The Light of the World; John 8:12-20

In this section we are going to see how the controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees intensifies. As we have seen in our study of John Jesus has been very careful to pick the time and occasion for His confrontation with the Pharisees. This particular occasion in chapter eight goes back to chapter seven when Jesus made His third trip to Jerusalem to attend the feast of tabernacles. We saw how the controversy increased in intensity throughout chapter seven as Jesus seemed to make more and more flames that were very harsh and antagonistic to the Pharisees. In fact, at one point Jesus is going around saying, You know me, you know where I am from, and I have not come of myself; but He who sent me is true, who you do not know. I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent me.” Jesus is continually making these claims, shouting them out amidst the multitudes in the temple, that He is the Son of God and that salvation is by faith alone in Him. Furthermore, on the last day of the feast He made the amazing announcement: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” Each time He makes these claims the anger and resentment among the legalistic self-righteous religious crowd in Jerusalem intensifies. Yet, rather than trying to calm things down, Jesus just turns up the fire with each statement.

The Scripture says that there is more than enough evidence for every single person to know that God exists, so the issue therefore is volition. He evidence is there that God exists, it is clear from His creation, and there is this continual light at the common grace level which we also call natural revelation to mankind. The issue, then, is volition; whether man at God consciousness, when he becomes aware that there is something greater than himself, is going to respond and want to know something about that, or he responds negatively. If he responds negatively that doesn’t mean he is not religious. What happens when man says no is that he substitutes the worship of the creator for the worship of the creature. Man then begins to assign various attributes of God to the creation itself. Because God is faithful, because He is omniscient, whoever goes positive at God-consciousness will receive the gospel at some point in time. God is faithful and will always provide a witness to the gospel.

The interesting thing in all of this is that at some point every unbeliever has to assume absolutes in order to reject absolutes. For example, the big thing in postmodernism is that there are no absolutes. The big question is: is that an absolute? So you have to assume absolutes in order to deny absolutes. You have to in essence assume the existence of God at some level in order to reject Him. In order to make the statement that there is no God you have made an absolute statement. That assumes a certain ethical framework. What you are saying is belief in God is wrong or false. To make a statement like that you have to assume that absolutes such as right or wrong exist. If there is no God then you are bound to go into a universe that operates on raw chance and chaos in which there can be no absolutes. So to say there is no God means having to step into a Christian framework of thinking in order to even make the statement. This is why the Bible says that the man who says there is no God is a fool, because at the very root of his thinking he is illogical and irrational, and therefore foolish.

The issue of light is a major theme that John wants us to pat attention to in this Gospel. Back in the first chapter he starts to lay the groundwork for this theme of light. Light is related to illumination, the illumination of the mentality of the human race to divine truth.

John 1:4 ^NASB “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” Life has its ultimate source in God, it does not generate in creation as the result of chance or evolution in any way, shape or form. The life that resides in Him, in Jesus Christ, was the light of men. So Jesus’ life is related to illumination. What John is saying is that life exists in the Logos, in God, not in creation. But what man always wants to do is to take the attributes of God and transfer those into creation. Man wants to make life controllable, and man’s assertion to control his life in his assertion of independence from God, is a rejection of God and reality, and man attempts to define reality on his own terms. He wants to control life, to say that life is determined by what he says it is.

We should see that life does not originate from inside nature but from outside nature; it has its source in God. Life in Scripture does not occur unless there is nephesh [soul] or ruach [spirit]. The animal kingdom has nephesh, i.e. life; human beings have nephesh, i.e. life. Plants do not have nephesh. In the Bible life is defined in terms of breath. The Bible clearly distinguishes between simple organic and biological life and full life that is related to the presence of nephesh. So we see that God is the source of all life and it is His life that is the light of all mankind and this relates to the doctrine of common grace. We see this in v. 5.

John 1:5 ^NASB “The Light shines [continually] in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Darkness relates to the entire fallen human world throughout history from the fall of Adam until the Lord renovates the universe with the new heavens and the new earth at the end of the Millennial kingdom. This will be the continual common grace ministry of God toward mankind, always making Himself known to man.

