In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. – John 1:4.
In this verse John introduces two of the greatest themes of his narrative. Often at the beginning of an important work of literature or music, a writer or composer will declare a theme and then allow it to recur again and again throughout the book or composition. This is sometimes done through a visual image, as in a Hardy Boys novel. Sometimes it is through a musical motif, as in a Beethoven symphony. Sometimes it is done by means of a word or a concept, as we have here. John’s themes are “light” and “life.” These occur in such a variety of contexts and so frequently that we need to take some time to examine them right from the start.
In this message I want to look at the claim that Jesus is the life of the world.
It is quite obvious to any careful reader of the Gospel that the word “life” is an important one, for John speaks often of life in connection with Jesus Christ and of the eternal life that He offered and, in actuality, still offers to men and women today.
To some extent the Gospel begins and ends with this theme. John begins by declaring, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In John 20:30–31, he concludes, “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” In John 14:6 Jesus declares that He is the source of life: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 5:40 shows that men will not come to Him that they might have life. In John 10:28 Jesus says of those who do come, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” John 10:10 says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” In all, the word “life” occurs more than thirty-five times in the Gospel. And the related verb “to live” increases that total by at least fifteen more instances.
Physical Life
But what does it mean to say that Jesus is the source of life or that He is the life? The first answer to that question is one that takes us back to the opening pages of the Book of Genesis and therefore to the role of the Lord Jesus Christ in giving life to all living things in the world. We have already seen in the beginning of John’s Gospel that he intends a reference to the first chapters of Genesis in his introductory verses; this is also the case here. “In the beginning” (John 1:1) reminds us of the sentence: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The Logos or “Word” of God reminds us of the way in which God spoke in creation: “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3). In the same way, when John says of the Lord Jesus Christ, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life” (John 1:3-4), every Bible student should think instantly of the life that went forth out of God to bring life to inanimate matter at the beginning of the creation of the world. In other words, John is saying that our physical life comes from God through the Lord Jesus.
This is suggested in the early chapters of Genesis. For we read that “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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