Eternal Light

“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)

    One of the most difficult things for anyone who’s a part of the church, reads the Bible, and is familiar with these words of Jesus is to suspend religious bias in their perception of what He means, and to look with fresh eyes and open heart to see and receive something new. Familiarity is an enemy of revelation.

    Take these words recorded by the Apostle John. A very common perception is that Jesus is saying He is our shining example to follow. If we do so carefully and faithfully, we will then live a good and righteous life like He did. But, if this is all Jesus meant, the religious leaders of His day would have had no problem with Him. After all, religion is all about living a good, righteous life; of following a certain protocol of doing in order to ultimately become. A “do-to-be” scenario; which for many in the Church means doing what Jesus did in order to be like Him. He’s saying something much deeper.

    “I am the Light of the world..” is obviously a statement of who He is, His identity. Two words stand out to me, Light and world. Light is defined as “face” carrying the meaning of the “manifestation of God’s self-existent life.” It’s tied to world (kosmos) meaning “universe.” Simply put, He is the full manifestation of the God of the universe..He is Light. Why that word, Light? We can understand the meaning of the word, but the nature or essence of light is what gives power to that meaning. So, what is light?

    We can thank quantum physics for the answer. When we talk about light, we’re talking about energy. Light is made of “photons”, the smallest elemental particle of electromagnetic radiation. These particles, ceaselessly move as waves of energy releasing the light of life into everything that exists in the universe. But where do these photons come from? Every discovery of quantum physics leads always to a ‘First Cause’, something (or better Someone) self-existent outside of the universe that creates, or gives the universe existence. The Apostle John reveals this ‘First Cause’, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5). The Apostle Paul reinforces this revelation. Speaking of Jesus he writes,

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Col. 1:15-17)

    Scripture clearly tells us what science is discovering. Jesus was not stating He was a shining example to follow, but, I AM, the Self-existent God of the Universe. The anger of the religious leaders toward Jesus was not because He was a good man gaining a religious following. It was an outward reaction to the shift in the spiritual realm from darkness to light. I believe that, as Jesus spoke these words, there was a violent assault upon the government of man apart from God in the earth, a release of Eternal Light shattering darkness in the spiritual/heavenly realm. We may agree here, but what does that mean for us?

     Jesus said, “he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” I believe a key is in the word follows. Contrary to a perception of one tagging along behind a leader, it means to ” join with” in an intimate way. This intimate joining, is what Paul means when he wrote of, “the glory of this mystery….which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27) Sadly, there is a disconnect from the reality of these words in the Church. The doctrine we hold of “Christ in you” is not translated into the life we live. We miss the experience of Jesus’ words, “but will have the Light of life.”  Clinging to the perception that we are saved sinners following after a Savior, we find that “having”, or being one with, the Light of life has no correlation to our daily lives.

    The evidence for what I mean is wrapped in the words, “will not walk in the darkness.” Darkness means “obscurity”.  It is the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, unimportant, insignificant, oblivion, limbo. A primary reason many believers in Christ feel insignificant and unimportant, or being left out, even stuck in a place of limbo under a cloud of oblivion is precisely because of darkness, that disconnect from the Light. We’re not talking salvation here, but experiential living. Being intimately joined to the Light means we own as our full nature all that the Light is. The Apostle Paul put it this way, “for you were formally darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.” (Eph. 5:8) Don’t miss this. Apart of Christ we ‘were darkness’. In Christ we ‘are Light’. This is who we are. But just declaring that eternal truth does not mean we experience it. There is a ‘walk’ involved, an intentional movement of life which must always flow from the Source of that life.

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:6-7)

    John is speaking to the Church, calling her to intimate alignment with Christ, the Light. John, more than any of the other disciples, knew the depth of intimacy with Jesus, and calls us all to join him.

    “..walk in the Light..”, John says. “walk as children of Light.” Paul says. “Follow Me..” Jesus says. There is an awakening of the blood-redeemed to the reality of these words. Weary of the endless cycle of insignificant and unimportant religious doing that leaves us and the world around us unchanged, more and more are taking hold of a vastly different ‘walk’ of faith. It is the determination to enter deep into the Holy Place, the inner chamber where the God dwells in unapproachable, or better unfathomable, Light. The very Light of His Being that He desires to experience with us. It is God’s passionate desire to experience Himself in us and through us.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18)

    There is no greater purpose than this, for all significance, purpose, destiny, meaning flows from this place of intimacy.

   The very purpose of Redemption was to re-establish the intimate union broken in the Fall. To restore us to our rightful place of Light in the Lord. All God is, we are. This is who we truly are. The image of God, fully restored through the blood of the Lamb to before the Fall of man is nothing less than His very nature-LIGHT. An activated eternal life is nothing less than an ever increasing alignment in the Light, a moving from glory to glory.