iii. Verse 4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” First of all, we are part of His creation. He is the source of life. This life that has always existed in Him, He has placed in us. The life that sustains Him, also sustains us. The life that sustains Him is the light of our life.
The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John, by William Barclay mentions that the author uses light and life repeatedly throughout the Gospel of John. This light is that which is within us through faith in Jesus. As the song goes “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine”. This little light is part of and connected to almighty God, the power of all creation, the source of truth, the strength that can start and stop hurricanes and tornadoes, the creator of the vastness of the universe and the delicate petals of a flower and any other awe inspiring thing that you can think of. The cool thing about that is this light is in us and it is not diluted in us. This little light in us has the potency of God, because it is our connection to Him and His strength, power, greatness, love, peace, wisdom, etc…. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 that nothing would be impossible for us, if we only have faith (mustard seed and moving mountains). He is in us and we can tap into that awesomeness and the only requirement is faith. The beauty of this is that the more we seek Him and we decrease, the more His power increases in our lives. Read Mark 11:22-26.
The author also mentions life. This is life as designed by the creator. The abundant, everlasting life that is only possible when you get in touch with the source – Jesus. Living is something other than merely existing. Life as intended is about abundance. Abundance isn’t about constant struggle or striving, there is always plenty. We aren’t talking about a creator who has just enough to get by and His creation reflects that. Abundance is all around us in nature. Look at all of excess in the natural world that we consider normal.
We can exist in this world and can even learn how to thrive here in certain aspects of our lives without achieving this abundant life. A man can learn how to take advantage of the Law of Prosperity and accumulate a massive fortune. God created the truths that anyone (even atheists) can put to work for himself, if we recognize these truths and apply them effectively. These laws are good and when applied will result in God’s intent, such as abundant wealth or health or any other blessing. In other words, God is happy for us to achieve great wealth, health, etc…, but that isn’t all there is to life and we all know it in our hearts. If a man has achieved great wealth, but does not know Jesus, he isn’t even really alive in eternal terms. When you think about eternity in mathematical terms our lifespan here on earth is zero when compared to infinity. A man can exist apart from Jesus, but he cannot even know or understand what true life is. He is not truly blessed and he doesn’t have true abundance, since these are only achieved through Christ Jesus.
If we put our lives on a scale of 0 to infinity, with 0 being completely undesirable and infinity being eternal bliss, there is a point somewhere along the line that we would not choose to have ever lived at all and some point along the line where we would feel our wildest dreams have come true. It sounds pretty drastic, but that is the choice we have in life – zero or infinity and nowhere in between is really an option. The narrow way or the wide easy way, it really is that simple (Matt 7:13-14). I love this: The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John, by William Barclay mentions the word aionios, which is repeatedly used in the Bible to describe God and it means eternal. In the true meaning of the word, only God is eternal. It would follow that an eternal life is God’s life. That is what Jesus offers us – the life that God lives. You can bet that is a pretty swell life.
QUESTION: Has there ever been an event in your life which enabled you to better understand God and His plans for you? Have you ever prayed for something or did something in faith and received an answer or miracle and you knew that it was God? How would a miracle change the way you lived your life?
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