Jesus was the light of all mankind

JESUS WAS THE LIGHT OF ALL MANKIND
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 1:4 4In him was life, and that life was the light of
all mankind.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Life That Gives Light To Men
John 1:4
D. Young
In the beginning God createdthe heavenand the earth: so runs the first verse
of the Book ofGenesis. "Inthe beginning was the Word:" so runs the first
verse in the Gospelof John. This resemblance prompts us to look for other
resemblances. "Godsaid, Let there be light: and there was light:" so runs the
third verse of the Book ofGenesis. And then we perceive that John,
correspondingly, would lead his readers to think of the greatestofall lights
which come from God. He speaks ofthe Word that he may tell us of the Life
in it, and of the Life that he may tell us of the Light in it. The Word is a living
and light giving one. What are sun, moon, and stars, and all lamps compared
with this light? John is speaking here for the eye of the heart.
I. THE DARKNESS THIS LIGHT IS MEANT TO ILLUMINATE. Be
thankful for the lights forming part of the physical creation. There is sunlight
even when there is not sunshine. Be thankful for the higher lights of

civilization. Also the increasing light coming with every new discovery and
invention. Eachnew generationfinds the world better to live in, in many
respects, Magnifywhat light you have outside of Christ; then you will better
understand how small it is compared with what he has to give. Fora while we
may not at all feel the need of Christ's light. But the world becomes gloomy
and cheerlessenoughto many who once reckonedit constantlyradiant with
brightness. The world very soonpuzzles and perplexes those who are
thoroughly in earnest. Life is such a short and broken thing to many. The
longestlife is like a candle; it burns and burns till it burns down to the socket,
but it burns none the less;and then what is there left to show? Godhas
noticed whateverdarkness there may be in your heart. "Godis light, and in
him there is no darkness at all;" and he wants us to be the same - wants to
lead us into the light of constantpeace, joy, and purity.
II. THE REASON THIS LIGHT IS SO POWERFULTO TAKE THE
DARKNESS AWAY. The light that God sends is a life. What power often
dwells in a word - a true and fitting word, coming from the heart, giving just
the information and encouragementneeded!But then the kindestand wisest
human speakerscannotbe always present. And so God has a word for us in a
life that can never pass away. Think of the power in his life; of the things he
did, and did in such a way as to show he could do a great dealmore. Think of
the goodnessofhis life - goodness wherebyhe did good, and goodness
whereby he resistedtemptation. Think of the joy abounding in his life, even in
the midst of straits and sufferings. Think of the confidence he carried through
everything, never doubting whence he had come or what he could do. Think
especiallyof the Resurrection, and life in heaven. It is from a world of life and
light that this luminous life shines down upon us.
III. HOW THIS LIGHT BECOMESAVAILABLE TO US. He who told his
disciples to shine, does his very bestto shine himself. But then we must open
our eyes to see this light. Lamps are nothing save as men are willing to use
them. It is light we have to seek for:the darkness comes without seeking.Let

Jesus shine in our hearts for spiritual blessings corresponding to those natural
ones which come through ordinary lights. Let us aim to look back from the
safetyand fulness of the perfectday, saying, "Christ has indeed been a Light
to me." - Y.
Biblical Illustrator
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 1:4
The life and the light
H. Allen, D. D.
Where Christianity is not, there are darkness and death; where Christianity
is, there are light and life. Myriads of men testify that some Divine powerin
Christianity has made them new creatures. These are facts ofChristian
history, present results of Christian experience. We are not the apologists ofa
discredited or doubtful cause;we press the arguments on those who oppose.

Christianity is a fact that must be accountedfor. One branch of the argument
is the practicalinfluence of Christ, His fitness and fulness as the life and light
of men.
I. THERE IS MATERIAL FOR THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT IN THE
VERY CONCEPTIONAND FORM OF SUCH A STATEMENT.
1. It is one of those profound and pregnant statements characteristic ofthe
Christian writings, and especiallyof St. John. How is it that these simple
chroniclers attained to ideas more spiritual, profound, and luminous than
those of the greatestphilosophers? Whence these conceptions ofChrist, so
unique, that no other was everimagined like Him, and yet so congruous and
vital that men confess andworship Him?
2. Notonly profoundness, but peculiarity of meaning in this conceptionof
Christ and His work. It might have been written yesterday, in the light of
Christian history, so exactand adequate is the representationof the peculiar
facts and influence of Christ's work.(1)It roots all the religious powers of
Christianity in the person of Christ. The way of life not taught by, but life was
in Him. Not that His words gave light, but His life.(2) The life and light of all
men are in Him. Not merely that He lived, but was the fountain whence every
stream of life flows; and all the light that shines about our lives and illumines
our souls, bringing the life and knowledge ofGod.(3)The life was the source
of the light. In the world's darkness, He, the living Mediator, stands an
incarnate, luminous manifestation of God; so that whoeverlooks onHim sees
wondrous revelations. Justas all things upon the earth's surface are
physically enlightened when it turns towards the sun, so are all men
spiritually enlightened as they turn towards Him.
II. WHAT LIGHT THE LIFE OF CHRIST THROWS ON THE GREAT
PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND DESTINY. We speculate on these problems, and
call ourselves theologians;we try to resolve them by practicalexperiments,

and callourselves moralists. But how perplexed the theology; how uncertain
the morality! What human thought has thrown any light upon them? In
Christ the only solution of them lies.
1. Has God given us a supernatural revelation of His characterand will? It is
sufficient to point to Christ. The life is its own light. It is the greatestmiracle
of history. The impression of perfect goodness is produced by every word and
manifested feeling; perfectholiness blends with perfecttenderness into an
excellencywhich has neither defect nor excess. Christ's innocence, contraryto
ours, was markedby no ignorance. Virtues almost incongruous blend in Him
— greatness andgentleness, holiness and pity, strength and sympathy. He is
nobler than the greatest man, tenderer than the gentlestwoman. He
commands not only the homage of the good, but of the wise. His intellectual
characteris as greatas His moral. The very conceptionof His kingdom is a
miracle — a spiritual, holy, catholic kingdom of God, the consummation of
which should be the conversionand service of a whole world. Does notthis
marvellous life solve the problem of Divine manifestation? Who could have
invented it? With it before us, to ask for proofs of the truth of Christianity is
as reasonable as to ask atnoonday for astronomicalproofs of the sun.
2. Men are perplexed with the question of human sin. Whereverthey are
found they are conscious ofwrong-doing. Philosophers and poets of all ages
recognize it and lament over it; and the religious problem of every age in the
face of it is, "How Shall a man be just with God?" What human philosophy
has furnished a solution? What canappease my awakenedconscience,the
memory of a guilty life? Not a mere generalassurance ofGod's mercy. I
recognize something beside mercy, even an inflexible righteousness. And just
in proportion as I believe in that, my hope is disabled. It is only when Christ is
offered as the Mediatorbetweena holy God and sinful men that light is
thrown on the problem. When He is recognizedas having been offered as a
propitiation for human guilt, then God is seento be just, and the justifier of
the ungodly. His salvationrespects everyrequirement of the Divine

government, and satisfies everydemand of our moral nature. How can this
salvationbe a personalexperience? In Christ is the answer. The same cross
which honours the Divine law attracts human hearts, and through Him I
receive the atonement.
3. Next comes the problem of human character;its degradation, unholiness,
selfishness, andshame. What hope is there for man's moral future? Apart
from Christ, none. In Him is the only regenerating powerto be found.(1)
Through Him we receive the greatteaching and gift of the Holy Spirit. With
the teaching of holiness, comes a Divine powerto enable it. Man wantedmoral
light, but moral life also. Quickenedfrom death in trespassesandsins, he has
the powerof spiritual vision given him; he sees the blessedlight. But(2) he has
in Christ the ideal of holiness, and after what a perfect and noble life he has to
strive. This model we may imitate, and be ever approaching that peerless
example.(3) Christ in His sympathetic brotherhood encourages us not to
despair at failure and gives us grace whichstrengthens.
4. There is the problem of human sorrow. But suffering is relieved from its
anathema, exalted into sacrifice, convertedinto a gospel, and made the
minister of the noblest perfectionin the human life of Christ.
5. There is the problem of death. But Christ has brought life and immortality
to light. Even death becomes a gospelto immortal men; the transition from
this darkness to that light, this sinfulness to that holiness, this sorrow to that
blessedness.
(H. Allen, D. D.)
The life and light of men

R. A. Redford, M. A.
I. THE SUBLIME DECLARATION. In its ultimate origin all life is
mysterious. It must reston an eternal life. The Divine life the only true life.
"In Him life was." In us dependent, continually becoming. The text a
contradiction if employed of a mere man. The life in Christ was the life of the
Spirit. Reasonleads us to the conceptionof a continually ascending life,
vegetable, animal, rational. Revelationadds the spiritual — the life of inspired
men, of fellowshipwith God, of angels of Christ who had the Spirit without
measure. His was the life of God — perfectpurity, ceaselessactivity, infinite
love.
II. THE PROCLAMATION. The life was the light of men.
1. In paradise. Man walkedin it and saw Godface to face.
2. Then followeda long period during which the light shone on chosenmen,
places, institutions. Light in the midst of gross darkness. The heathenworld
was full of evil. Some light shined here and there.
3. When the fulness of time came the life was the light of men. Power,
gladness, graciousness, adaptation, acceptability of the gospelrepresentedin
the analogyof light in darkness. Light calls out energies, helps growth, reveals
faces, turns bloom to fruit, and fruit to perfection. Life and light intimately
blended.
4. What was wanted then is wantednow; light of men as well as of man; in
communities, nations, individual heart and conscience. Light in the household
— among dark anxieties, sorrows, desolation. Light in the prospects of
mankind — a bright future the outcome of the light of Jesus. Light on the
sepulchre — not now a mere sombre monument of fallen pride, but affection's

