You Have the Light Giver; You Have Life

John 1:1-9 

There are four views of the gospel, but there is only one Gospel. The good news is Jesus Christ who was in the beginning. Also, there are two other identities of Jesus which are light and life. 

The book of John's first chapter is an introduction or summary of the Gospel. John introduces the God who always existed and created everything. 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

John 1:4-5 ESV 

When John talks about life he means that the Word was personified and carried life because the Word was life. Because the Word was life, it was able to transmit life through creation. Jesus existed by himself and was a life by itself which is beyond explanation of His origin. In other words, he was self-contained. Many Christians debated whether or not Jesus was subordinate to God, but John made it clear that Jesus was the same essence of God and was a life giver. 

Science tells us that there is a causal relationship with all things. Something is created by something. Aristotle, the renowned philosopher, studied the behavior of nature and the study of creation. He looked back at nature and realized causal effects are found in all nature. Everything has been caused by something. Aristotle could not go far back enough to show the original cause of all things, so he looked to the heavens. The “unmovable mover” caused everything to go into motion and therefore was the origin of creation.  

Jesus was a self-existing god and did not require creation to define Him. Jesus existed before creation and was still God. Jesus is no mere teacher or deity. Jesus does not need us but rather we need God. Jesus remains to be God whether we acknowledge Him or not. 

Since Jesus is a self-existing god, He can also be a life giver. John goes back to Genesis to the beginning; however, John also wants us to focus on the creation of man. 

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 

Genesis 2:7 ESV 

We read in Genesis that God created all animals but it is only man that it is mentioned that God breathed in the breath of life to man.   

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." 

Genesis 2:16-17 ESV 

The breath of life is the eternal life of God. That was the death that Adam and Eve experienced. God intended all men to have this life. Jesus came to us in physical form to bring back the breath of life. 

The light of men is another quality of Jesus. John declares that Jesus is the light of men. This light acts as the power to allow men to love God and to access eternity. 

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 

John 1:9-10 ESV 

 John is not just talking about the difference of darkness and light, but is about the spiritual illumination which shows us the need of God and a savior. Jesus comes into our human world so that men can see what they are lacking. 

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 

Genesis 1:2-3 ESV 

Later John makes it clear that God choses us when he quotes Jesus. God is working in us when that light illuminates our failings and we draw closer to God to be sustained in love and saved. The light is not to harm us  

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 

John 6:44 ESV 

Let us draw to that light so that we may repent of our sins and become closer to God.