(You can listen to this on audio and pause the audio to follow page links, then, you can resume the audio, when you are ready. Please note that I use page links in lieu of footnotes and references for important study details).
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN – Part 5
John 1:4,5, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
NOTES
“In Him was life”; (from the Greek word, ‘zoe’, which means both of physical and of spiritual, particularly future existence. The Lord intimately shares His gift of life with people, creating each in His image which gives all the capacity to know His eternal life. Compared to ‘psuche’ the vital breath, breath of life, (b) the human soul, (c) the soul as the seat of affections and will, (d) the self, (e) a human person, an individual. This is a life worth living; active, purposeful and effervescent.)
“And the life was the Light of men”; (from the Greek word, ‘phós’, which means a source of light, radiance; to emit and be seen.
“In the darkness”; (from the Greek word, ‘skotia’, which means spiritual darkness; a brand of moral, spiritual obscurity, (i.e. which blocks the light of God when faith is lacking).
“Did not comprehend it”; (from the Greek word, ‘katalambanó’, which means to overtake or to eagerly seize or possess; also, to comprehend.
COMMENTS
God’s creation of ‘mankind’ is recorded in Genesis 1:26, where God’s Word says we are created ‘in His image’. The Hebrew language, tells us that God created us ‘in His image’, which comes from the Hebrew word ‘tselem‘, a mere empty image, a semblance, a shadow or an outline; a vain form of the original. This comes from a root word meaning ‘of dubious character’, i.e., with a flaw.
It is difficult to know why God created Adam this way, and that all humankind, throughout all the ages, which includes you and me, with ‘a flaw’, which would lead us to become afflicted by the curse of sin which carries the penalty of physical and spiritual death and separation from God.
What we must trust is that God’s plan is His perfect divine purpose and that God revealed that the curse of sin can be negated and reversed through His grace and by our faith in Christ. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice and payment for our sin.
Now, when we consider verses 4 and 5 of the book of John, we see both its complexities and its simplicity. The Truth is that the life given by God, is rich in its complexity, life giving and powerfully effervescent and purposeful. It is a life worth living.
This Life is not passive, but it is active and radiant, dispelling the darkness of fear, doubt, lack, want and all sorts of evil.
This “Life” is comparable to the ‘PSUCHE’, the soul, which is the vital breath of life; it is the human soul, as the seat of affections and will, the ‘self’ of the human person.
‘The darkness’ cannot overtake the ‘Light of men’ which the light of God created within you, instead, the Light overcomes and defeats the darkness. Darkness cannot comprehend God’s Light, and is dispelled from the soul of the child of God.
This Life of God, takes birth in your spirit (your PNEUMA), and wells up into your soul, (your PSUCHE) will radiate the image of God in and through your life, (the DIANOIA).
The simplicity is that if you confess, with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart, (PNEUMA), a person believes, which results in righteousness, and with his mouth, a person confesses, (DIANOIA), resulting in salvation.
Come to Him and find Life!
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
(There may be times or circumstances with which you struggle that seem impossible to overcome. Please read “Separated From God?” for a word of encouragement and hope.)
Click here for the next episode in THE GOSPEL OF JOHN – Part 6
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