Friday: The Life Becomes Light
WEEK 1
FRIDAY
THE LIFE BECOMES LIGHT
John 1:14-18
We saw yesterday that we don’t begin with God, and we don’t begin with people; we begin with the God-Man. And from him we work up to God, and from him we work down to people. In his light we see life. Christians are people who believe in God and humanity and life through Jesus.
The second pillar on which the Christian gospel rests is the Word become revelation, “all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1 RSV).
The first step was the Word become flesh, and the next step is the Word become revelation. The one follows the other as the sunlight follows the sun. The gospel had to be real before it was revelation.
The life of Jesus became Light for the life of humanity.
But note the order: “To do and teach”—first the doing, then the teaching. The deed became the creed. Therefore it was realism. A great many people think that the Christian gospel is idealism, something imposed on life. But the gospel is not something imposed on life; it is something exposed out of Life. It is the revelation of the nature of Reality. Jesus was not a moralist imposing a moral code on humanity—a moral code for which humanity is badly made—he was not a moralist in that sense at all. He was a revealer of the nature of Reality: first, of God. He said, “If you want to know what God is like, look at me.” And when we do, our hearts almost skip a beat as we say to ourselves: “Is God like that? Is God a Jesus-like God?” If so, I could ask nothing higher; I could be content with nothing less.
In Jesus we do not hear what God is like; we see what God is like. We are a kindergarten race and need the visual—seeing is believing.
All of Jesus’ “teaching” was an interpretation of what he was and what he did. So it is out of Life to life. It was Deep speaking to deep. Hence his words were not words; they were facts clothed in words.
Therefore they strike you with authority, a strange new authority that is self-verifying. He did not argue; he disclosed. And all his preaching was not preaching; it was revelation. When he spoke, people saw.
O Jesus, we thank you that you let us see as no one lets us see, and what we see satisfies—absolutely. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: All I say and do today shall be revelation—revelation of Reality.