“I AM the Light of the World”

August 2, 2016

“I AM the Light of the World”

“If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness,

because you will have the light that leads to life”

John  8: 12b

In today’s passage, Jesus makes his second ‘I am’ statement: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).  Jesus says he does not judge anyone. He doesn’t have to because the light is its own judge. Jesus, as the light of the world, brings God’s holy presence into the world. God’s presence is the very essence of holiness, goodness, mercy, love and grace. Light overcomes darkness by exposing the darkness. Inherent within the light is judgment because the light exposes sin.

I take great comfort in the simplicity of Jesus’ promise: “If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12b). However, today’s passage is also intriguingly complex as Jesus points to the interrelationship between himself and his Father: “The Father who sent me is with me” (John 8:16b), and “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father” (John 8:19). These statements by Jesus reveal both the sovereignty of God and the unity of God the Father and Jesus which constitute the core of Christianity.

John’s Gospel will continue to build the foundation of Trinitarian faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, who are in complete unity and harmony with each other.  John will also affirm the absolute sovereignty of God who takes the initiative to save and establish a right relationship with His children.

In our human brokenness, we are easily ensnared in the temptation to applaud our wisdom in choosing to follow Jesus. Silliness. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Apostle Paul for helping us clearly understand our right relationship with God: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

May we never lose sight of God’s sovereignty in our salvation.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.