John 1:11 ^NASB “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” We are seeing this in the reaction of the Pharisees to Jesus’ claims.

John 3:19 ^NASB “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. [20] For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” So what John is illustrating for us in chapter eight is the Pharisees fleeing the light.

John 8:12 ^NASB “…“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” Once again Jesus is claiming to be deity, to be the Messiah. The Pharisees understood exactly what He was doing. In Isaiah 9:1, 2 ^NASB “But there will be no {more} gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make {it} glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.” What Isaiah is saying is that this light will come out of the north, out of Galilee. Jesus is coming from Galilee, though He was originally born in Bethlehem, and what was the reaction of the Pharisees in chapter seven? John 7:52 ^NASB “They answered him, ‘You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee’.” They don’t know the Scriptures. Jesus is continuing to point out and demonstrate in this whole confrontation their absolute ignorance and rejection of Scripture.

The first four verses of Isaiah chapter nine the emphasis is on Israel, God’s formation of Israel as a missionary to the world. But there is a shift in verse 5. The shift is from Israel to a particular individual because Israel is pictured as being in rebellion. So the servant in verse 5 is different from Israel because Israel is not going to bring Israel back. This is a clear messianic passage, the Pharisees understood it to be so, and so when they hear Jesus claim to be the light of the world they know exactly what He is saying, and this is why they are so angry.

Isaiah 49:5, 6 ^NASB “And now says the LORD, who formed Me [Messiah] from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth’.” So here is God the Father talking to the Messiah. [7] “Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel {and} its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, ‘Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You’.”

The Pharisees, because of their understanding of the Old Testament, when Jesus claims to be the Light of the world, know exactly what He is doing. There is also a subtle inference that we have seen several times, He begins the statement with this phrase in the Greek: ego eimi [e)gw e)imi], I AM. So Jesus continually makes this claim identifying Himself with God, and he emphasises this phrase I AM. It just tweaks the Pharisees a little more. We see at the end of the chapter that they pick up rocks to stone Him because of this claim.

John 8:12 ^NASB “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life’.” We have to do three things before we can understand Scripture. We have to have an accurate translation, an accurate interpretation, an application. There are two key phrases here that are very important to understand. The initial knee-jerk reaction of most people is to think of this as a salvation verse. But Jesus is moving beyond salvation here, He is talking about life, not just the entrance into life. The key phrases here are “walk” and “follow.” “Walk” is the interpretive key to understanding the passage. We have seen that walking throughout Scripture is a description of the course of life of an individual, either a believer or an unbeliever.

Ephesians 5:8 ^NASB “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.” Paul is saying that formerly we were darkness. When we were born we were born in darkness, the kingdom of Satan is the kingdom of darkness. The Scripture says that at the moment of salvation we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. That is our positional reality. What is the mandate at the end of Ephesians 5:8? “Walk as children of Light.” So even though we are positionally Light, we may not be walking in the Light. Walking in the Light describes the progress of the spiritual life. Can we walk in the darkness? Certainly, 1 John 1:5, 6 ^NASB “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and {yet} walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

When Jesus says: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness,” we see that this is going to be a key. How do we avoid walking in the darkness. By following Jesus. This is the Greek verb akoloutheo [a)kolouqew] which means to follow. It is interesting to see how Jesus uses this particular verb. He does not use it in relation to salvation. What was the key to salvation according to John? John 20:31, “believe.” So the key to salvation is faith alone in Christ alone. Follow implies works, it means certain things. Matthew 16:24 ^NASB “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me’.” The disciples are already believers, so He is not talking about entrance into eternal life here. So whenever Jesus uses the word akoloutheo, to follow Him, He is not talking about phase one salvation, He is talking about phase two. So Jesus says: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life,” He is saying the same thing He says in many places: if you want to have real life, capacity for life and joy in this life, is starts here with spiritual growth. Spiritual growth comes first and foremost by learning the Word of God and applying it in your life. This is what light always refers to: revelation and illumination. We have to have our thoughts completely illuminated by the revelation of God. Man on his own cannot come to understand truth because we tend to restate this on our own terms.

