Living the Christian Life Magazine

The True Credentials of the True Light

The full deity is enfolded and enshrined in His humanity. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among men, He mixed with the common folk

“He came again to the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them”. (v 1)

It was the consciousness of this marvellous union of the Divine and human elements that enabled our Lord to speak of Himself as the source of spiritual illumination to all the inhabitants of this world. There was no egotism, or self-assumption in his claim. It was literal truth. He bare record of Himself, because he could say nothing less; He knew whence He came and wither He went.

Peter, James and John had the immense privilege of seeing these two attributes in all its divine glory Matt. 17:2 When the Lord was transfigured before them, the full orb of the Godhead glory was revealed to them

2Cor.4:6 remind us – For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Because He was the “very Word” His claims were consist ant with His powers that it stopped the mouths of objectors. In verse seven He says to the Jewish leaders who had confronted Him with the woman caught in adultery and asking Jesus to make judgment upon her. His answer to them was to throw the situation back in their court by saying “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”. They brought condemnation on themselves as it is recorded “each one of them the left” (v9)

Jesus is God: in Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily and it is because of this that He is able to light and guide the generations of mankind. The life has ever been the Light of Men. To deny or to believe, degrades the character of Christ, but also leaves us face to face with an unsolvable problem of how to account for his influence upon the world.

The true object of faith   -    Its true function

The feast of tabernacles commemorated the march of the pilgrim host through the desert, fed by manna for their food; supplied with water from the smitten rock for their thirst; guided by a pillar of cloud which had at its heart a torch of fire, though this was only apparent when nightfall had  prevailed  

Our Lord compared Himself to the

First of these symbols in Chapter six. I am the Bread of Life”  

The second in chapter seven “He is the Living water of Life” and

Thirdly in chapter eight I am the Light of the Word”

He declares that to all the pilgrim hosts of men, He is what the cloud with its heart of fire was to that race of desert wanderers.

The work of the fire-cloud was threefold

1. To lead

2. To shield and

3. To illumine.

It led them - through the barren wilderness, and supplied their need, the manna fell and the water flowed, but they could not remain for there was a journey to reach, they had no choice but to follow,

It shielded them - from the trials of the wilderness they rested on the tabernacle which stood in their midst

It Illumined - The Lord had become their everlasting light and the days of mourning had passed. Following the cloud, they had no need to abide in darkness; they already possessed the light of life

All this Lord Jesus is willing to be to us. In Him all the fullness dwells. In His many sided facets of his nature God has made all grace to abound that we, having all things in sufficiency, should  be abundantly filled and be satisfied out of Him.

In the days of doubt He will be our guide;

In our days of trial our covert and shade

In days of darkness our Light

The peace and blessedness of our earthly pilgrimage will be in direct portion as we appropriate Jesus in these various aspects of His character and work. Not just at special times and purposes, or when the wheels fall. But in every day of our earthly pilgrimage.

It is in these trials of life where we often discover the fullness and sufficiency of Jesus. When we first come to this saving knowledge of the Saviour, God gives us a whole Christ for our supply of infinite requirements; but at first we catch only a glimpse of his divine sufficiency.

But as we grow and experience God’s goodness and favour the veil is slowly lifted and gradually our faith becomes stronger. The thing of the earth desolate, barren, forlorn and lacking in power and blessedness becomes a distant memory as we take our place in the Canaan of God’s delight.

 The True Light of the World

In John Chapter eight the writer returns to the subject of Christ’s personal glories as, the True Light of the world, the Word of God, and the Eternal Life, but it also records His rejection in all these relationships. The theme is the Lord in His triple glory as “The Word”  “The Light” and “The Life”

The True Light of the World