I Am The Light Of The World

There are seven ‘I am’ sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in John’s gospel. The Lord applies these sayings to Himself and in each draws on a simple every-day object or idea such as bread, a door, a vine, a shepherd. Each expression opens a precious window on Christ’s saving ministry. Each furnishes the church of God with numerous profound insights into the divine person of the Lord Jesus and the nature of His mission of redemption and reconciliation.

The uncreated Light

Today’s text records words of the Lord Jesus spoken in Jerusalem during the week prior to His crucifixion. He was teaching in the temple early in the morning. He said, ‘I am the light of the world’. The Saviour’s reference no doubt drew parallels to the sun in the minds of His hearers. We know the Lord’s words were uttered early in the morning when He was come into the temple to teach. We might imagine use of this imagery was triggered by the sun’s beams rising above the temple walls, dispelling the darkness and lighting the temple walkways and courtyards. 

Light seen from afar

The ‘Sun of Righteousness’ is one of many titles applied to the Lord Jesus by the Old Testament prophets and the aged Simeon appeared to draw on Isaiah when he spoke of Christ’s presence in the world as, ‘A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel’. Old Jewish commentators believed spiritual illumination would be a key attribute of the Messiah and they applied to Him such passages as the words of the prophet Daniel’s who wrote, ‘He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him’.

I am that I am

When the Saviour declared , ‘I am the light of the world’, He assumed these prophetic allusions as His own. By doing so He applied to Himself all the scriptural imagery of the nature, benefits and characteristics of light. Light dispels darkness, so does our Saviour. It brings warmth, inspires life and enables growth, so does Christ. Light illuminates, informs and directs and Jesus leads His people forth. He created the light and brilliance that fills the farthest reaches of our universe. He teaches us by it how to understand properly His own divine glory, power and majesty.

Marvellous Light

Our Saviour is the light that illuminates the way for His people. Christ is that lamp to our feet that guides us through this dark world. He lightens and brightens our pathway, leading His people out of darkness into His marvellous light. John tells us elsewhere, ‘In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.’ He opens the eyes of the spiritually blind that they might see and know the truth. He shines the light of spiritual life into the heart, mind and soul of those He came to save. Light is enabling and He who is light gave Himself for our life.

The Light of heaven

Jesus Christ gives His people everlasting life and brings us to heavenly glory by attracting us to follow Him. He says, ‘he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’. He is the light that leads to heavenly life and glory. He is the light that shines in glory. ‘The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.’ He who is the Light of the world is also the Light of heaven.

The radiance of Christ

In our service we shall think on the Lord Jesus Christ who says of Himself, ‘I am the light of the world’. We shall enquire what it means to follow the light and not to walk in darkness. We shall ask what it is to have, possess and enjoy the light of life which Jesus promises to His people, though they yet remain in these bodies of flesh in this dark world. We shall pray to the Lord to give us light and wisdom to see and understand the wonder of His grace and the splendour of the glory we possess in Him who is ‘The Light of Life. 

Amen.