Psalm 119:105 ^NASB “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” A path is the direction of your life, your feet is your course, your walking. How do you know where to walk? How is your path illuminated? Your path is your family life, your thought life, your career, etc. Whatever category of life it is the Scripture says your path is illuminated by the Word of God. The Word of God is not relegated to simply telling you certain things about how to be saved and how to have a relationship with God, it is there to tell you how to think in every category of life.

Psalm 18:28 ^NASB “For You light my lamp; The LORD my God illumines my darkness.”

Psalm 36:9 ^NASB “For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.” Light relates to truth and absolutes, and what the psalmist is claiming is that the only way we can understand truth is in the light of God’s Word. That has to be the starting point. Light gives us the ability to see where we are going. The problem is that most people are operating in intellectual darkness. They don’t know how to think and don’t know what the issues are, and they are constantly letting the world on the basis of human viewpoint autonomy dictate what the issues are, how to talk and what verbiage to use.

The Pharisees recognise Jesus’ claim and they say to Him: John 8:13 ^NASB “So the Pharisees said to Him, ‘You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true’.” They are just saying He is wrong, that He can’t witness about Himself, and that His testimony therefore is completely invalid. They are saying that for Jesus to prove who he is He has to go to the law. The law requires two witnesses. Jesus is not going to directly answer their question. Why? They are assuming by their questions that Jesus is nothing more than a man. The issue here is that Jesus is claming to be the God of the universe. Jesus is not going to succumb to their human viewpoint reasoning because by saying you have to have two witnesses they are saying Jesus has to come under the law just like every other creature. The law was not made for God, the law was made for man, and Jesus in hypostatic union does not have to come under the law. See how subtle this is? The unbeliever wants to set the agenda. He wants to determine the vocabulary which will determine the direction of the argument.

John 8:14 ^NASB “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true…” He is saying: I am not under the authority of the Mosaic Law. Because I am God, the incarnate second person of the Trinity, and eternal, my witness is by its very nature true because I am veracity. I do not need confirmation. “… for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going’.” You, the Pharisees, are ignorant because your starting point is human viewpoint systems of reasoning; finite points.

John 8:15 ^NASB “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone.” In other words, they are making their decisions, their basic value systems, from human viewpoint reasoning. All human viewpoint reasoning is either based on rationalism or empiricism. These are inadequate to get outside the box, they can only get so far. Jesus has not come to judge and yet His very presence is judging; they are forced to make a decision to accept Him or reject Him.

John 8:16 ^NASB “But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone {in it,} but I and the Father who sent Me.” Now He is going to answer the question. He has told them that the basis for asking the question is wrong, that the question is wrong because the question itself assumes that Jesus is a creature subject to the law. But even though, for the sake of argument, He needs two witnesses, He has two witnesses—Himself because He is the eternal God and therefore veracity and absolute truth, and God the Father. They know what God the Father said because they heard the report (some of them were there) when John the Baptist baptised Jesus, God the Father spoke from heaven and said: “Behold my Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus is incredibly sophisticated in the way He reacts but He never lets the unbeliever put Him in a box, he is not going to dance to their tune.

John 8:17 ^NASB “Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true.” Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15. [18] “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.” [19] So they were saying to Him, ‘Where is Your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also’.” Wait a minute. These are Pharisees, they know the Old Testament backwards and forwards. Jesus just reaches out and verbally slaps them in the face. He turns up the heat. And what is the result?

John 8:20 ^NASB “These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.” God the Father is protecting Him. Jesus is not afraid of a fight, He is not afraid of an argument or a controversy. He picks His ground, He handles it wisely, He doesn’t handle it in a way that is personally vindictive but He continually challenges the false assumptions of the religious crowd in terms of His role.

For us, in order to be Christlike, there are times when we are going engage the unbeliever in this kind of controversy. But that doesn’t mean that we have to be nasty, mean-spirited or argumentative in the process; but as believers we should never give up ground. But that does not mean we have to rise to the bait every time a challenge is thrown out either. You pick your time and place, and you have to understand how to argue. It is not just presenting the facts of the gospel but how to do it in such a way that it honours the Lord. It is not just the result, it is also the methodology.