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In verse three, John attributes every act of creation that
has ever existed, to Jesus Christ. John
says … “All things were made by Him.”
There was no act of creation to which Jesus Christ was not a central
part, indeed nothing was made without Him.
This key piece of scripture reveals that at our creation, Jesus Christ
was one who called us into existence. We
are not only the creations of an all-powerful God, we are the creations of the
part of the God head that came to our world in person, and to which John is
about to give testimony. To those
Christians who would seek to replace the act of our creation with a process of
evolution, John stands in contrast and points clearly to exactly who created
us. When on the seventh day He rested
from His work and all that He had made, and blessed the day, it was to Jesus
Christ, that John points.
To those Christians who do not understand the character of
God is defined in love and that His law is only the beginning of the meaning of
love, here stands John, stating that our Creator and author of the law is Jesus
Christ. The law he handed to Moses on
Mt. Sinai was Christ’s law of love.
Christ came to show us more than the beginning of the definition of love;
He came to show us its fullness. The law
of love written by the finger of Christ, was not crucified on Calvary, rather
it was fully affirmed and realized in the sacrifice of Christ. The life that would make our redemption and
restoration possible would be lived and performed by He who brought us into
existence. And it is He who has the
creative power, to remake us, into what He intended for us to be, if we but let
Him. Only Christ is able to restore us
into harmony with His law, and with the love that stands behind it, and behind
our very Genesis. The same loving hands
that took dust and formed man, and breathed into him the breath of life, are
the same loving hands that can take the disaster we have made of our lives, and
transform it into the perfection of service and love that heaven itself is
modeled upon. The secret to our
salvation is based on the creative power of Christ. It is this characteristic of our Savior that
will give us the most hope that our fate is not what we deserve, but what His
love longs to bring to us. Our Creator
is able to re-create us.
John begins in verse 4 … “In Him was life; and the life was
the light of men.” Man is not inherently
immortal, only God is. The breath of
life was breathed into us and we “became” a living soul. The source of life was not inside the lump of
clay that our Master fashioned into the form of Adam. The source of life was inside our
Creator. It was extended to Adam, and to
us. But beyond even this, John is
stating that our God is life itself.
Everything outside of our God, is the opposite of our God. All things that are good are a part of who
Jesus is. He is life. He is love.
He is joy. And of a truth, those
things that are not of Christ, are His opposite – evil brings pain, evil brings
hate, evil brings death. To look outside
of Christ, one finds only those things one would wish to avoid. To find life is to find Christ; for there is no life outside of our Creator
God.
The sad example of Lucifer stands as an eternal reminder of
what happens when we search for an existence outside of Christ. Lucifer questioned the idea of love as
service only to others. He wondered at
his own beauty and perfection, and attempted to see if pleasing himself instead
of others might offer him a better existence than the one he had. He did not heed the counsel of God, that this
pursuit could only end badly. He had no
historical context of the knowledge of evil for he had only known good and life;
he had never seen bad and death. But
instead of trusting God in a matter to which he had no knowledge, he decided to
trust himself, and pursue his own ideas.
All the degeneration of evil that has transpired since has come from that
break in trust. All the keen knowledge
of bitterness, and evil to which we are all personally familiar started with a
simple break in trust with God.
Lucifer chose to trust himself, and in so doing has brought
the definition of death itself to the universe.
We are faced with the same choice today.
Do we trust ourselves to find our redemption, or do we voluntarily
submit our wisdom and our choices, and our desires, and the core of who we are,
to the Savior who has promised to redeem and remake us? It does not make sense to give up control to
Christ, as it did not make sense to Lucifer that such a seemingly small
alteration in how he would live, would bring about such horror as to think that
killing God would be a good idea. But
our sense, and Lucifer’s trust in his own wisdom over Gods, is the same issue
we face in our redemption today. Do we
trust in our own wisdom, or submit to His?
John states plainly, life is only found in Jesus Christ.
John then waxes a bit philosophical and in verse 5 states …
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” How sad that one of the chief symptoms
associated with the disease of evil is our inability to perceive truth. Even as a light is held up in darkness, we
choose to turn away from it to seek out the darkness we crave. It takes an act of intervention on the part
of our God, to clear away the chains of our bondage to evil, to even begin to
think clearly enough to make the freewill choice to decide whether to follow
our God of love or not. Without this act
on our God’s part, our minds would never be clear enough to see the truth of
what He offers in contrast to the bondage we are already enslaved to. It would be all too easy to look at this
verse, and apply it merely to those who do not believe in Christ, to those who
are unfamiliar with our God of love. But
sadly, it was not to the unbelievers that Christ appeared.
