.  Amen

John 1:1-3

The Gospel of John - Lesson One

John wants his readers to know something right off the bat.  Jesus was the Word of God.  But not only that, the Word was with God in the beginning.  That is a very striking comment, perhaps not for us today in the 21st century, but it would have been for John's readers.  If you were fluent in the Septuagint you wouldn't miss what John was saying...not in a million years.  For the same three words begin the Old Testament 'in the beginning'.  John's readers would have been instantly transported back to the Garden of Eden where 'in the beginning' GOD created.  The beginning of John and Genesis are linked in an unbreakable bond, signifying the eternal presence of God's Son.  Many people find this hard to believe, but this is what John is trying to get us to understand before we go any deeper into his book.  The first three verses speak volumes.  You cannot read the first 3 verses of John and come away with any different understanding than this - Jesus is God.  Lets look at some translations and how they handle John 1:1-3...Here are 5 different translations:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. NIV

In the beginning the Word already existed.The Word was with God,and the Word was God.He existed in the beginning with God.God created everything through him,and nothing was created except through him. NLT

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. NASB

In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made. ISV

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;  this one was in the beginning with God;  all things through him did happen, and without him happened not even one thing that hath happened. Young's Literal

As you read each of the versions notice carefully that John is stressing that through the Word (Jesus) all things were created.  And nothing that has ever been created came into existence apart from the Word.  What did John want his readers to know about Jesus?  Take some time and read each of these translations and try and get into John's mind and what he was trying to get his readers to understand.

Who was 'in the beginning' with God?

Was the Word God, or was He with God, was he separate from God?

How can the Word be 'with' God, and be God?

Who existed in the beginning 'with' God?

Who did God create everything through?

Was anything made without the Word?

If you look at these verses you might be a bit confused, but you needn't be.  John is just introducing you to an idea that he has had his whole life.  Jesus is God.  But there also seems to be someone with Jesus who also was God.  We have 2 choices...either there were 2 Gods here spoken about, or there is only one God spoken about, but two persons make  up that God.  If you read carefully, you will come to understand there are two persons being talked about and only ONE GOD.  "The Word was WITH God, and the Word WAS God."  For John, it is critical that you understand this, apart from this truth you cannot understand the rest of what John is trying to tell us.

Jesus was pivotal as the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  He was crucial in relating the Old Covenant and the New Covenant to one another.  Jesus alone turned the world upside down  and everyone had an opinion of who He was, and what He was.  History would hold onto all of these ideas, and John wanted his voice heard, as one of the disciples of Jesus.  He wanted you to hear the truth about Jesus from the horses mouth, so to speak.  Oh, many people would tell their version of who Jesus was, and history would record Jesus many different ways.  John wanted to make sure that we understood what the disciple's thought and taught about the person of Jesus.  He was not just a good teacher, or a good man, or a political activist, or a Gnostic archon, He was God in the Flesh.

In fact, he wanted us to understand the divinity of Christ so much that he posed a second argument.  One that maybe we can follow easier.  It an argument from Logic and it would appeal to any Jew or learned man who came across it.  It goes like this

Premise 1) God Himself created everything.

Here is our first premise, GOD CREATED EVERYTHING. There was no doubt in the Jewish mind about this premise.  All of John's readers would agree that in the beginning GOD created EVERYTHING.  No question about it.  Not even a doubt.  There were 2 things John's readers knew for sure of 1-God Himself was eternal and therefore not a creation and 2-everything else besides God was a creation. 

Premise 2)God through Christ created everything that has ever been made.

John gives us the second premise...God created everything through the WORD, so that nothing that has been made was made without Him.  Now this is important, John wanted us to know that everything that was created was created through Jesus.  God and Jesus together created everything.  John is hoping you will see clearly what he is trying to get at.

Conclusion: If Jesus was with God when God created EVERYTHING, clearly Jesus was not created.  This is the conclusion John wants you to come to about Jesus.  Maybe John can't explain how Jesus preceded all of creation, but he knows He did.  And he wanted his readers to know that as well.  John had heard others talking about Jesus.  Some in John's day said he was just a man, some said Jesus was an angel, some said the Christ came upon Jesus for just a little while on the cross.  All the stories we hear today, they had most of them back then.  John had heard them all, and he wanted us to know his position on the matter. As far as John was concerned, God and Jesus, who also was God, created everything together.  And without them, nothing came into existence, nothing.  They both existed before creation.  

John's logic is so clear, there is something special about Jesus.  He was there in the beginning, and it was through Him that everything was created.  If you read the rest of the Gospel of John, and the letters that he wrote to the Churches you will have to agree on one thing.  The person of Jesus was of primal importance to John.  Read those verses again and I hope you can agree with John....you are not sure how, but somehow Jesus is God and was with God when everything was created.  For John, the first lesson we need to learn is the divinity of Christ.  The rest of the book needs to be read with this understanding, for apart from it you may miss very important parts.  

Pray with me: "Lord Jesus, I am not sure how all this fits together, but I do know that John claimed you were God - help me to understand all of what he wrote.  I can understand God being before everything, but God was with Jesus and Jesus was God...it makes no sense, but its what you wanted him to write.  Help me understand how special Jesus was and is, as we go through the rest of the Gospel of John.  I open my heart to your teachings and ask that you reveal yourself to me.  Amen"