"I Believe - God from God"

Scripture: John 8:12-20

God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father

Jesus never missed an opportunity to teach. The previous 11 verses are John’s account of Jesus teaching lessons to both the Pharisees and the woman who was caught in adultery. The teachers of the law learned that trapping Jesus with their brand of law wasn’t so easy, and the woman learned that Jesus wasn’t the voice of condemnation like the Pharisees were – she discovered that he was the God of truth and forgiveness!

And his lessons were always a surprise. The expected answer was supposed to be in line with the Law of Moses, but God’s answers were always offered in the light of eternal truth. And the two almost never coincided.

Read John 8:12

This is the second of Jesus’ 7 “I am” sayings – “I AM the Light of the world”. Since the first Day of Creation, God’s Light has played a vital function for the people of earth. Just as on that First Day, this isn’t the kind of light that we see with our eyes – it is the Light that reveals God’s truth for our lives! That First Light would be the Lord’s Glory and not the sun (that would be the 4th Day! (Genesis 1:14-19), and it firmly established the difference between God’s presence and the darkness that would constantly surround his truth, and that darkness would soon begin to grow within the hearts of the people.

His glory is all about a divine desire for our lives – the Lord’s gift, his way, his revealing of the spiritual gloom that we encounter every day. Darkness – the absence of glory, the absence of Godly truth, the absence of God’s gifts – has been pushed back, and Genesis 1:3 tells us that the Lord separated the Light from the darkness – his Truth from the lies of earth – and they can never be blended together.

And our verse for today reminds us that Jesus not only brings God’s Light to our lives, but he IS God’s Light. Everything that Jesus has ever taught, everything that Jesus has ever done, everything that Jesus has ever promised for those who believe, is Godly truth, and it will never fail to bring illumination and revelation to our questioning, to our seeking hearts.

Read John 8:13-18

In Jewish Law, a person could never testify on their own behalf. In John 5:32-42, Jesus tells the Pharisees that there are two others who testify to his truth – John the Baptist, and the Father by his inspiration and by the scriptures. But even though the teachers of the Law study the written word extensively, and know what the prophets have told them, they still hold back when it comes to accepting Christ’s corrective teaching for themselves.

And while Jesus’ teaching is absolutely valid all by itself, and reveals all divine truth regarding him, there had been many testimonies by the prophets. Isaiah 9:6-7 spoke of the Christ’s glory and authority. Isaiah 7:13-17 offered the nation signs of Messiah’s coming. Deuteronomy 18:14-19 speaks of the Prophet’s authority, and the consequences for anyone who does not listen to him. Psalm 22:6-7 proclaim the rejection of Messiah, and verses 16-18 outline Christ’s crucifixion. And the testimonies continue in many instances throughout the Old Testament, and beginning with the Baptist, affirmations of just who Jesus is continue to this day – after all, isn’t that the responsibility of the Church, to continue to testify to the truth of Jesus Christ? And the world still hesitates to believe all that has been said, and all that has come to be, as proof.

But when it comes right down to every word regarding God, the words we receive from Jesus are the only ones that can truly be believed and trusted – after all, he is the only one who has ever seen the Father. So when he says that he came from the Father, and that Father has given him every word to share with us, and that he is God’s Light, and that he is divine Truth for the people of earth, he is to be trusted completely.

Over and over, the Lord affirms the fact that God’s way, and earth’s ways, are totally different, and he cites the judgment that the Pharisees offer. They judge others routinely, while the Lord judges no one. In John 3:17, we read that Christ came without any condemnation for sinners – his only purpose was to save. And when he does judge, it is upon the things we do, and not us per se. The truth is that the testimony that is offered simply through the things we do and say has been sufficient to render us all guilty! And the Pharisees, by their refusal to accept Jesus as Messiah, have sealed their own guilt.

One day there will be a judgment on us, and isn’t it interesting that our lives will be the very ones who will testify against us? Without Jesus, our lives will proclaim us guilty, but with Jesus, we will be found to be forgiven and innocent. We won’t need to say a single word, and the Accuser – Satan himself – will try to make our hearing difficult, but the Judge will shut him down! Our sin will become a thing of the past, and our joy will be made complete when heavenly Authority orders that we be clothed in glory. (Zechariah 3:1-9)

Read John 8:19-20

And by their question, they reveal the fact that they don’t really know the Father, and that is also the proof that they don’t know Jesus. The problem is that in our limited intellect, we don’t have the capacity to understand, or even recognize God at work in our lives. We are beings of flesh, while God is a Being of Spirit, and as Isaiah 55:8-9 testifies, we receive confirmation that, indeed, we can’t imagine why or who or how God is by our own means.

God from God, Light from Light, True God from true God. We have a Savior who did everything necessary to ensure that we can live in eternity with him. And while that is of vital interest to each of us, he didn’t let that be the final word for our life in him. He came to fulfill the law, to make it complete and truthful, to help us understand which commandments were his, and which came from Moses and his followers (Matthew 5:17); to make us worthy of his grace and glory (Matthew 26:26-28; Acts 5:41); and to make our Almighty God known to each of us.

Throughout the Old Testament, God is made apparent to the children of Israel, but never in a way that he could be recognized again. He was in the pillars of cloud and fire that led the people through the wilderness for 40 years (Exodus 13:21-22). Moses was given a brief and limited view of God (Exodus 33:17-23), but only of the Lord’s back. So Jesus came as a flesh and blood human, so that we could see him, and so we could come to know him, and by knowing him, we could know, and recognize, God and his way.

And why might this be important for us? It’s all about the relationship. Our God is a personal Lord – from the moment of his creation of humanity, God was personal with his created. He breathed life into us (Genesis 2:7), and he walked through the Garden looking for the man and woman. (Genesis 3:8-9) And why would the Lord go to such great lengths to make himself known to us, if he didn’t want a personal relationship with us?

The Light of the world, the Revealer of all that is true, wants us to know him intimately, and in the relationship that he has created, we will know the love that defines God in nature, in power, in creation, and in promise. This is why Nicodemus was told that he needed to be born again in Christ – and that is why we do, too. Our relationship with the darkness of this world can only be broken when we accept the newness that Jesus offers us on behalf of our Almighty and Triune God.

Rejoice that God is God, that he is ours, and that, but faith in Christ, we are his. And if Jesus wasn’t God, how could any of this be true?