[AI translation] A week ago today we began our explanation of the Gospel of John, and then we talked about the Lord Jesus being the same Eternal Word, the Logos, Who was in the beginning. In the beginning, when God created the world, He already existed, so He is God from everlasting and eternal. The same Word by Whom God created the world in the beginning, when He spoke thus: "Be it so", this creative Word of God, the Eternal Word of God, was incarnate in the earthly person of Jesus of Nazareth. In the earthly, human form of Jesus, then, the Eternal Word dwelt among us, Who was in the beginning, Who was with God, Who was God Himself, and Who is and ever shall be!Now the apostle John tells us more secrets about this Word. He says: "In him (that is, in this Word, who was made flesh in Christ) was life, and this life was the light of men." (John 1:4.) Then, in verse 9, he says: "The true light had already come into the world, which enlightens all men." Much of the mystery of Jesus' mysterious, eternal divine person is revealed by the statement that He is the light! We know that the light does not remain in itself, but that its very essence is to radiate. Thus begins in the heart of the eternal God such a radiance, such a blessed nearness, such an unceasing coming towards us, towards men! This radiance of God's being towards us is Jesus Christ. This radiance of God's heavenly light on earth: this is Jesus Christ!
Thus says John: "the true" light! So Jesus is the only real, true light in the world, which suggests that there are other lights, other brilliances that try to shine - for example, the wonderful light of gold: how many people have been dazzled by it! Or the many dark areas of life that science has illuminated, which have amazed mankind! Even the world's colourful pleasures shimmer like a nightmare - the trail of a cannonball fired from the barrel is a ghostly light! So there is other light in this world. There are many tempting and terrifying lights, but none of them is the true light, none of them can be said to be the light of life. In fact, in the end, they all turn out to be the light of death, if there is such a thing, a false light, a false light, because there is only one true, real, reliable light in this world plunged in darkness: the Word, Jesus Christ! Apart from Christ, there is no other true light, only false light, deceptive brilliance! Let us take very seriously what the Word says: "The true light had already come into the world." (John 1:9) In practice, this means that the lights and beauties of our human life are also in themselves deceptive lights and beauties if they are not illuminated by the true light. For example, there is parental love, a precious light that also has a blessing warmth, but only when it is infused with the light of true light will it also become a life-giving light! Or the flame of the family hearth: what a deceptive light it is until the light comes from Christ! Patriotism is also a light of doubtful value, until it is bathed in the rays of true light. And so we are with every light on earth! Christ is the true light and everything outside Him is darkness!
What light is, everyone knows, it needs no further explanation, for it is a fundamental condition of our human life. It is light that enables us to see and to orient ourselves, or at least to try to orient ourselves, in the world. In darkness we can only grope our way, but to know things we need light. And this applies to physical light as much as to light in the figurative sense. Life and light are as inseparable as death and darkness.
In Jesus this light has shone among us! I feel that verse 18 explains to us the essence of the light revealed in Christ. (John 1:18) In other words, it is Jesus alone who enlightens us as to who God is and what His will is. For He is the only One who has seen the Father. He must then know who God is and what heaven looks like! He is the only so-called "expert" on this delicate question in this dangerous area. As the only witness, he spoke of the One who is over there and all that is over there! On much less important issues we often turn to experts and take their advice, listen to their opinions. If the organ in our church breaks down, we don't call the butcher, if we need milk, we don't go to the hairdresser, we take our shoes to the shoemaker to have the soles shined. So why not turn to an expert on the question of eternity? What He tells us about God is reliable! The way He sees the life, the purpose, the destiny of man and the world is true. As He reveals the question of life and death, that is right. What He reveals is true light. Do you know what light is? Jesus' words are the light, Jesus' actions are the light, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is the light, and His resurrection on Easter is the light! The whole person of Jesus is light. For He Himself, as He has walked among us, is the Word made flesh, the eternal Word of God made flesh, the Word of God. In Him the fundamental questions of our human life are illuminated: who am I, where have I come from, where am I going, what is sin, what is grace, what is eternity, why is there suffering? Thus, "the light shines in the darkness" (John 1:5).