memorial written in the language ofhope. The life will reappear, and we shall
appear with Him and be like Him, and so be ourselves that life and light of
men.
(R. A. Redford, M. A.)
Christ the life and light of men
H. Melvill, B. D.
I. IN HIM WAS LIFE. God is self-existent. Every being but He had a
beginning. Every other being, therefore, must have been created. All life
which had a commencementmust be derived and not inherent. Christ's life
was un-derived and inherent. Therefore He was Divine.
II. THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN. John does not declare it to be the
life of men; which would be true. Every tribe of animated existence draws its
life from God: But man placed above beasts and birds. The difference consists
in deriving life from the Word and having the life which was in Him as our
enlivening, illuminating principle in us. This light is that which enables man to
walk in a wholly different region from the beasts which perish, penetrating
the wonders and scanning the boundaries of the universe, while other
creatures are limited to a single and insignificant province. This light is the
soul: reason, judgment, conscience. If this soul be eclipsedman is morally and
spiritually blind. It is a fine testimony to this light when we find it describedas
the life which was from all eternity in the Word. It gives a majesty to reason
and a dignity to conscience whena man realizes that these are part of the life
of his Creator. The man who debases them debases no earthborn or
perishable thing. The Word endowedhuman nature with His own life;
hanging up in its chambers a lamp, and continually feeding the flame with the
flashings of His own eternity. Shall this lamp be substituted now that it has
been fractured, its light dimmed, for the Word Himself? Or shall we boast
ourselves free from all need of Him just because there glows in us a principle
derived from Him? The strangestspectacle is that of a man taking reasonand

rejecting Christ as his guide, fancying that in directing himself by the shining
of his own spirit he shows himself independent of Christ. Man shows his
ignorance of creationin putting scornon redemption. He draws from the
Word those very energies by which he would prove himself independent of the
Word. The intellectual capacitieswere Christ's shinings into the uncorrupted,
even as our pardon, and renewal, and acceptance into the depraved and
ruined. What gave virtue to His sacrifice was thatthe Self-existentdied, and
that which gave this worth was emphatically our light. Reasonstillburns
brightly, conscience is not quenched, and immortality is assuredbecause the
Word who never had a beginning consentedto be born; the Word who never
can end consentedto die.
(H. Melvill, B. D.)
W. Denton, M. A.
I. He is ESSENTIALLY LIFE — the Living One, as opposedto dying men.
II. He is the EXEMPLARY LIFE; for all things exist in the Word, which is
the idea of all things living.
III. He is the CAUSE AND SOURCE OF NATURAL LIFE to all; the Maker
of all things, from whom life has been communicated to all things living; and
He is also the sustainerof that life which at the first He imparted; both the
giver and the preserver of life to all.
IV. He is the CAUSE AND SOURCE OF SUPERNATURAL LIFE; the grace
and the glory of all God's faithful children; commencing this life by the
communication of His grace, and so bestowing upon men faith, hope, and

charity; perfecting this life by the communication of His glory, in which we
shall enjoy the beatific vision of God.
(W. Denton, M. A.)
Christ the life and light of individual men
W. H. H. Murray.
I have seenone out of whom had gone all heavenly resemblance, and in whom
all rudeness, coarseness, profanity, worldly lusts were incarnate. There was no
pressure that inclined him downward, to which he did not yield. Had his soul
been of stone, it could not have been less responsive to the Divine solicitations.
There was not a function in him which was not petrified on its heavenward
side; there was not a capacityin him that did not, so far as righteous action
goes, lie dead. Well, mark now; one night, while he was lying on his bed, the
Lord, in the shadow of the darkness — not violently, but still as the stillness
around and above his bed, more dreadful, perhaps, because of the stillness;
perhaps more gentle because ofit — drew near to this dead soul; breathed on
it once, gently took its hand and said, Soul, arise!And that dead soulfelt
strange currents run through all its frame; felt the thrill of Divine life charge
through its veins, until the frozen current melted, ran, became warm, beganto
throb, and life came into it — life to stand, to move; and that dead soul arose
and stoodbefore the Lord, and then full of rapture bowed down and
worshipped. And, ever after — for I knew him well — that man lived a life
that took knowledge ofall God's mercies, a life as innocent as the bird's is that
has no beak nor talons, and cannotwound nor strike, but can only sing; yea,
as innocent as the little stream that has no deep, dark places in it, into which
children can fall, unawares, and be drowned, but which runs clearand cool,
shallow and safe — content to minister to the roots of flowers that fringe it,
and be drunk up of thirsty cattle and labouring men. So he lived his life, I say,
and in him I saw what regenerationmeant: what the life that Christ said He
was, meant.

(W. H. H. Murray.)
Christ the light and life of nature and of grace
H. Melvill, B. D.
If I walk the fields of science and nature gives up one secretafter another, and
if I then turn to the sublimer mysteries of grace, andstudy the amazing record
of the winning back of this earth from the bondage of corruption, they are not
different beings to whom the different investigations prove me debtor. Whilst
led by reasonacrossthe spreadings of space, andenabled by intellect to take
the span and the altitude of the architecture of God, I owe all to the Word just
as truly as when I feelmyself strengthenedto eastoff evil. As a rational being
I owe everything to the Word; as a redeemed being I owe everything to the
Word. His the intelligence by which I may count the stars;His the atonement
through which I may be furnished for life. His the memory in which I can
treasure truth and the righteousnessin which I may come before God. His the
judgment by which I can weighconflicting propositions as well as the
intercessionby which I canbe shelteredfrom wrath. His the imagination by
which I can wander through immensity; His the purchasing of the inheritance
for outshining all I canconceive. If, then, because of redemption I adore the
Word made flesh, shall I not, because endowedwith reason, magnify the
Word as the Self-existent? If as a redeemed creature I give thanks to the
Word that He humbled Himself and became obedient unto the death of the
Cross, shallnot I as a rational creature pour forth this grateful tribute to the
Word: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men"?
(H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christ's influence as the light and life most productive to-day
H. W. Beecher.
Neverwas there a time when there was so much of Christ in the world as now,
because the human race was never so largely in a condition to acceptthe

Divine activity, and to be rendered productive by it. As the sun never had
such harvests as now, so there never were such harvests of the Sun of
Righteousness. As there is more raised in the State of Illinois in a year now
than there was in ten thousand years before the prairies were brought into a
state of cultivation, so the products of morality and spirituality are more
abundant than they ever were before. In proportion as the minds of men are
clearedand rendered susceptible to the activity of the Divine mind, human
inspiration is increasedindividual by individual, family by family, nation by
nation.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The difference betweenlife and light
Lange.
I. In the SON OF GOD.
II. In THE WORLD
III. In MAN.
IV. In the CHRISTIAN LIFE.
(Lange.)
The life a light of men
Lange.
I. In man: consciousness.

II. FOR man: the works ofGod as the signs and words of God.
III. RESPECTING man:Christ the light of the life.
(Lange.)
Christ was the light and life of men
C. G. Tittman, D. D.
in that He delivered men from ignorance, unbelief, and vice, and from the
ruin and misery which are their invariable attendants; and brought them to
the knowledge ofDivine things, to faith and holiness, and to that temporal and
eternal happiness with which these are inseparably connected. This change He
effected—
I. BY HIS DOCTRINE,whichis of Divine efficacy, not only for enlightening,
but for purifying and transforming the soul, and imparting consolationand
happiness.
II. BY HIS INCARNATION, LIFE AND DEATH. Forthese were the clearest
revelation of God, the benevolence ofHis nature, and His paternal love to
men, of the Saviour, and His great and glorious work, of the dignity of man,
and the certainty of a state of immortal existence beyond death and the grave.
III. BY HIS EXAMPLE. The example —
1. Of His holiness, which gave evidence and efficiencyto His doctrine.

2. Of His "sufferings, and the glory that should follow," in which He is our
pattern (2 Timothy 2:11; Romans 8:17, 29).
IV. BY HIS INSTITUTIONS. Shedding down the Holy Ghost upon the
apostles, instituting baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Christian ministry, public
worship, and other religious exercises, whichare the most effectualmeans for
banishing ignorance, andunbelief, impiety, and misery from the earth, and
for the diffusion and establishment of knowledge and faith, virtue and genuine
happiness among men. Thus extensive is the signification, whilst the primary
idea is that of felicity, to which He leads men in many ways.
(C. G. Tittman, D. D.)
Christ's life she light of men
C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.
It was not the wisdom of Christ's words, nor the splendour of His works that
filled those three years and a half with greatevent; it was He, the life that was
in Him; and with all that was stimulating in His discourses, startling in His
works of wonder, and harrowing in His sufferings, the life that was in Him
would be quite as likely to issue in effects that would be healing, when its
creeping forth was a quiet and stealthy one, just as it is the light, not the
lightning that best fills the earth with radiance; not the hurricane, but the
gentle breath out of the south that stirs air and sea and standing corn into
most healthful play, and not the deluge but the rain that drops upon the
furrows with most of fertility.
(C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)
Life in Christ

J. Culross, D. D.
To know the scope of the Word, we begin with life in its lowestand simplest
forms, as it is seenin the Arctic moss or the ooze brought up from the sea-
depths by the Challenger. Evenin such lower forms the physiologistcannot
tell us what life is, nor the microscopist, northe chemist, nor the wisest
philosopher. They can tell us the signs of it, and the laws according to which it
is continued or extinguished; but that is about all. From the lowestand
simplest we pass upwards, through one order of being after another, till we
come to man, in whom life reveals itself so much more marvellously, in sense,
intellect, emotion, conscience, will. We mark how different a thing it is in
different cases:to the unlettered peasantand the man of profound and
various culture; to the playful child and the grey-haired saint, ready to enter
the perfectkingdom of righteousness andpeace and joy in the Holy Ghost. In
this passagethe term "life " is not to be restricted to any single province, wide
or narrow, "physical," "moral," "spiritual," or "eternal," but is to be taken
in the whole breadth of its significance. Besides the marvel and mystery of life
in its nature and infinitely various forms, there is also its immensity of volume
— all that is, all that has been, in air, and earth, and sea. As an illustration of
the impossibility of dealing with this aspectofthe ease, a single factmay be
selectedfrom the microscopic researches ofEhrenberg: one cubic inch of the
hardened clay called tripoli he found to contain betweenforty and fifty
thousand millions of the silicious fossilshells of infusoria. In presence ofsuch
a fact our minds are utterly helpless to conceive the extent of life even in this
little globe that we inhabit. All the life of creation, so vast in its sum, so
wonderful and glorious, from the life that lasts only a summer evening to that
of the archangelwho bows before the eternal throne . — all that life, the
Evangelisttells us, "was in Him." He is the Fount whence it has all proceeded.
Being in Him, the outcome was a necessity. If there is life in the vine, it comes
out in branch, and leaf, and grape cluster. So with the life that was in the
Word: it has come out in the vast and varied life of creation. Because in Him
was life, therefore this is a living world, and not a mere material and
ponderable ball, or a world of automatons, destitute of understanding and
volition. All the life of which we have any knowledge is the out-blossoming
and fruiting of the life that was in Him.