Our Messiah was not born to Roman parents of noble birth, in
the greatest city of his day. He was not
found in the personage of the Caesar’s who would have respected power, but
would have had little context of the meaning of the coming of a Messiah. It was not to the Chinese scholars, or
Germanic barbarian tribes to which Christ was born. No, instead He was born to those people to
whom He had personally given His laws and sent to them His prophets. The texts to identify the Messiah were clear,
as were the signs offered in the miracles He performed, and the truth to which
He gave voice. But his own religious system
where every piece of furniture in the temple, and every ordinance ever given
with respect to its worship practices pointed to the now present Messiah; was
unable to perceive His arrival. The
priests who should have heralded the coming of the Messiah failed to do
so. Instead it would take a wild man
living in the desert to cry out ‘repent’.
The priests who should have been the first to sit at the
feet of He who had so brilliantly captured their attention at ripe young age of
12, and taught them truth they had never perceived for 3 full days in the
temple at Jerusalem; instead rejected the entirety of His teachings. These priests should have been his most loyal
disciples, and most ardent preachers of His words. Instead they plotted to entrap Him with
un-answerable questions, and when their plans failed, they eventually took
action to kill Him. Christ did not
submit Himself to their religious authority.
Instead of obtaining power over others, Christ personally served those
in need. Instead of hanging out only
with those of equal or higher social class, He went to those who were poor, and
humble, and willing to receive Him.
Instead of ending the political tyranny of Rome, He completely divorced
Himself from politics and taught submission – first to God, then to each
other. Christ did not hate the Romans;
instead He sought to save them, and praised those He found faith in. Christ did not discriminate against Samaritans;
instead He broke down prejudicial barriers and welcomed them to the Kingdom of
His Salvation. He was everything His
priests were not. He was love, without
condition, and without restraint, just pure self-less love, incarnate. This was what He intended His religion to be,
and those who claimed to serve the One True God should be like. Instead His religious system had been
corrupted by the exaltation of self, into a hierarchy only interested in
preserving its own power over the people.
Selfish gain, and inflated ego’s, had replaced service to those in need,
and love to all. And so, His own
religious system, sought to kill the Light that had entered their darkened
world.
In the cruelest irony the devil could present, those who
should have known Him best, were the very ones who sought to end His existence
in this world. The Romans hardly had any
concern for a pacifist who taught only selfless love. He was literally no threat to their “power”. The priests however, could not stand the
brilliant light that illuminated the hypocrisy of self-service against the
magnificence of pure self-less love.
Today, Christians purport to follow Christ, but I wonder if our “system”
of religion would do any better in recognizing the God we claim to know if He
were to appear among us? Our
expectations of fine clothing would likely not be met. He would not be found in our church board
meetings, instead preferring to be in the street with the other “homeless”. For Christ Himself, was a homeless
person. He owned nothing. He only had one set of clothing, and it was
no Armani suit. He had no jewels to
ordain His person. Indeed the creator of
gold, sees no more value in it than concrete.
He did not eat often without the mercy of someone else providing for
Him.
Those who were engaged in the most grievous and public sins were
known to be His regular companions. He
was found only in the company of the humble, almost never in the company of the
rich or the proud. He did not travel alone;
to receive Him was to receive 12 other companions of a less than savory sort,
and the entourage and crowds that sought Him out everywhere. In our day, we would call Him a hippy,
perhaps a cult leader. In our day, we
might call Him a bum. In our day, we
might call His teachings of unconditional love, even to those who are clearly
committing horrific sins, too radical, perhaps too heretical. In our day, His rejection of our political
processes, and complete indifference as to who runs our nation, might offend
those of strict ideologies who believe it is their responsibility to enforce
their moral code on the lives of others.
His refusal to answer trick questions like when does life begin, and is
cloning wrong, and should we be exploring stem cell research; might anger those
who cannot understand the wisdom of teaching that love can remake us from the inside
out, removing naturally what should be removed, and replacing hate for love. His ability to heal any disease would rouse
the anger of medical and insurance financial establishments and make Him a real
threat to profit. I wonder if the Light
were to appear in the darkness that is our world today, would we fare any
better than our spiritual ancestors, or would we like the Pharisees of old,
reject Him entirely? The measure of that
answer can be found in the measure of how we love today.
In verses 6 to 8, John makes it clear who he is, and that he
is only there to bear witness to the Light, John is not the light himself. How often are those who teach the truth of
Christ often elevated by those they teach.