Let us take this very seriously! This light that came into the world to illuminate the darkness of the world, this is the Word of God. It is the same Word made flesh in Jesus Christ, but it is the same Word whose written record is here in our Bible! So the Word of God, as it speaks to us today from the Bible, is the Light which came into the world to enlighten all men (John 1:9). As we say in one of our hymns, "Lord, your Word is for me My weaving in the darkness!" "And the light shineth in darkness, but the darkness receiveth it not....He cometh among his own, and his own receiveth him not." (John 1:5-11) So there is such a thing! It is possible to shut oneself away from the light. Even in sunlight there is a dark room.
When someone can't see something clearly enough - for example, when we can't see the letter clearly by lamplight - what do we do? We move the book closer to the light. Do the same with every manifestation of your everyday life! Bring closer to God's Word your sins, your worries, your sufferings, your family life, everything that hurts, that weighs you down, that hurts, everything that is confusing, incomprehensible, problematic! Bring it closer to the Word - put it there under the light of the true light - believe what is written here, that the Word is the light of men, and this light shines in the darkness, so it can create light in you or around you.
"And to those who receive Him, He gives power to become sons of God, to those who believe in His name." (John 1:12) Whoever closes his door to Christ, whoever does not receive Him, shuts out great blessings from his life with Him. But whoever opens himself to Him will let all the joys and blessings of heaven into his life. There are religious people who say that it makes no difference whether one accepts Christ or not, they believe in God's love and goodness, so they do not understand why they should need to accept or receive Christ. Well, this Bible verse makes it very clear that there is only one way to accept God's grace and love: by accepting Christ. Those, but only those, who have accepted Him become sons of God. Jesus is the only way to God, the only door to the Father's house. Whoever rejects Jesus, rejects acceptance into the family of God. We must receive the Son of God in order to become sons of God. The sonship of God that this verse speaks of here is more and more than just believing in God, deriving one's existence from Him, feeling related to Him and acknowledging one's dependence on Him. Sonship with God is not a natural endowment of our being created by God, nor is it a potentiality that we can attain by developing the dormant talent within us. Sonship with God is a redeemed state, an adoption into the family of God. The sons of God inherit by adoption all that the only begotten Son of God died for. So: those who have adopted Him, the only begotten Son of God, are the only ones He empowers to become sons of God, those who believe in His name.
It is also implied in this verse that there is nothing to be done but to receive. Behold: Christ comes to us as the Son of God, the Word made flesh, the radiant beam of God's heavenly light, and we have only to let Him in, only to receive Him with our hearts, only to trust in Him. But what about the new birth, it's a mystery that I can't understand - someone might say now. Well, you have nothing to do with being born again! Does not the verse say that those who receive Christ will become sons of God? The same sentence goes on to say that those who have thus received Christ are born again. But it also expressly says that this change was neither the work of our own doing, nor the work of any other man, but was possible by the power of God alone: 'They were born of God.' (John 1:13d) It is therefore up to us to receive Christ. We have nothing to do with the mystery of the new birth. It is God's work, and He is able to do it for you. Our part is to accept Christ! God will then change our hearts. When you accept the Son of God, new life will suddenly flow into your heart: you will become an eternal son of God.
Once a woman was listening to a sermon. She listened to the words, as they have sounded in a sermon since time immemorial. Suddenly she was shaken. She was surrounded by a flash of light, like Paul on the road to Damascus. "The preacher was gone," he later recounted his great experience, "only the Word remained. The word often heard became the Word, the light. It no longer came from the pulpit, but from somewhere above and within! Something was stirred, something moved in me - no offence, but it was like when I was a young woman and I knew that there was new life in me. It was joy and shock at the same time, a secret and a revelation at the same time! Since then I have been carrying something inside me that I didn't have before!" This woman experienced what John described as, "And as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).
Now let us see again the whole prologue as written by the Holy Spirit of God through the apostle John, in today's English translation:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. It was in the beginning with God. Everything came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that was created. In it was life, and life was the light of men, and light shines in darkness, and darkness did not receive it. There was a man sent from God, his name was John. He came to testify, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, but he had to testify to the light. The true light that enlightens all people came into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world did not know him: he came into theirs, and theirs did not receive him. But to those who received him, he gave the power to become children of God: to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten is of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness to him, and thus he cried out: This was he of whom I said, He who came after me is before me, for he was before me. For we have all received of his fullness, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and righteousness came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten God, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed himself." (John 1:1-18)
Amen
Date: 10 September 1950.
Lesson
Jn 1,1-18