(J. Culross, D. D.)
Life in Christ
W. H. Jackson.
There is a projectfor turning the greatdesert of North-WesternAfrica into
an inland sea by cutting through the bank which separatesits vast depressed
surface from the Atlantic; so that large existing populations may be reached,
and new towns and fertile country may fringe the then obliterated wilderness
of death with smiling contentment and prosperity. It may be but a scientific
romance. But it points to the holy privilege and blessedservice ofthe
Christian Church. Our Mastersays:"Speak the words of this life. Cut
through the bank of ignorance and prejudice and worldliness and sin, and
admit upon the vast spiritual deadness of the world, the rolling tide of a pure
and immortal life, that souls and churches and nations may spring up in the
freshness of gospellife, and wearthe everlasting beauty of Him who has
redeemedthem from darkness to light, and from the power of Satanunto
God. And lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end."
(W. H. Jackson.)
God's self-revelationthrough life
NewmanSmyth.
I. THIS SCRIPTURE OPENS UP TO US GOD'S LIVING WAY OF
MAKING HIMSELF KNOWN TO US. The Bible is the record and
interpretation of a way of creationand life, which leads from the promise of
the beginning on and on, with a purpose never given up, and towarda goal
never lost from sight, and againstall human gravitation downward from its
high intent until it completes its course in that one sinless life through which
God shines — the true light. God has been present as a living powerin man's
life, as the educating and redemptive power in Israel, as the grace and truth of
life in Jesus Christ.

II. THIS SCRIPTURE DISCLOSES GOD'SWAY OF ILLUMINING OUR
LIVES. Christ entering into human life is its light. He lights up all our history.
Other lights of human kindling illumine but portions of our life, and all go out
in death. But there is no phase of our nature, no need of our common
humanity, no possibility of our love and hope which His life does not purify
and irradiate. God with us in our life is alone adequate to human nature. Shall
I not trust myself to the life which meets at every point my life? The real
gospelthus is God's life through Christ touching our life and making it new. It
has Divine right in the midst of the business of the world. It cannot, without
disloyalty, be divorced from common life, sundered from its vital relation to
the trade, the politics, and the conduct of men. Jesus Christ brought the
kingdom of heaven down to the streets of Capernaum, and what the Church
wants is to bring His life through the relations of societyaround the whole
circumference of human life.
III. ONLY THROUGH LIVES IN REAL SYMPATHY WITH GOD AND
CHRIST ARE WE TO RECEIVE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Not that
the mystery of God in Christ is not to be the subject of theologicalinquiry, but
that we are to learn Christian truth, first and best of all in the schoolwhere
Jesus came to teachit — the schoolofreal life. Our best light always is the
kindling of the life into truth. Through life to knowledge is the Christian way.
As God has come home to man through the life of Christ, so are we to draw
near unto God through the Christian life. If we will live Christ-like lives doubt
not that God will revealHis truth and His goodnessthrough them.
(NewmanSmyth.)
The joy of living
W. H. H. Murray.

I. All men desire to live. Life, if it be healthy, is joyful. All lives createdof God
are happy, for He is happy.
II. This instinct to live is EVIDENCE OF OUR DIVINE ORIGIN AND
QUALITY. Howeverstainedand defiled, the image within us is not wholly
forgetful of its origin. Within us lingers a sentiment which forbids life to
despair of itself. Hence out of the fulness and joyfulness of life springs the
conceptionof immortality.
III. We know that all life is of God, that of the bee, the bird, the dog, and other
wonderful and fine expressions oflife. But finer and more wonderful THE
LIFE WHICH HE BREATHES INTO THE SPIRIT OF FALLEN MAN. The
new birth is the waking up of dormant faculties, the resurrectionof buried
powers. Then powercomes to the man, spiritual, soul power. The man's life
becomes Divine in its harmonies. He begins to grow.
IV. This new life WIDENS THE RANGE OF EXISTENCE.
V. ALL LIFE HATES DEATH. We sympathize with the falling leaf, weep
over the dying friend, in spite of all the natural and spiritual knowledge which
recognizes in death the gate of life. But what must God feel as He beholds the
death of the soul.
VI. THE JOY OF LIVING IS FOUND IN THE PURE AND PROPER
GOVERNMENTOF THE LIFE. The life of Christ, therefore, or growth into
a life like to the one He lived, is a growth into joy.
VII. ALL HUMAN LIVES THAT ARE NOT SELF-DESTRUCTIVE ARE
GROWING TOWARDS HAPPINESS. The old aches cannotalways last, or

the old pains for ever sting us. So there is a hand somewhere thatshall take all
weakness up, and wipe all tears away.
(W. H. H. Murray.)
God's living light
W. H. Jackson.
There are three words around which we may group our thoughts of Christ.
I. MAN. These words touch and lay bare the distinctive necessityof man's
nature. When that nature awakesto the true knowledge ofitself it becomes
conscious ofneeding the direction and sustenance ofa higher life. We do not
attain satisfactionwhen we seek it on a level with the animal creation,
although we belong to it. Nothing is plainer than man's need of God. He must
have relation to the inexhaustible and changeless;and if he is to receive a light
that can shine on the problems of his own being, that light must be a life.
II. REVELATION. The text reveals the distinctive provision of Christianity.
God is the creatorof this deep necessity, and He has made it not to mock it,
but to satisfyit. "Godhath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
Christ is exhibited not as some gorgeous pageantto be admired, nor as a
carefully filled museum to be wondered at; He is a new communication from
the EternalFather. And the design of the Christian faith is not graspedby us,
nor its provision enjoyed until we see all its avenues leading up to the
disclosure that our Lord came to give life. The unique life has established
itself as the light of men, wise to guide and safe to follow. The distinctive need
of man is met by the distinctive powerof Christ.
III. USEFULNESS. These words provide us with a Divine test of the value of
all churches and Christian work. As the life is men's light, so "holding forth

the Word of Life" is the Christian's duty. To this testwe must bring our
schools, societies,literature, methods, principles. None of them are good
unless they serve His purpose, as lamp-stands from which the life of Christ
can shine more widely and brightly upon the hearts of men.
(W. H. Jackson.)
Life in Christ
Homiletic Magazine.
I. CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE AS HE IS THE CREATOR OF
EXISTENCE.
1. This is true in the widest sense.
2. He is Creator, not by delegation, but as Principle.
3. This claim He vindicated in His miracles.
II. CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE AS HE IS THE REDEEMEROF
HUMAN EXISTENCE.
1. This is the one rational explanation of His death.
2. Redemption is by price.

3. Redemption is also by power.
III. MAN'S TRUE LIFE CONSISTSIN HIS UNION WITH CHRIST.
1. There is no true human life apart from God.
2. This true human life we forfeited by sin.
3. But we recoverit in Christ.
(Homiletic Magazine.)
The light of life
Homiletic Magazine.
I. THAT THIS LIFE IS ITS OWN EVIDENCE.
1. Forlife is a resisting force.(1) Inanimate things are submissive to the forces
of nature. Thus a stone is obedient, without resistance, to the law of
gravitation.(2)But things of life resistthe mechanicalforces. Thus even a
blade of grass pushes its wayupwards through the resisting soil, in the
direction opposite to that of gravitation. As we ascendin the scale of life, these
resistancesbecome more remarkable. The eagle darts sun-ward, in every
stroke of its pinion resisting and triumphing over the force of gravitation.(3)
Men who are spiritually dead are like the stone or the feather, under the
control of worldly fashion and sinful influences. They are "carriedcaptive by
the devil at his will."(4) Men who are spiritually alive resistand vanquish
these influences. To do this the more effectuallythey avail them. selves, by

prayer, of the promised help of God. So, like the eagles, theymount sun-ward
(cf. Isaiah 40:31). Thus spiritual life is its own evidence.
2. Life is an appropriating force.(1)A living animal seizes the vegetables
around it and appropriates them as food for its nourishment. A dead animal is
a prey to the chemistry of nature.(2) Life is an appropriation, even in the
vegetable form. The root of the plant performs functions analagous to those of
the animal stomach, absorbing from the soil, digesting, and elaborating the
juice which nourish its stem and branches. The leaves perform functions
analogous to the twigs.(3)The Christian will avail himself of the means of
grace, public, domestic, private. He is not in them, like the formalist, a mere
observerof what is passing. He is in them as feeder.
3. Life is a propagating force.(1)Let a stone be buried, and after thousands of
years it will be found as it was. Witness the Nineveh marbles. Let an acornbe
buried; it will germinate and develop into an oak.(2)So the germ of religious
life unfolds into the maturity of Christian manhood. It exerts a propagating
influence upon the spirits of other men.(3) The waste of life in nature is
enormous. So is the waste of spiritual life in the Church. The failure of the
propagating energies ofspritual life is serious.
II. THAT THIS LIFE LIGHTS UP IMMORTALITY.
1. Life touches everything into beauty.(1) During winter the face of nature is
dreary.(2) But what beauty is comparable to that of holiness which springs
from spiritual life? The beauty of the saint is the reflectionof the image of
God. It is seenin the integrity that cannotbe bribed. It is seenin the
magnanimity of sacrifice. It is seenin the tenderness of kindly sympathy.

2. Life illuminates the chambers of the tomb.(1) It prevents not the dissolution
of the body. The saintliest die.(2) But while spiritual life prevents not physical
dissolution, it modifies death into sleep. The Christian "sleeps in Jesus."The
sleeperexpects an awakening.(3)The labourer sleeps expecting not only to
awake, but to awake refreshed. So does the Christian worker. No more
weariness.
3. Life is the germ of immortality.(1) The spiritual life here is the power of an
endless life hereafter. The principle is even more than the promise of
immortality.(2) Hence "the kingdom of heaven is within you." "The heavenof
heavens is love."(3)Christ is eternal life. Having Him, we have eternal life (cf.
John 3:16; John 5:24; John 11:25;John 14:6; John 1:1, 2; John 5:11, 12, 20).
(Homiletic Magazine.)
Christ the pre-eminent and illuminating Life
D. Thomas, D. D.
I. HIS LIFE WAS PRE-EMINENT."In Him was life."
1. "In Him was life" without beginning. Life in all other existences hada
commencement.
2. "In Him was life" without dependence.
3. "In Him was life" without limitation. All other life has its limits, not so with
His. His is without limit —

(1)As to kind. In His life were the germs and archetypes of all other life,
material and spiritual.
(2)As to amount. All other life is circumscribed.
(3)As to communicativeness.
(4)As to duration.
II. HIS LIFE WAS ILLUMINATING. "And the life was the light of men."
Christ's life, whateverits variety and fulness, had all a moral character, for
He was a moral Being. There are severalthings taught here concerning His
life as light:
1. That His life was "the light of men."
2. That this light was heralded by the Baptist.
3. That this light become available by faith.
4. That this light is the true light of "every man"
(D. Thomas, D. D.)