Perhaps it is a combination of gratitude for the knowledge imparted, or
respect of the wisdom revealed, or just admiration of the effects of
transformation, that inspires one man to put another on a pedestal, but it
happens. John here makes it clear
exactly “who” the Light is, and that John is not it. John begins by disclaiming all elevation, and
lifting up only the name of Jesus Christ as the true Light of the world. “Pride”, even in matters of religion, is
still the catalyst for downfall and evil.
To bear testimony to the Light, is the only ambition John will attempt
to achieve in this book of his gospel.
In verses 9 to 11, John restates his opening premise that
those who should have known Him best, did not recognize Him at all. This was a heart-rendering truth. The Jewish readers would know that John is
calling them to see truth where they previously thrown it away. It would be the same thing as having a
homeless man enter your church mid-service and declare that the teachings of
your pastor, and your closely held beliefs were all in error. It would be worse, to know beyond all shadow
of a doubt, that the homeless person who did this was Christ Himself. Christians might take great offense at the
notion they have been “doing it wrong”.
Christians might find it hard, to accept this truth, and in humility
seek out the very homeless person who called them out on their errors. Christians might find it hard to let go of
their dreams of freedom and ease, and embrace servitude and poverty. The Jewish readers in the time of John, had an
equally hard time doing these things.
Yet this is precisely what John is stating should happen.
He continues in verse 12 and 13 with a summation of
salvation itself. He provides the motive
and method for acceptance of Christ, and the salvation from self and evil it
brings. Verse 12.) “But as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name: 13.) Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.” To those who receive Jesus
Christ, it is to them who submit, it is to them who allow themselves to be
completely remade, who can stop relying on their own power, and find instead
the power of Christ within them. It is
Christ who “gives” the power to become the Sons of God. We do not earn this power, we do not steal
it, buy it, or work for it. It comes in
ONLY ONE way, as a gift. It comes only
to those who believe on His name.
The re-genesis that follows within us, does not happen because
of our genetic predisposition. We do not
inherit it from our parents, or their value systems we might have been
taught. We do not become new creations,
or are born again, because of the strength of our own will power and character. Nor can the will of other men be imposed upon
us, in order that we are saved from ourselves.
There is only ONE way, we can be remade, and that is by God as a gift to
us. Our portion is only to accept in
humility His gift of recreation. Despite
the fact we will never deserve it; we want it anyway. Despite the fact we may never understand why
He loves us so much; we will accept the gift that love offers. In the knowledge that there is nothing we can
do to remake ourselves, and the humility this must bring; we accept His
generous offer to make us into something entirely different than the people we
are today. This is how salvation
works. And love is the only reason why He
offers, and why we would accept.
In verse 14 John once again articulates that Christ is not
just an idea, or a belief system, he was a physical person, a physical
manifestation of God on earth, in flesh and in blood. Christ was the only begotten of the Father. Our God had only one son. Only Christ could claim with legitimacy that
His father was the one true God. Christ
had no divine siblings. Men like Moses,
or Elijah, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or Gandhi might have lived spectacular
lives, and made a great impact on the world; but there would only ever be one “Son”
of God. And it is only through Jesus
Christ, that we might also be considered a part of the family of God.
John concludes his prologue in verses 15 to 18 repeating now
over and over again, that Christ was the fullness of grace and truth. Notice that truth was never used as a weapon
by Christ, nor was it ever discarded. It
was always grace that would enable us to see the wisdom of His truth. It is grace that allows us to be remade so
that we begin to desire His truth. And
it is His grace that then enables our lives to adopt His truth as a part of who
we are, how we think, and consequently how we live. Truth is never discarded in this process;
instead it is fully realized through the mechanism of grace. Truth is not used as a weapon to reveal our guilt;
instead it is presented as an aspiration we can attain through the power of His
grace. Christ makes no excuse for
evil. Instead He offers freedom from it,
in heart, mind, body, and soul. It is
more than forgiveness that grace offers to us, it is reformation of who we are,
and harmony with the truth of who He is.
John states that Moses brought the law, but grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ. Moses and law of love he
relayed had not the power to reform the desires of our hearts, only to show us
how far from harmony with this law of love we are. But the grace Christ brings, offers to remake
us from the inside out and restore our harmony with His truth, His law, and His
love. Again John is restating, our
salvation does not come from our perceived ability to keep “the law”. Instead our salvation comes from His grace,
that makes His laws engrained on the core of who we are, how we think, what we
want, and therefore how we live. For the
second time, in his opening prologue, John describes the process of salvation,
and again bears testimony to the salvation Jesus Christ alone offers.
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