The Light Of Life

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.  

Ephesians 5:8 

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.  

John 8:12 

‘God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.’ Christ said, ‘I am the light of the world.’ If we put those two statements side by side, we arrive at the conclusion Christ was making a categorical statement about His identity. We  ought never to think He was ambiguous about Who He is even though He revealed Himself at select moments. When the woman at the well spoke of Messiah, He was forthright in His identification of Himself as that Messiah. On other occasions He was plainspoken about His identity. In the eighth chapter of John, from which the second portion of our text derives, He said to His opponents, ‘before Abraham was, I AM,’ claiming the name of God as His Own. They rightly understood what He was saying about Himself by using that name. Their reaction was so violent they prepared to stone Him. They understood He was claiming to be God. Earlier in the chapter, after He had liberated the woman taken in adultery from her accusers, He had uttered the words, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’ Paul takes up the language in Ephesians when having exhorted us to imitate God, he follows later with, ‘walk as children of light.’ To follow Christ is to walk in the light and to have the light of life. This will take us farther and farther away from works of darkness and affinity for them. We have in Christ the light of life.  

Our Glorious, Living God, 
we rejoice that You are light. 
We praise You that in Christ,  
we see Your light abounding.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning