The TRUE, Unknown Light John 1:9-10
John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.”
Today: 9 “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
The TRUE LIGHT COMING
Did you ever think about what may have been the most important event in history? If you were a scientist you might think that the discovery of atomic energy or maybe fire rated high on the list; If you were an inventor, maybe the invention of the wheel or more recently, electricity. Your greatest moment in history would probably vary depending on your area of expertise. If you are a Christian, the most significant moment in human history would be the event of John 1:9: The Lord God Almighty making his entrance into the created world as the TRUE LIGHT in the person of Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist was witnessing to the true light, the Eternal Word, the Eternal Son, the Creator Word, The Self-Existent Word, The Life-Giving Word, The Light-Bearing Word: THIS LIGHT was dawning on the world, in Human Form. As the faithful forerunner and the pivotal prophet, John the Baptist had the privilege of announcing the presence and power of the LIGHT DAWNING upon the Creation.
The True Light is the subject of verse 9. The TRUE LIGHT is faithful and reliable; It is genuine and authentic, as is God Himself. HIS LIGHT is the ONLY EVERLASTNING LIGHT. Remember that LIGHT as expressed in John’s Gospel represents spiritual illumination and knowledge of God. The Light of Christ speaks clearly of GODLY RIGHTEOUSNESS: Jesus is the Only Light, THE TRUTH, THE Living Bread, THE Vine that gives Life, THE LIVING Water. Jesus is the PERFECT LIGHT in whose radiance all other lights are only dim and partial at best. There may be “partial lights” that are shadowy dim pseudo counterfeits, vain philosophies, false teachings and gospels which may appear as light and that try to bring illumination but they will NEVER bring people to the truth of JESUS: Without the TRUE LIGHT people will remain in darkness. Jesus is nothing BUT LIGHT: In Him there is not darkness at all! (1 John 1:5) LOOK! HERE COMES the WORD of God in the person of Jesus Christ!
The TRUE LIGHT who is coming keeps on continually dawning, but He does not COME into every man but is coming into the World. EVERY man does not RECEIVE that LIGHT although He is available to EVERY Man; EVERY MAN will not believe the LIGHT because they prefer their own evil deeds of darkness. The LIGHT shines for all to see and apprehend, but not all will go to him and not all will be taught BY HIM even though His presence is near. The Bible does not teach the idea of an INNER LIGHT for every man; it actually teaches the opposite: It teaches that EVERY MAN is born in the darkness and deadness of sin. However, if anyone is EVER going to be “enlightened” at all, if anyone is ever going to have ANY INNER LIGHT, it will be through the Only One who is THE True Light, the Lord Jesus.
The True LIGHT shines and exposes the works of Darkness in the World into the hearts and lives of A LOST HUMAN RACE. John 3: 19-20: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. (Bonhoefer: The greatest sin in the church and in the world is self-righteousness.) The overwhelming majority of mankind opposes the Christ and remains in open hostility to Him, to all that He represents, including the dawning of His Redemptive Work. Verse 10 explains that.
THE UNKNOWN LIGHT IN THE WORLD
Vs. 10: “He was (same tense of the verb used in vv.1-2; The TRUE LIGHT/Word was continuously present in the world—He created it and has continually been present with it.)
in the world, and though the world was made through him, (the CREATED beings came into existence at some point in time)
the world did not recognize him.” (The WORLD owes its existence to the WORD since He was responsible for its creation, yet the WORLD REJECTED the TRUE LIGHT; THE WORLD was indifferent to the Eternal Son of God.) Surprise? No. The world is indifferent and HOSTILE to God.
The triple repetition of the word, WORLD, (4 times in these 2 verses) grabs your attention. The Greek word, “Kosmos”, translated “WORLD”, is another important word by John the Evangelist. Out of the 185 New Testament references, 105 are found in John’s writings. “Kosmos” is used in several ways, including the universe at large, the earth (this world), and /or the large number of the earth’s inhabitants. In the first two usages John is talking about the CREATOR and HIS WORK of the CREATED ORDER. The third time he narrows the focus to THE PEOPLE in this WORLD whom He created.
If you were to examine all of John’s references, you would find that the overwhelming emphasis is NEGATIVE; mankind (the WORLD) is in opposition to Christ; the divine creation, which was created GOOD, has been corrupted and shattered by the fall into sin, and those created by their Creator are in rebellion to Him and so the WORLD stands under God’s condemnation and judgment: THEY STAND IN NEED OF REDEMPTION FROM the Light and LIFE from above, but THEY DO NOT EVEN RECOGNIZE THEIR GREAT NEED!
When man “FELL” and sinned in the beginning, how far did he fall? Some actually still say today that man fell “upward”! Our own recent history of wars and the slaughter of innocent people should be sufficient to teach us that man IS NOT getting better.
A second opinion is that man fell but only PARTWAY; it says that he did fall but he just fell over the edge and he dangles over the edge until someone or something helps him back up. This too is not found in the Bible, but certainly is a big part of so-called “religion”: It is even found in many churches.
A third view is that man fell over the edge but landed on a shelf halfway down: that’s what makes him a “fallen human being”, no longer on the top. This view insists that there still remains in fallen man something within himself that is capable of providing a remedy for his “fallen condition.” (“Dr. Donald Barnhouse once said that these people say that such persons believe that although man is in his coffin, he nevertheless has one arm outside of it working for himself.”) (P. 65 Boice in Gospel of John, vol. 1) Impossible!
HERE IS THE BIBLICAL VIEW in two parts: First, sinful man did not recognize “the LIGHT Coming” because man is Spiritually Blind. When man sinned, he fell all the way to the bottom: It was “LIGHTS OUT” for him spiritually and morally! That why the depraved sinful will of man does not even desire the LIGHT. Ephesians 5:8 tells us clearly, “For you were once darkness.” What is darkness? The complete absence of LIGHT. Darkness is SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. NO LIGHT. No spiritual hope. Fallen man is SO blind that even the light is like darkness to him.
If you were BORN BLIND and we were here at a nighttime service and all of a sudden the lights went off, most of you would probably GASP in surprise! If you were blind, you would ask the person sitting next to you: What just happened? What surprised everyone? You would tell him: The lights just went off. If you are BLIND, it doesn’t matter to you one way or another because all you know is BLINDNESS. If the light came back on, and all the people GASPED AGAIN, it still wouldn’t matter to you because you are IN THE DARKNESS ALL the time anyway. You have no ability whatsoever to identify the light because YOU ARE BLIND. Your existence is darkness. Listen to these verses from God’s Word: (There are 95 more!)
John 3:19: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” BLINDED BY EVIL.
Jeremiah 17:9-10: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." Romans 6:23 tells us the wages paid to fallen mankind: “For the wages of sin is death.” (Death means darkness!)
Psalm 143:3: “The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead.” Sinful Man’s self-estimate is totally unrealistic, actually absurd when compared to that of God’s estimate. When Satan pursued man in the Garden and caught him, man was expelled from the Light of God’s Presence. He is in the darkness like those long dead. A VERY HOPLESS SITUATION!
Proverbs 4:19: “But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” Blind have no perception of reality. They can’t see around them or in front of them. When John announced: HERE IS THE LIGHT that will show you the way, blind humanity responded: WHAT IS LIGHT? They did not respond UNTIL God REACHED DOWN AND TOUCHED THEIR EYES SO THAT SOME OF THEM MIGHT SEE.
1 Peter 2:9 declares God’s WORK: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” You remain BLIND and DEAD unless God chooses to show to you THE LIGHT and He calls you out of Darkness. (Lazarus?)
Secondly, Sinful man did not recognize “the LIGHT Coming” because man is Spiritually Dead. If you are BLIND you are not necessarily dead, but if you are DEAD you are certainly blind. Ephesians 2:1-2 teaches us: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”
Col. 2:13: “When you were dead in your transgressions.” Can anyone claim that they have never sinned, missing the mark of God’s perfect standard? ALL have sinned and are dead.
Proverbs 21:16: “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.”
Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” This is the awful reality of everyone who has been born since Adam. Being DEAD in SIN is the most desperate of situations because there is nothing YOU can do. Dead men are useless and powerless to make any move of any kind on their own. In the same way that blindness is the COMPLETE absence of LIGHT, spiritual death is the complete absence of LIFE. NO SPIRITUAL LIFE EXISTS apart from the life of Christ. If you are DEAD in your sin you can’t make any decisions, unless God first gives you life to do so.
2 Cor. 4:3-4: And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1 Cor. 2:14: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Man WITHOUT CHRIST THINKS that he is fine when he is actually DEAD. This is the condition of man without the light of Christ. Man without Christ THINKS that he is something when in actuality he is nothing; Spiritually dead men can do nothing that might change their dead condition. God is the only one who can bring life!
The Unknown Light can be Known.
The Unknown Light can be Known: Jesus said in John 8:12: "I am the Light of the world ; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 12:46: “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Paul later said in 2 Timothy 1:10: But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Jesus IS the light of the Gospel. Did you ever notice that moths are drawn naturally to a light but yet the sinful and prideful nature of man prevents us from coming to the Light that will give spiritual sight and Life. The Light is being revealed to us as we study this word. His WORD and SPIRIT are the MEANS by which we are drawn to the Light. Has He brought YOU out of the darkness into His marvelous Light and Life? “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness,” Jesus said in Luke 11:35. We are called to self-examination before the Light of the Word.
Jesus warned in John 9:39: "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
All the way back in 2 Samuel 22:28-29 in the Old Testament, this profession was given by David: “You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. 29 For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness.” Jesus is the Light who gives you light and life.
God instructs us in Isaiah 55:6-7: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. (THAT IS NOW.) Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
OUTLINE
I. The TRUE LIGHT (phos alethinos) was coming into the World (6:14, 11:27, 16:28, 18:37
A. The True LIGHT is Genuine: Many “Partial” lights exist in the World.
B. The True LIGHT was coming into the world HE MADE.
C. The True LIGHT illuminates the only way to God: If anyone is EVER going to be “enlightened”, it will be through the Only One who is THE True Light, Jesus…
D. The True LIGHT shines on everyone but NOT everyone will receive the Light.
E. The True LIGHT exposes the works of Darkness.
II. The UNKNOWN LIGHT was not recognized in the WORLD:
A. Sinful man did not recognize “the LIGHT Coming” because man is Spiritually Blind. (John 3:19, Jere. 17:9, Psalm 143:31, Proverbs 4:19, Peter 2:9)
B. Sinful man did not recognize “the LIGHT Coming” because man is Spiritually Dead. (Eph 2:1-2, Col. 2:13, Rom. 6:23, Proverbs 21:16, Rom. 5:12, Cor. 4:3-4: 1 Cor. 2:14.)
III. The Unknown LIGHT can be known
John 8:12: "I am the Light of the world ; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."
John 12:46: “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
2 Timothy 1:10: But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Luke 11:35: “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.”
John 9:39: "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
2 Samuel 22:29 in the Old Testament, this profession was given: “You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light.”
Isaiah 55:6-7: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. (THAT IS NOW.) Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
