The Gospel of John - Outline Part 22 - The Light of the World Is Not of the World

TITLE

John 8:12-30 – The Light of the World Is Not of the World

EXPLANATION

After this Jesus began a long conversation with the Jews, beginning in verse 12 and continuing to the end of the chapter.  He began with a cryptic description of Himself as the light of the world and elaborated that those who follow after Him will walk in light rather than darkness.  The Pharisees fired right back, accusing Jesus of false testimony about Himself.  In response, the Lord said even if He was the only one testifying, it did not alter the truth of what He said.  Besides, Jesus said, He was in fact not the only witness.  Both He and the Father who sent Him testified about Him.

The expected response from the Jews was to inquire about who Jesus’s Father was.  They were not grasping the implication of what He was saying.  Jesus, however, did not give in to the Pharisees’ obtuseness.  He continued to speak cryptically by saying that He was going away, they would seek Him, but they would die in their sin because they could not follow Him.  This understandably confused the Jews, so they asked where it was that He was supposed to be going.

And now Jesus began to get even more pointed and potentially offensive.  He changed from a light and dark metaphor to above and below as well as of the world and not of the world imagery.  The clear implication Jesus was making was His own righteousness contrasted with the unrighteousness of His opponents.  He ended this part of the discourse by prophesying His impending crucifixion as well as the true knowledge of who He was that would be given to the Jews at that time.

APPLICATION

There is a fundamental and substantive difference between Jesus and all other men.  Normal people are of the earth and are tied to corruption.  Jesus is of heaven and is freed from corruption.  This is an essential point to understand.  The reason is that we must have a proper view of ourselves in relation to Jesus.  If we esteem ourselves too highly then we immediately devalue the Lord, and that is a grievous sin because it robs God, at least in our minds, of some portion of His proper glory.  We also need to be constantly reminded of our abject unworthiness to be recipients of God’s grace.  If we fail to keep His value relative to ours firmly in mind then we will run the very real risk of under-appreciating what He has done for us.