We’re spending a couple of weeks on John’s incredibly beautiful Prologue (John 1:1-18), one of the most enriching descriptions of the Incarnate Son of God to be found anywhere in Scripture. Tomorrow we’ll study what John tells us about Jesus as the “life” and “light.”
Notice John’s wording: it’s not just that Jesus *gives* life and *brings* light . . . he *is* life, and he *is* light. Consequently, we’re raised from our deadness because we become partakers of his essence (life), and we leave darkness because we bask in the light that he is.
There are all sorts of semantic and thematic connections to the creation account of Genesis 1, introduced dramatically by John’s “In the beginning” wording of verse 1. But it goes farther than that. On Day 1 God said, “Let there be light,” and here John tells that Jesus is that light. Genesis 1 describes God’s creation of life, and here John shows us that Jesus is the very essence of life.
Jesus gives us the opportunity to experience his life and light through the new birth. He grants us “the right to become children of God” as we are born–not “of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
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