Christians the reflectors of this light
D. Thomas, D. D.
There is a little church on a lonely hill-side where they had neither gas nor
lamps, and yet on darkestnights they hold Divine service. Eachworshipper,
coming a greatdistance from village or moorland home, brings with him a
taper and lights it from the one supplied and carriedby the minister of the
little church. The building is thronged, and the scene is said to be "most
brilliant!" Let eachone of our lives be but a little taper — lighted from the life
of Christ, and carrying His flame — and we shall help to fill this greattemple
of human need and human sin with the light of the knowledge ofthe glory of
God. The life of Christ will be the new sunshine of the world. "Men shall be
blessedin Him; all nations shall call Him blessed";universal man shall
receive "God's Living Light."
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
Christ living
A missionary in China statedthat on one occasiona number of persons who
were hearing him, mostly women, manifested the greatestastonishmentwhen
he told them that the God he worshipped and wishedthem to worship was a
living God. Uttering an exclamation peculiar to themselves when much
surprised, they said, "The foreigner's Godis better than ours — ours has no
life."
Christ the universal light
H. W. Beecher.
The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's
joy. The lonely pine on the mountain top waves its sombre boughs and cries,"
Thou art my sun." And the little meadow violet lifts its cup of blue, and
whispers with its perfumed breath, " Thou art my sun." And the grain in a
thousand fields rustles in the wind, and makes answer, "Thouart my sun."

(H. W. Beecher.)
Christ a living Saviour
A Smyrna native agentcame across a Turk from some town in the interior,
who showedconsiderable acquaintance withthe Christian Scriptures. He said
he had long studied the gospel, and had once nearly gotinto trouble through
it. He was calledbefore the authorities for reading Christian books, but before
judgment was passedupon him he beggedto be allowedto ask a question.
Permissionhaving been granted, he said, "I am travelling; I come to a part
where the road branches off in two ways;I look around for some direction
and discovertwo men; one is dead, the other alive. Which of the two am I to
ask for advice — the dead or the living?" "Oh, the living, of course!" all cried
out. "Well," he added, "why require me to go to Mahomet, who is dead,
instead of to Christ, who is alive?" "Go, go about your business!" were the
words with which he was dismissed.
Christ's influence in relationto human cooperation
H. W. Beecher.
You cannot tell how much is done by the pure shining of His light and the
emissionof this life, and how much by your own receptivity, bier is it
necessary. Christ fructifies and stimulates the original and moral faculties and
makes them productive. If I take a plant out of a cellarwhere it has grown
etiolated, and without chlorophyl, and put it where the light will shine upon it,
and when it turns green, will you tell me what part of the greenis plant and
what part sun? I would say that the sun developes this chlorophyl by injecting
itself, so to speak, into the leaf. So that the light and the life co-operate with
the faith, the love, the receptivity of the individual who receives them.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Christ's influence known by its fruits

H. W. Beecher.
What is the evidence that the sun is active? The fact that every rootis
sprouting. What is the evidence that the sun has brought summer? The fruits
of summer. What is the evidence that the sun has been shedding down upon
the earth its light and warmth and ripening power? The flavour of the fruit.
Bring me an apple. If it is hard and acid I know that it is the product of a
rainy sunless summer. Bring me another, and if it is mellow and full of sugar
and aroma, I know that the sugarand aroma do not come out of the ground,
but from where there was light and, heat. And I can judge of the influence,
under which nations have been unfolded by the nature of the fruit they
produce. Show me a nation developing coarse animation, and I will show you
a nation that has not been true to the light. On the other hand, show me an
individual, a family, a community that yields the products of a higher moral
nature, and I will pronounce that higher moral nature to be the result of the
life and light of men.
(H. W. Beecher.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(4) In him was life.—The creation, the calling into existence life in its varied
forms, leads up to the source of this life. It is in the Word by original being,
while of the highest creature made “in the image of God” we are told that God
“breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul”
(Genesis 2:7).
“Life” has here no limitation, and is to be understood in its widestsense;the
life of the body, even of organisms which we commonly think of as inanimate,
the life of the soul, the life of the spirit; life in the present, so far as there is

communion with the eternalsource of life; life in the future, when the idea
shall be realisedand the communion be complete.
Was.—This is in the Greek the same verb of existence that we have had in
John 1:1-2, and is different from the word in John 1:3. Comp. Notes on John
1:6, and John 8:58. It places us, then, at the same starting point of time. The
Word was ever life, and from the first existence of any creature became a
source of life to others. But the “was” ofthe first clause of this verse should
not be pressed, for we are not quite certainthat the original text contained it.
Two of our oldestMSS. have “is,” which is supported by other evidence, and
is not in itself an improbable reading. The meaning in this case wouldbe “in
the Word there ever is life.” Creationis not merely a definite act. There is a
constantdevelopment of the germs implanted in all the varied forms of being,
and these find their sustaining power in the one central source of life. The
thought will meet us againin John 1:17; but see especiallythe expression,
“upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3, Note).
And the life was the light of men.—We are led from the relationof the Word
to the universe to His relation to mankind. That which to lowerbeings in the
scale ofcreationwas more or less fully life, as the nature of eachwas more or
less receptive of its power, is to the being endowedwith a moral nature and
made in the divine image the satisfactionof every moral need, and the
revelation of the divine Being. The “was”still carries us back to the first days
of time, when creationin all the beauty of its youth was unstained by sin,
when no night had fallen on the moral world, but when there was the
brightness of an ever-constantnoon-tide in the presence ofGod. But here, too,
the “was”passesin sense into the “is.” “Godis light, and in Him there is no
darkness at all.” In every man there are rays of light, strongeror feebler, in
greateror lesserdarkness. In every man there is a powerto see the light, and
open his soulto it, and the more he has it still to crave for more. This going
forth of the soul to God, is the seeking for life. The Word is the going forth of
God to the soul. He is life. In the feeling after, there is finding. The moral

struggle is the moral strength. The eye that seeks forlight cannotseek in vain.
The life was and is the light of men.
BensonCommentary
John 1:4-5. In him — Or, through him, as Beza understands it; was life — He
was the living and powerful Word, which was the source of life to every living
creature, as well as of being to all that exists. And the life was the light of men
— He, who is essentiallife, and the author of life to all that live, was also the
fountain of wisdom, holiness, and happiness to man in his original state. And
the light shineth in darkness — Namely, in the darkness, oramid the
ignorance and folly, sinfulness and wretchedness offallen man. This has been
the case fromthe time of man’s fall, through all ages, and in all nations of the
world; the light of reasonand conscience,as wellas the light issuing from the
works of creationand providence, and the various discoveries ofGod and his
will made to and by the patriarchs and prophets, being through and from
him: But the darkness comprehended it not — Did not advert to it, so as to
understand and profit by it, as it might have done by the instruction thus
communicated. It became necessary, therefore, in order to the more full
illumination and the salvationof mankind, that God should give a more
perfect revelationof his mind and will, than he had given in former ages.Of
this the evangelistspeaks next.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
1:1-5 The plainest reasonwhy the Son of God is calledthe Word, seems to be,
that as our words explain our minds to others, so was the Son of God sent in
order to reveal his Father's mind to the world. What the evangelistsays of
Christ proves that he is God. He asserts, His existence in the beginning; His
coexistencewith the Father. The Word was with God. All things were made
by him, and not as an instrument. Without him was not any thing made that
was made, from the highest angelto the meanestworm. This shows how well
qualified he was for the work of our redemption and salvation. The light of
reason, as wellas the life of sense, is derived from him, and depends upon him.
This eternal Word, this true Light shines, but the darkness comprehends it

not. Let us pray without ceasing, thatour eyes may be opened to behold this
Light, that we may walk in it; and thus be made wise unto salvation, by faith
in Jesus Christ.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
In him was life - The evangelisthad just affirmed John 5:3 that by the λόγος
Logos or "Word" the world was originally created. One part of that creation
consisted"in breathing into man the breath of life," Genesis 2:7. God is
declaredto be "life," or the "living" God, because he is the source or fountain
of life. This attribute is here ascribedto Jesus Christ. He not merely made the
material worlds, but he also gave "life." He was the agentby which the
vegetable world became animated; by which brutes live; and by which man
became a living soul, or was endowedwith immortality. This was a "higher"
proof that the "Wordwas God," than the creationof the material worlds;but
there is another sense in which he was "life." The "new creation," orthe
renovation of man and his restorationfrom a state of sin, is often compared
with the "first creation;" and as the λόγος Logos was the source of "life" then,
so, in a similar but higher sense, he is the source of "life" to the soul dead in
trespassesandsins, Ephesians 2:1. And it is probably in reference to this that
he is so often called"life" in the writings of John. "Foras the Father hath life
in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in him self," John 5:26; "He
giveth life unto the world," John 6:33; "I am the resurrectionand the life,"
John 11:25; "This is the true God and eternal life," John 5:20. See also 1 John
1:1-2; 1 John 5:11; Acts 3:15; Colossians 3:4. The meaning is: that he is the
source or the fountain of both natural and spiritual life. Of course he has the
attributes of God.
The life was the light of men - "Light" is that by which we see objects
distinctly. The light of the sun enables us to discernthe form, the distance, the
magnitude, and the relation of objects, and prevents the perplexities and
dangers which result from a state of darkness. Light is in all languages,
therefore, put for "knowledge" - for whateverenables us to discernour duty,
and that saves us from the evils of ignorance and error. "Whatsoeverdoth
make manifest is light," Ephesians 5:13. See Isaiah8:20; Isaiah9:2. The
Messiahwas predictedas the "light" of the world, Isaiah9:2, compared with

Matthew 4:15-16;Isaiah 60:1. See John 8:12; "I am the light of the world;"
John 12:35-36, John12:46;"I am come a light into the world." The meaning
is, that the λόγος Logos or Word of God is the "instructor or teacher" of
mankind. This was done before his advent by his direct agencyin giving man
reasonor understanding, and in giving his law, for the "law was ordained by
angels 'in the hand of a mediator'" Galatians 3:19;after his advent by his
personalministry when on earth, by his Spirit John 14:16, John 14:26, and by
his ministers since, Ephesians 4:11;1 Corinthians 12:28.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
4. In Him was life—essentiallyand originally, as the previous verses show to
be the meaning. Thus He is the Living Word, or, as He is calledin 1Jo 1:1, 2,
"the Word of Life."
the life … the light of men—All that in men which is true light—knowledge,
integrity, intelligent, willing subjectionto God, love to Him and to their fellow
creatures, wisdom, purity, holy joy, rational happiness—allthis "light of
men" has its fountain in the essentialoriginal"life" of "the Word" (1Jo 1:5-7;
Ps 36:9).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
In him was life; in this Word was life corporal, spiritual, eternal; it was in him
as in the fountain. Some understand this of corporallife, both in the first
being and preservationof it; it is certain that this is in Christ, for he
upholdeth all things by the word of his power, Hebrews 1:3 Acts 17:28; and
thus it is another demonstration of the Deity of Christ. Others think that here
is rather a transition from creationto redemption; you hath he quickened,
Ephesians 2:1. Others understand it of eternallife, because ourevangelist
most generallytaketh the term life, as a benefit flowing from Christ, in this
sense, as Ephesians 3:16, and Ephesians 4:14, and in a multitude of other
texts. I know no reasonwhy we should not understand it of all life; all life

being in Christ, as God equal with the Father;and spiritual and eternal life
flowing also from him in a more peculiar consideration, as Mediator.
And the life was the light of men: but though as God he distributes life
according to their degree to all his creatures, yet he is the peculiar light of
men, enlightening their minds with light of which vegetative and sensitive
creatures are not capable;so as by light is not here to be understood the
emanations of any lucid bodies, as that of the sun or stars, for other creatures
as well as men are capable of that; nor is it to be understood of the light of
reason, though that be the candle of the Lord in the soul; but that light by
which we discern the things of God; in which sense the apostle saith,
Ephesians 5:8, Ye were darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord. And
therefore he saith of men, exclusively to angels, who though lightsome, noble
creatures, yet had not their nature assumedby Christ, Hebrews 2:16. Besides
that it is said in the next verse, that this light shineth in darkness, that is,
amongstmany men who yet had reasonable souls, but the darkness
comprehended it not. That cannot be, that men did not comprehend reason,
but even rational men comprehended not this light of supernatural revelation.
So John is saidto have come to testify of that light; who did not come to testify
of Christ, as the author of reason. Noris there any text of Scripture in which
the term light signifieth reason.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
In him was life,.... The Persic versionreads in the plural number, "lives".
There was life in the word with respectto himself; a divine life, the same with
the life of the Father and of the Spirit; and is in him, not by gift, nor by
derivation or communication; but originally, and independently, and from all
eternity: indeed he lived before his incarnation as Mediator, and Redeemer.
Job knew him in his time, as his living Redeemer;but this regards him as the
word and living God, and distinguishes him from the written word, and shows
that he is not a mere idea in the divine mind, but a truly divine person: and
there was life in Christ the word, with respectto others; the fountain of
natural life is in him, he is the efficient cause, and preserverof it; whether

vegetative, animal, or rational; and proves him to be truly God, and that he
existed before his incarnation; since creatures, who have receivedsuch a life
from him, did: and spiritual life was also in him; all his electare dead in
trespassesandsins, and cannotquicken themselves. Christ has procured life
for them, and gives it to them, and implants it in them; a life of sanctification
is from him; and a life of justification is upon him, and of faith is by him; all
the comforts of a spiritual life, and all things appertaining to it, are from him,
and he maintains, and preserves it. Eternal life is in him, and with him; not
the purpose of it only, nor the promise of it barely, but the gift of it itself;
which was granted in consequence ofhis asking it, and which he had by way
of stipulation; and hence has a right and powerto bestow it: now, this being in
him proves him to be the true God, and shows us where life is to be had, and
the safetyand security of it:
and the life was the light of men; the life which was in, and by the word, was,
with respectto men, a life of light, or a life attended with light: by which is
meant, not a mere visive faculty, receptive of the sun's light, but rational
knowledge and understanding; for when Christ, the word, breathed into man
the breath of life, and he became a living soul, he filled him with rational light
and knowledge. Adam had a knowledge ofGod; of his being, and perfections;
of the persons in the Trinity; of his relation to God, dependence on him, and
obligation to him; of his mind and will; and knew what it was to have
communion with him. He knew much of himself, and of all the creatures;this
knowledge was naturaland perfect in its kind, but loseable;and different
from that which saints now have of God, through Christ, the Mediator; and
since this natural light was from Christ, the word, as a Creator, he must be
the eternalGod. The Socinians are not willing to allow this sense, but saythat
Christ is the light of men, by preaching the heavenly doctrine, and by the
example of his holy life; but hereby he did not enlighten every man that
cometh into the world; the greatestpart of men, before the preaching, and
example of Christ, sat in darkness;and the greatestpart of the Jews remained
in darkness, notwithstanding his preaching, and example; and the patriarchs
that were enlightened under the former dispensation, were not enlightened
this way: it will be owned, that all spiritual and supernatural light, which any
of the sons of men have had, since the fall, was from Christ, from whom they

had their spiritual life; even all spiritual light in conversion, and all after
degrees oflight; through him they enjoyed the light of God's countenance, and
had the light of joy and gladness here, and of glory hereafter.
Geneva Study Bible
{i} In him {k} was life; and the life was {l} the light of men.
(i) That is, by him: and this is spokenafter the manner of the Hebrews,
meaning by this that by his force and working powerall life comes to the
world.
(k) That is, even at that time when all things were made by him, for otherwise
he would have said, Life in him, and not life was.
(l) That force of reasonand understanding which is kindled in our minds to
acknowledge him, the author of so greata benefit.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
John 1:4. An advance to the nature of the Logos[77]as life, and thereby as
light.
ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν] in Him, was life, He was πηγὴ ζωῆς (Philo). Life was that
which existed in Him, of which He was full. This must be takenin the most
comprehensive sense, nothing that is life being excluded, physical, moral,
eternal life (so already Chrysostom),—alllife was containedin the Logos, as in
its principle and source. No limitation of the conception, especiallyas ζωή is
without the article (comp. John 5:26), has any warrant from the context;

hence it is not to be understood either merely of physical life, so far as it may
be the sustaining power(B. Crusius, comp. Chrysostom, Euthymius
Zigabenus, Calvin), or of spiritual and eternal life,—ofthe Johanneanζωὴ
αἰώνιος (Origen, Maldonatus, Lampe, Kuinoel, Köstlin, Hengstenberg,
Weiss), where Hengstenberg drags in the negative notion that the creature
was excluded from life until Christ was manifested in the flesh, and that down
to the time of His incarnation He had only been virtually life and light.
καὶ ἡ ζωὴ, κ.τ.λ.]and the life, of which the Logos was the possessor, was the
light of men. The expositionthen passes overfrom the universal to the
relation of the Logos to mankind; for, being Himself the universal source of
life to the world made by Him, He was as such unable to remain inactive, least
of all with respectto men, but shows Himself as operating upon them
conformably to their rational and moral nature, especiallyas the light,
according to the necessaryconnectionof life and light in opposition to death
and darkness. (Comp. John 8:12; Psalm 36:10;Ephesians 5:14; Luke 1:78-79.)
The light is truth pure and divine, theoreticaland moral (both combined by
an inner necessity, and not simply the former, as Weiss maintains), the
receptionand appropriation of which enlightens the man (υἱὸς φωτός, John
12:36), whose non-appropriation and non-acceptance into the consciousness
determines the condition of darkness. The Life was the Light of men, because
in its working upon them it was the necessarydetermining powerof their
illumination. Comp. such expressions as those in John 11:25, John 14:6, John
17:3. Nothing as yet is said of the working of the Logos afterHis incarnation
(John 14:6), but (observe the ἦν) that the divine truth in that primeval time
came to man from the Logos as the source of life; life in Him was for mankind
the activelycommunicating principle of the divine ἀλήθεια, in the possession
of which they lived in that fair morning of creation, before through sin
darkness had broken in upon them. This reference to the time when man,
createdafter God’s image, remained in a state of innocency, is necessarily
required by the ἦν, which, like the preceding ἦν, must refer to the creation-
period indicated in John 1:3. But we are thus at the same time debarred from
understanding, as here belonging to the enlightening action of the Logos,
God’s revelations to the Hebrews and later Jews (comp. Isaiah 2:5), by the

prophets, etc. (Ewald), or even from thinking of the elements of moral and
religious truth to be found in heathendom (λόγος σπερματικός). In that fresh,
untroubled primeval age, when the Logos as the source oflife was the Light of
men, the antithesis of light and darkness did not yet exist; this tragic
antithesis, however, as John’s readers knew, originatedwith the fall, and had
continued everafter. There follows, therefore, after a fond recalling of that
fair bygone time (John 1:4), the painful and mournful declarationof the later
and still enduring relation (John 1:5), where the light still shines indeed, but in
darkness,—adarkness whichhad not receivedit. If that reference, however,
which is to be kept closelyin view, of ἦν to the time of the world’s creation,
and also this representationof the onward movement of our narrative, be
correct, it cannot also be explained of the continuous (John 1:17) creative
activity of the Logos, through which a consciousnessandrecognitionof the
highest truth have been developed among men (De Wette); and just as little
may we find in τὸ φῶς τ. ἀνθρ. what belongs to the Logos in His essenceonly,
in which case the reading ἐστί would (againstBrückner)be more appropriate;
comp. φωτίζει, John 1:9. As in ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, so also by ἦν τὸ φῶς τ. ἀνθρ.
must be expressedwhat the Logos was in His historicalactivity, and not
merely what He was virtually (Hengstenberg). Comp. Godet, who, however,
without any hint from the text, or any historicalappropriateness whatever,
finds in “life and light” a reminiscence of the trees of life and of knowledge in
Paradise.
[77] The Logos must necessarilybe taken as in vv. 1–3, but not from ver. 4
onwards in Hofmann’s sense, as no longera person but a thing, viz. the
Gospel, as Röhricht (p. 315)maintains, as if the verbum vocale were now a
designationof Christ, who is the bearer of it. No such change of meaning is
indicated in the text, and it only brings confusioninto the clearadvance of the
thought.
Expositor's Greek Testament
John 1:4. ἐν αυτῷ ζωὴ ἦν. “In Him was life”; that powerwhich creates life
and maintains all else in existence was in the Logos. To limit “life” here to any

particular form of life is rendered impossible by John 1:3. In John ζωή is
generallyeternal or spiritual life, but here it is more comprehensive. In the
Logos was life, and it is of this life all things have partakenand by it they
exist. Cf. Philo’s designationof the Logos as πηγὴ ζωῆς.—καὶἡ ζωὴ ἧν τὸ
φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, “and the life was the light of men”; the life which was the
fountain of existence to all things was especiallythe light of man Lücke). It
was not the Logos directly but the life which was in the Logos which was the
light of men. O. Holtzmann thinks this only means that as men receivedlife
from the Logos they might be expectedin the gift to recognise the Giver.
Godetsays: “The Logos is light; but it is through the mediation of life that He
must become so always;this is preciselythe relation which the Gospel
restores. We recoverthrough the new creationin Jesus Christan inner light
which springs up from the life.” Stevens says:“The Word represents the self-
manifesting quality of the Divine life. This heavenly light shines in the
darkness of the world’s ignorance and sin.” The words seemto mean that the
life which appears in the variety, harmony, and progress ofinanimate nature,
and in the wonderfully manifold yet relatedforms of animate existence,
appears in man as “light,” intellectual and moral light, reasonand conscience.
To the Logos men may address the words of Psalm 36:9, παρὰ σοὶ πηγὴ ζωῆς,
ἐν τῷ φωτί σου ὀψόμεθα φῶς.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
4. In him was life] He was the well-spring from which every form of life—
physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, eternal—flows. See onJohn 5:26.
Observe how frequently S. John’s thoughts overlap and run into one another.
Creationleads on to life, and life leads on to light. Without life creationwould
be unintelligible; without light all but the lowestforms of life would be
impossible.

the light] Not‘light,’ but ‘the Light,’ the one true Light; absolute Truth both
intellectual and moral, free from all ignorance and all stain. The Source of life
is the Source of light.
the light of men] Man shares life with all organic creatures;light, or
Revelation, is for him alone. The communication of Divine truth before the
Fall is speciallymeant.
Bengel's Gnomen
John 1:4. Ἐν, in) First, John says, In Him was life: (comp. ch. John 5:26, “For
as the Fatherhath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Sonto have life in
Himself”). Then he calls Him the Life. So in 1 John 1:1-2, first he calls Him
the Word of Life, then the Life; and in the same chapter, John 1:5; John 1:7,
God is said to be Light, and to be in the light. John especiallyimitates the
expressions ofthe Lord Jesus.[12]—ΖΩΉ, life)After the considerationof
being [esse], the next considerationis as to living [vivere]. Then [the result of
life entering the world] there is no death, there is then no nature devoid of
grace.—καὶἡ ζωή, and the Life) The Subject: the Life, bestowing life on all
things, which were alive.—ἦντὸ φῶς, was the Light) Light and Life together:
ch. John 8:12, “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life: 1 Timothy 6:16, “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in
the light, which no man can approachunto:” Php 2:15-16, “Ye shine as lights
in the world, holding forth the word of life.” As on the opposite side, ‫,תומלצ‬
Darkness anddeath. Quickening is, however, prior to illumination.—ΤῶΝ
ἈΝΘΡΏΠΩΝ, ofmen) Of all men in the state of innocency, from which there
ought not to be separatedthe considerationas to the Logos.[13]Men: nowhere
is this expressionused for Adam and his wife; so it denotes mankind. The
evangelisthere is come from the whole to the part—from those things which
were made, or which were alive, to rational beings. In relation to the several
particulars, ὁ λογος, the Speech[Sermo], has the signification suited to each.

[12] John 8:12. That which thus harmonizes with the intimate relation
betweenthe beloveddisciple and Jesus, is made a ground of cavil by
Rationalists;viz. that elsewhere Johnputs into Jesus’mouth a phraseology
which is not Jesus’but his own.—E.
[13] Or, of man in his ideal.—E.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 4. -
(a) The Life, and therefore inclusive of the fact that the Logos always has been
and now is
(b) the Light of men. In him was life. "Life" in all its fulness of meaning - that
grand addition to things which confers upon them all their significance for
men. There is one impassable chasmwhich neither history, nor science, nor
philosophy can span, viz. that betweennothing and something. The evangelist
has found the only possible method of facing it - by the conceptionof One who
from eternity has within himself the potency of the transition. There is
another impassable chasmin thought - that betweennon-living atoms and
living energies and individualities. The assertionnow is that life, ζωή, with all
its manifestations and in all its regions;that the life of plant, tree, and animal,
the life of man, of society, and of worlds as such; that the life of the body, soul,
and spirit, the life transitory and the life eternal (ζωὴ αἰώνιος), was in the
Logos, "who was Godand in the beginning with God." Elsewhere in the
GospelJesus saidthat "as the Fatherhad life in himself, so he gave to the Son
to have life in himself" (John 5:26); i.e. he communicated to the Son his own
Divine self-dependence. The Gospel, however, lays the greatestemphasis on
the life-giving powers of the Christ as incarnate Logos. The healing of the
impotent man (ch. 5.), the raising of the dead Lazarus (ch. 11.), are chosen
proofs of his life-giving energy. His claim (ch. 10.)to retake the life that he

would voluntarily relinquish, and the august majestywith which, in his
resurrectionlife (ch. 20, 21.), he proclaimed his absolute and final victory over
death, constitute the reasons whichinduced the evangelistto lay down at the
very outsetthat in the Logos was life. Life, in all its energies, past, present,
and future, is an outcome, an effluence, of the Eternal Word. And the life was
(and is) the light of men. Observe, it is not said here that physical life is a
consequence orissue of the solar beam, or of the Word which in the beginning
calledlight out of darkness. All the religious systems of the Eastand all
modern sciencesagreeto extol and all but worship the light force, with all that
seems so inseparably associatedwith it. The evangelistwas reaching after
something far more momentous even than that dogma of ancient faith and
modern science. He is not speaking of "the light of the sun," but of "the light
of men." Whatever this illumination may include, John does not refer it
directly to the Logos, but to the life which is "in him." "The light of men" has
been differently conceivedby expositors. Calvinsupposed that the
"understanding" was intended - "that the life of men was not of an ordinary
description, but was united to the light of understanding," and is that by
which man is differentiated from animals. Hengstenberg regards it, in
consequence ofnumerous associationsof"light" with "salvation" in Holy
Scripture, as equivalent to salvation; Luthardt with "holiness;" and many
with the "eternallife," which would introduce great tautology. The context is
our best guide. This light is saidto be the veritable light which lighteth every
man, and to be shining into darkness. Consequently, to make it the complex of
all the gracious processes whichbeautify the renewedsoul is to hurry on
fasterthan the apostle, and to anticipate the evolution of his thought. "The
light of men" seems to be the faculty or condition, the inward and outward
means, by which men know God. "The light of men" is the conscienceand
reason, the eye of the soul by which the human race comes into contactwith
truth and right and beauty. The perfections of God answering to these
functions of the soul are not, and were never, manifestedin mere matter or
force. Until we survey the operations of God in life we have no hint of either.
The lowerforms of life in plant or animal may reveal the wisdom and
beneficence and 'beauty of the Logos, and so far some light shines upon man;
but even these have never been adequately appreciateduntil the life of man
himself comes into view, then the Divine perfections of righteousness and

moral loveliness break upon the eye of the soul. In the life of conscienceand
reasona higher and more revealing light is made to shine upon man, upon his
origin, upon his Divine image, upon his destiny. In the spiritual life which has
been superinduced upon the life of the conscience andof the flesh, there is the
highest light, the brightest and warmestand most potent rays of the whole
spectrum of Divine illumination. "The life" which was in the Logos "was,"
has always been, is now, will ever be, "the light of men." The plural, "of men"
(τῶν ἀνθρώπων), justifies this largerand sweeping generalization. The two
"imperfects" (η΅ν) placing the process in the past do not compelus to limit the
operationto the past or ideal sphere. They assertwhatwas "in the
beginning," and which cannever ceaseto be; but they partly imply further
consequences, whichthe actual condition of man has introduced.
Vincent's Word Studies
In Him was life (ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν)
He was the fountain of life - physical, moral, and eternal - its principle and
source. Two words for life are employed in the New Testament: βίος and ζωὴ.
The primary distinction is that ζωὴ means existence as contrasted with death,
and βίος, the period, means, or manner of existence. Hence βίος is originally
the higher word, being used of men, while ζωὴ is used of animals (ζῶα). We
speak therefore of the discussionof the life and habits of animals as zoology;
and of accounts ofmen's lives as biography. Animals have the vital principle
in common with men, but men lead lives controlled by intellect and will, and
directed to moral and intellectual ends. In the New Testament, βίος means
either living, i.e., means of subsistence (Mark 12:44;Luke 8:43), or course of
life, life regardedas an economy(Luke 8:14; 1 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:4).
Ζωὴ occurs in the lowersense oflife, consideredprincipally or wholly as
existence (1 Peter 3:10; Acts 8:33; Acts 17:25;Hebrews 7:3). There seems to
be a significance in the use of the word in Luke 16:25 : "Thou in thy lifetime
(ἐν τῇ ζωῇ σου) receivedstthy goodthings;" the intimation being that the rich
man's life had been little better than mere existence, and not life at all in the
true sense. Butthroughout the New Testament ζωὴ is the nobler word,
seeming to have changedplaces with βίος. It expresses the sum of mortal and
eternal blessedness(Matthew 25:46;Luke 18:30;John 11:25; Acts 2:28;

Romans 5:17; Romans 6:4), and that not only in respectof men, but also of
God and Christ. So here. Compare John 5:26; John 14:6; 1 John 1:2. This
change is due to the gospelrevelationof the essentialconnectionofsin with
death, and consequently, of life with holiness. "Whatevertruly lives, does so
because sinhas never found place in it, or, having found place for a time, has
since been overcome and expelled" (Trench).
Ζωὴ is a favorite word with John. See John 11:25; John 14:6; John 8:12; 1
John 1:2; 1 John 5:20; John 6:35, John 6:48; John 6:63; Revelation21:6;
Revelation22:1, Revelation22:17;Revelation7:17; John 4:14; Revelation2:7;
Revelation22:2, Revelation22:14, Revelation22:19;John 12:50; John 17:3;
John 20:31; John 5:26; John 6:53, John 6:54; John 5:40; John 3:15, John
3:16, John 3:36; John 10:10;John 5:24; John 12:25;John 6:27; John 4:36; 1
John 5:12, 1 John 5:16; John 6:51.
Was the Light of men (ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων)
Passing from the thought of creationin generalto that of mankind, who, in
the whole range of createdthings, had a specialcapacityfor receiving the
divine. The Light - the peculiar mode of the divine operation upon men,
conformably to their rational and moral nature which alone was fitted to
receive the light of divine truth. It is not saidthat the Word was light, but that
the life was the light. The Word becomes light through the medium of life, of
spiritual life, just as sight is a function of physical life. Compare John 14:6,
where Christ becomes the life through being the truth; and Matthew 5:8,
where the pure heart is the medium through which God is beheld. In
whatevermode of manifestationthe Word is in the world, He is the light of
the world; in His works, in the dawn of creation; in the happy conditions of
Eden; in the Patriarchs, in the Law and the Prophets, in His incarnation, and
in the subsequent history of the Church. Compare John 9:5. Of men, as a
class, andnot of individuals only.

STUDYLIGHTRESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
In him was life - Many MSS., versions, and fathers, connectthis with the
preceding verse, thus: All things were made by him, and without him was
nothing made. What was made had life in it; but This Life was the light of
men. That is, though every thing he made had a principle of life in it, whether
vegetable, animal, or intellectual, yet this, that life or animal principle in the
human being, was not the light of men; not that light which could guide them
to heaven, for the world by wisdom knew not God, 1 Corinthians 1:21.
Therefore, the expression, in him was life, is not to be understood of life
natural, but of that life eternalwhich he revealedto the world, 2 Timothy
1:10, to which he taught the way, John 14:6, which he promised to believers,
John 10:28, which he purchasedfor them, John 6:51, John 6:53, John 6:54,
which he is appointed to give them, John 17:2, and to which he will raise them
up, John 5:29, because he hath the life in himself, John 5:26. All this may be
proved:
From the like expressions;1 John 5:11, This is the promise that God hath
given unto us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son: whence he is styled the
true God and eternallife, 1 John 5:20; the resurrectionand the life, John
11:25;the way, the truth, and the life, John 14:6.
From these words, John 1:7, John came to bear witness of this light, that all
might believe through him, viz. to eternal life, 1 Timothy 1:16; for so John
witnesseth, John3:15, John 3:36.

And hence it follows that this life must be the light of men, by giving them the
knowledge ofthis life, and of the wayleading to it. See Whitby on the place. Is
there any reference here to Genesis 3:20;: And Adam calledhis wife's name
Eve, ‫הוח‬ chava, Ζωη, Life, because she was the mother of all living? And was
not Jesus that seedof the woman that was to bruise the head of the serpent,
and to give life to the world?
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on John 1:4". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/john-
1.html. 1832.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
In him was life - The evangelisthad just affirmed John 5:3 that by the λόγος
Logosor“Word” the world was originally created. One part of that creation
consisted“in breathing into man the breath of life,” Genesis 2:7. God is
declaredto be “life,” or the “living” God, because he is the source or fountain
of life. This attribute is here ascribedto Jesus Christ. He not merely made the
material worlds, but he also gave “life.” He was the agentby which the
vegetable world became animated; by which brutes live; and by which man
became a living soul, or was endowedwith immortality. This was a “higher”
proof that the “Wordwas God,” than the creationof the material worlds; but
there is another sense in which he was “life.” The “new creation,” orthe
renovation of man and his restorationfrom a state of sin, is often compared
with the “first creation;” and as the λόγος Logoswasthe source of “life” then,
so, in a similar but higher sense, he is the source of “life” to the soul dead in
trespassesandsins, Ephesians 2:1. And it is probably in reference to this that

he is so often called“life” in the writings of John. “Foras the Father hath life
in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in him self,” John 5:26; “He
giveth life unto the world,” John 6:33; “I am the resurrectionand the life,”
John 11:25; “This is the true God and eternal life,” John 5:20. See also 1 John
1:1-2; 1 John 5:11; Acts 3:15; Colossians 3:4. The meaning is: that he is the
source or the fountain of both natural and spiritual life. Of course he has the
attributes of God.
The life was the light of men - “Light” is that by which we see objects
distinctly. The light of the sun enables us to discernthe form, the distance, the
magnitude, and the relation of objects, and prevents the perplexities and
dangers which result from a state of darkness. Light is in all languages,
therefore, put for “knowledge”-for whateverenables us to discernour duty,
and that saves us from the evils of ignorance and error. “Whatsoeverdoth
make manifest is light,” Ephesians 5:13. See Isaiah8:20; Isaiah9:2. The
Messiahwas predictedas the “light” of the world, Isaiah 9:2, compared with
Matthew 4:15-16;Isaiah 60:1. See John 8:12; “I am the light of the world;”
John 12:35-36, John12:46; “I am come a light into the world.” The meaning
is, that the λόγος LogosorWord of God is the “instructoror teacher” of
mankind. This was done before his advent by his direct agencyin giving man
reasonor understanding, and in giving his law, for the “law was ordained by
angels ‹in the hand of a mediator‘” Galatians 3:19;after his advent by his
personalministry when on earth, by his Spirit John 14:16, John 14:26, and by
his ministers since, Ephesians 4:11;1 Corinthians 12:28.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography

Barnes, Albert. "Commentaryon John 1:4". "Barnes'Notesonthe Whole
Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/john-1.html.
1870.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
The Biblical Illustrator
John 1:4
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The life which Christ lived was so radiant that it fills our lives with light. It
was God-life, without pause or interruption.
I. CHRIST THE TRUE LIFE.
1. A life of the highest knowledge. “No manknoweththe Fatherbut the Son.”
“By His knowledge shallmy righteous servant justify many.” Any life, to be
strong and influential, must have a mighty grasp of the highesttruths. The
highest knowledge is that of the moral nature of God, the spiritual nature of
man, and the true nature of the relations betweenGod and man. This
knowledge is threefold in its contents, and is the blended result of the
perceptions of the intellect, heart, and conscience. Neitheralone canreachit;
for to obtain even glimpses of it we must be elevatedabove the uncertainties of
the intellect, the selfishness ofthe heart, and the bewilderments of conscience.
“This is life eternal”;and Christ possessedit in its fulness, because He had
this knowledge in absolute fulness and certainty, and came to bear witness to

it, and thus to bridge over the gulf which the greatestgeniuses hadfailed to
span.
2. A life of perfectlove. Knowledge the most perfect is only one element. Love
is the grandestform of life, because it includes all the other virtues, which
without it are nothing. Considerthe infinite difference betweenthe sentiments
we cherish towards Shakespeare andChrist. We admire and wonderin the
one case;we admire and worship in the other. The one added immensely to
our literature and our knowledge;the other createda new religion and
discovereda God of greatergoodnessthan the world had everknown, because
the key-note of His life was sacrifice and its crown the cross.
3. A life of perfectdoing. The greatestlife is that in which the grandestideas,
emotions, and actions are perfectly blended. Such was His life. Human nature
is ordinarily so poor, that often the men with large emotional natures have a
difficulty in keeping themselves pure, and are not greatin ideas, and vice
versa. Considerthe life that must have been in Christ. Notto insist on the
wonderful quantity of work that Christ did! Look at its transcendant quality,
the nature of His acts and their motive.
II. THE LIFE OF CHRIST IS THE LIGHT OF MEN, because it is
1. A glorious revelation. His life, composedof the highest knowledge, etc., was
a revelation. It is not speculationthat can teachus the highestreligious truth,
but that truth embodied in a life. We live in an age which denies or questions
the truths which for nineteen centuries have constituted the hope of the
Church. What is God, man, life, destiny? Some are able to answerthese
questions off-hand by turning to their systems of theology. But men will
continue to ask them, unsatisfied with such ready-made, second-hand

answers;and the only answers that will carry any sufficient weight of
evidence are those obtained by men who understand the life and death of our
Lord. He is the light of the world, the revelation of the Father, and of what
man may become. But we cannotperceive the light or enter into the revelation
if we stand out of personalrelation to Him.
2. A greatquickening power, like the sun. We know how one human life will
act upon another. If we place ourselves in the light of Christ’s life, we shall
soonbegin to realize a change in our thoughts, hearts, conscience,and will. (C.
Short, M. A.)
The life and the light
Where Christianity is not, there are darkness and death; where Christianity
is, there are light and life. Myriads of men testify that some Divine powerin
Christianity has made them new creatures. These are facts ofChristian
history, present results of Christian experience. We are not the apologists ofa
discredited or doubtful cause;we press the arguments on those who oppose.
Christianity is a fact that must be accountedfor. One branch of the argument
is the practicalinfluence of Christ, His fitness and fulness as the life and light
of men.
I. THERE IS MATERIAL FOR THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT IN THE
VERY CONCEPTIONAND FORM OF SUCH A STATEMENT.
1. It is one of those profound and pregnant statements characteristic ofthe
Christian writings, and especiallyof St. John. How is it that these simple
chroniclers attained to ideas more spiritual, profound, and luminous than

those of the greatestphilosophers? Whence these conceptions ofChrist, so
unique, that no other was everimagined like Him, and yet so congruous and
vital that men confess andworship Him?
2. Notonly profoundness, but peculiarity of meaning in this conceptionof
Christ and His work. It might have been written yesterday, in the light of
Christian history, so exactand adequate is the representationof the peculiar
facts and influence of Christ’s work.
II. WHAT LIGHT THE LIFE OF CHRIST THROWS ON THE GREAT
PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND DESTINY. We speculate on these problems, and
call ourselves theologians;we try to resolve them by practicalexperiments,
and callourselves moralists. But how perplexed the theology; how uncertain
the morality! What human thought has thrown any light upon them? In
Christ the only solution of them lies.
1. Has God given us a supernatural revelation of His characterand will? It is
sufficient to point to Christ. The life is its own light. It is the greatestmiracle
of history. The impression of perfect goodness is produced by every word and
manifested feeling; perfectholiness blends with perfecttenderness into an
excellencywhich has neither defect nor excess. Christ’s innocence, contraryto
ours, was markedby no ignorance. Virtues almost incongruous blend in Him-
-greatness andgentleness, holiness andpity, strength and sympathy. He is
nobler than the greatestman, tenderer than the gentlestwoman. He
commands not only the homage of the good, but of the wise. His intellectual
characteris as greatas His moral. The very conceptionof His kingdom is a
miracle--a spiritual, holy, catholic kingdom of God, the consummationof
which should be the conversionand service of a whole world. Does notthis
marvellous life solve the problem of Divine manifestation? Who could have

invented it? With it before us, to ask for proofs of the truth of Christianity is
as reasonable as to ask atnoonday for astronomicalproofs of the sun.
2. Men are perplexed with the question of human sin. Whereverthey are
found they are conscious ofwrong-doing. Philosophers and poets of all ages
recognize it and lament over it; and the religious problem of every age in the
face of it is, “How Shall a man be just with God?” What human philosophy
has furnished a solution? What canappease my awakenedconscience,the
memory of a guilty life? Not a mere generalassurance ofGod’s mercy. I
recognize something beside mercy, even an inflexible righteousness. And just
in proportion as I believe in that, my hope is disabled. It is only when Christ is
offered as the Mediatorbetweena holy God and sinful men that light is
thrown on the problem. When He is recognizedas having been offered as a
propitiation for human guilt, then God is seento be just, and the justifier of
the ungodly. His salvationrespects everyrequirement of the Divine
government, and satisfies everydemand of our moral nature. How can this
salvationbe a personalexperience? In Christ is the answer. The same cross
which honours the Divine law attracts human hearts, and through Him I
receive the atonement.
3. Next comes the problem of human character;its degradation, unholiness,
selfishness, andshame. What hope is there for man’s moral future? Apart
from Christ, none. In Him is the only regenerating powerto be found.
4. There is the problem of human sorrow. But suffering is relieved from its
anathema, exalted into sacrifice, convertedinto a gospel, and made the
minister of the noblest perfectionin the human life of Christ.
5. There is the problem of death. But Christ has brought life and immortality
to light. Even death becomes a gospelto immortal men; the transition from

this darkness to that light, this sinfulness to that holiness, this sorrow to that
blessedness. (H. Allen, D. D.)
The life and light of men
I. THE SUBLIME DECLARATION. In its ultimate origin all life is
mysterious. It must reston an eternal life. The Divine life the only true life.
“In Him life was.” In us dependent, continually becoming. The text a
contradiction if employed of a mere man. The life in Christ was the life of the
Spirit. Reasonleads us to the conceptionof a continually ascending life,
vegetable, animal, rational. Revelationadds the spiritual--the life of inspired
men, of fellowshipwith God, of angels of Christ who had the Spirit without
measure. His was the life of God--perfectpurity, ceaselessactivity, infinite
love.
II. THE PROCLAMATION. The life was the light of men.
1. In paradise. Man walkedin it and saw Godface to face.
2. Then followeda long period during which the light shone on chosenmen,
places, institutions. Light in the midst of gross darkness. The heathenworld
was full of evil. Some light shined here and there.
3. When the fulness of time came the life was the light of men. Power,
gladness, graciousness, adaptation, acceptability of the gospelrepresentedin

the analogyof light in darkness. Light calls out energies, helps growth, reveals
faces, turns bloom to fruit, and fruit to perfection. Life and light intimately
blended.
4. What was wanted then is wantednow; light of men as well as of man; in
communities, nations, individual heart and conscience. Light in the
household--among dark anxieties, sorrows, desolation. Light in the prospects
of mankind--a bright future the outcome of the light of Jesus. Light on the
sepulchre--not now a mere sombre monument of fallen pride, but affection’s
memorial written in the language ofhope. The life will reappear, and we shall
appear with Him and be like Him, and so be ourselves that life and light of
men. (R. A. Redford, M. A.)
I. IN HIM WAS LIFE. God is self-existent. Every being but He had a
beginning. Every other being, therefore, must have been created. All life
which had a commencementmust be derived and not inherent. Christ’s life
was un-derived and inherent. Therefore He was Divine.
II. THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN. John does not declare it to be the
life of men; which would be true. Every tribe of animated existence draws its
life from God: But man placed above beasts and birds. The difference consists
in deriving life from the Word and having the life which was in Him as our
enlivening, illuminating principle in us. This light is that which enables man to
walk in a wholly different region from the beasts which perish, penetrating
the wonders and scanning the boundaries of the universe, while other

creatures are limited to a single and insignificant province. This light is the
soul: reason, judgment, conscience. If this soul be eclipsedman is morally and
spiritually blind. It is a fine testimony to this light when we find it describedas
the life which was from all eternity in the Word. It gives a majesty to reason
and a dignity to conscience whena man realizes that these are part of the life
of his Creator. The man who debases them debases no earthborn or
perishable thing. The Word endowedhuman nature with His own life;
hanging up in its chambers a lamp, and continually feeding the flame with the
flashings of His own eternity. Shall this lamp be substituted now that it has
been fractured, its light dimmed, for the Word Himself? Or shall we boast
ourselves free from all need of Him just because there glows in us a principle
derived from Him? The strangestspectacle is that of a man taking reasonand
rejecting Christ as his guide, fancying that in directing himself by the shining
of his own spirit he shows himself independent of Christ. Man shows his
ignorance of creationin putting scornon redemption. He draws from the
Word those very energies by which he would prove himself independent of the
Word. The intellectual capacitieswere Christ’s shinings into the uncorrupted,
even as our pardon, and renewal, and acceptance into the depraved and
ruined. What gave virtue to His sacrifice was thatthe Self-existentdied, and
that which gave this worth was emphatically our light. Reasonstillburns
brightly, conscience is not quenched, and immortality is assuredbecause the
Word who never had a beginning consentedto be born; the Word who never
can end consentedto die. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
I. He is ESSENTIALLY LIFE--the Living One, as opposedto dying men.

II. He is the EXEMPLARY LIFE for all things exist in the Word, which is the
idea of all things living.
III. He is the CAUSE AND SOURCE OF NATURAL LIFE to all; the Maker
of all things, from whom life has been communicated to all things living; and
He is also the sustainerof that life which at the first He imparted; both the
giver and the preserver of life to all.
IV. He is the CAUSE AND SOURCE OF SUPERNATURAL LIFE the grace
and the glory of all God’s faithful children; commencing this life by the
communication of His grace, and so bestowing upon men faith, hope, and
charity; perfecting this life by the communication of His glory, in which we
shall enjoy the beatific vision of God. (W. Denton, M. A.)
Christ the life and light of individual men
I have seenone out of whom had gone all heavenly resemblance, and in whom
all rudeness, coarseness, profanity, worldly lusts were incarnate. There was no
pressure that inclined him downward, to which he did not yield. Had his soul
been of stone, it could not have been less responsive to the Divine solicitations.
There was not a function in him which was not petrified on its heavenward
side; there was not a capacityin him that did not, so far as righteous action
goes, lie dead. Well, mark now; one night, while he was lying on his bed, the
Lord, in the shadow of the darkness--notviolently, but still as the stillness
around and above his bed, more dreadful, perhaps, because of the stillness;
perhaps more gentle because ofit--drew near to this dead soul; breathed on it
once, gently took its hand and said, Soul, arise! And that dead soulfelt strange

currents run through all its frame; felt the thrill of Divine life charge through
its veins, until the frozen current melted, ran, became warm, beganto throb,
and life came into it--life to stand, to move; and that dead soul arose and stood
before the Lord, and then full of rapture bowed down and worshipped. And,
ever after--for I knew him well--that man lived a life that took knowledge of
all God’s mercies, a life as innocent as the bird’s is that has no beak nor
talons, and cannotwound nor strike, but can only sing; yea, as innocent as the
little stream that has no deep, dark places in it, into which children can fall,
unawares, and be drowned, but which runs clearand cool, shallow and safe--
content to minister to the roots of flowers that fringe it, and be drunk up of
thirsty cattle and labouring men. So he lived his life, I say, and in him I saw
what regenerationmeant: what the life that Christ saidHe was, meant. (W. H.
H. Murray.)
Christ the light and life of nature and of grace
If I walk the fields of science and nature gives up one secretafter another, and
if I then turn to the sublimer mysteries of grace, andstudy the amazing record
of the winning back of this earth from the bondage of corruption, they are not
different beings to whom the different investigations prove me debtor. Whilst
led by reasonacrossthe spreadings of space, andenabled by intellect to take
the span and the altitude of the architecture of God, I owe all to the Word just
as truly as when I feelmyself strengthenedto eastoff evil. As a rational being
I owe everything to the Word; as a redeemed being I owe everything to the
Word. His the intelligence by which I may count the stars;His the atonement
through which I may be furnished for life. His the memory in which I can
treasure truth and the righteousnessin which I may come before God. His the
judgment by which I can weighconflicting propositions as well as the
intercessionby which I canbe shelteredfrom wrath. His the imagination by
which I can wander through immensity; His the purchasing of the inheritance
for outshining all I canconceive. If, then, because of redemption I adore the
Word made flesh, shall I not, because endowedwith reason, magnify the

Word as the Self-existent? If as a redeemed creature I give thanks to the
Word that He humbled Himself and became obedient unto the death of the
Cross, shallnot I as a rational creature pour forth this grateful tribute to the
Word: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men”? (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christ’s influence as the light and life most productive to-day
Neverwas there a time when there was so much of Christ in the world as now,
because the human race was never so largely in a condition to acceptthe
Divine activity, and to be rendered productive by it. As the sun never had
such harvests as now, so there never were such harvests of the Sun of
Righteousness. As there is more raised in the State of Illinois in a year now
than there was in ten thousand years before the prairies were brought into a
state of cultivation, so the products of morality and spirituality are more
abundant than they ever were before. In proportion as the minds of men are
clearedand rendered susceptible to the activity of the Divine mind, human
inspiration is increasedindividual by individual, family by family, nation by
nation. (H. W. Beecher.)
The difference betweenlife and light
I. In the SON OF GOD.
II. In THE WORLD

III. In MAN.
IV. In the CHRISTIAN LIFE. (Lange.)
The life a light of men
I. In man: consciousness.
II. FOR man: the works ofGod as the signs and words of God.
III. RESPECTING man:Christ the light of the life. (Lange.)
Christ was the light and life of men
in that He delivered men from ignorance, unbelief, and vice, and from the
ruin and misery which are their invariable attendants; and brought them to
the knowledge ofDivine things, to faith and holiness, and to that temporal and
eternal happiness with which these are inseparably connected. This change He
effected

I. BY HIS DOCTRINE,whichis of Divine efficacy, not only for enlightening,
but for purifying and transforming the soul, and imparting consolationand
happiness.
II. BY HIS INCARNATION, LIFE AND DEATH. Forthese were the clearest
revelation of God, the benevolence ofHis nature, and His paternal love to
men, of the Saviour, and His great and glorious work, of the dignity of man,
and the certainty of a state of immortal existence beyond death and the grave.
III. BY HIS EXAMPLE. The example
1. Of His holiness, which gave evidence and efficiencyto His doctrine.
2. Of His “sufferings, and the glory that should follow,” in which He is our
pattern (2 Timothy 2:11; Romans 8:17; Rom_8:29).
IV. BY HIS INSTITUTIONS. Shedding down the Holy Ghost upon the
apostles, instituting baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Christian ministry,
public worship, and other religious exercises,which are the most effectual
means for banishing ignorance, and unbelief, impiety, and misery from the
earth, and for the diffusion and establishmentof knowledge andfaith, virtue
and genuine happiness among men. Thus extensive is the signification, whilst

Jesus was the light of all mankind

Jesus was the light of all mankind

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Ähnlich wie Jesus was the light of all mankind

Ähnlich wie Jesus was the light of all mankind (20)

Mehr von GLENN PEASE

Mehr von GLENN PEASE (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Jesus was the light of all mankind