“I AM” IN JOHN’S GOSPEL
H. J. Taylor
John 8: 12; 10: 11; 11: 25, 26; 14: 6
The preaching of the gospel has a number of results in mind. God’s glad tidings meets the need of every sinner, however great that need may be, and one of the pleasures God has in hearing His glad tidings preached is that His beloved Son is well spoken of. Though all present are christians and may have been on the road many years we each need the gospel, I am sure of that.
As we know, John in his gospel records for us more of the words of Jesus than the other gospel writers. I have been struck by the fact that he records the Lord as saying, “I am the light of the world”, “I am the good shepherd”, and other references of that kind. I would that the Spirit might help us get a fresh touch from these verses so that the reality of what is presented in Christ may freshly affect our souls. In, each of these presentations there is not only what the Lord says He is, but some result is in view in all who accept the word. No one can say ‘I am’ like Jesus could say it. Later in chapter 8 the opposers of the Lord say, “Who art thou?” (John 8: 25). “Jesus said to them, Altogether that which I also say to you”. There is a footnote to the word “altogether”—‘in the principle and universality of what I am; that is, His speech presented Himself, being the truth’. It conveys this to us, that whatever Christ says He is, He is that absolutely and perfectly.
His servant, the apostle Paul, could say, “By God’s grace I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15: 10): God had worked in him and some result was visible in the apostle; and in every believer there should be some substantial result so that we might be able to say, like the apostle, I am what I am by God’s grace.
But when Jesus says, “I am the light of the world”, this is something distinctive and absolute.
One recalls that He does say to His disciples, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5: 14), and that would need to be understood in its own connection. But this is something said by the Lord and recorded by John that no one else could ever say—“I am the light of the world”. I think it is very wonderful to have presented to us a Person who says, without the slightest possibility of contradiction, “I am the light of the world”. Earlier in the gospel John has spoken of “the true light ... which coming into the world, lightens every man” (John l: 9). It shines upon all.
It is wonderful to take account of God’s disposition as presented in His beloved Son. He is toward all, and the light of the world, which Christ is, is shining for everybody. Not everybody, alas, gets the gain of it, but the light is shining for all. “I am the light of the world”—and no one needs to exclude himself from the benefit of this glorious light that is shining in Jesus. It was shining when He was here and it is shining still. The apostle Paul speaks of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ (see 2 Corinthians 4: 6). So what a blessed thing it is to be able to speak of a Person who is the light of the world. How thankful we are to know One who has brought such light to us so that we understand and get an illumination of the facts that bear upon time and eternity. It is what the world needs, what persons in the world need; the light shines in that blessed Person: “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”.
Now this is a very blessed promise. If people listen to the words of Jesus, if people accept what God presents in His own beloved Son, they receive the light in their hearts so that they no longer walk in darkness but have the light of life. We live in a world with death and moral degradation all around us, and it is wonderful that this light is still shining. We can well afford to listen attentively to Jesus when He says, “I am the light of the world”. As we listen to Him, as we see the truth of His word, it sets us upon a path no longer in darkness but in light. I speak to persons who know this, who have followed Him as the light of the world and are walking in the light of life, but it is always refreshing just to go over some of our blessings, what Christ means to us, that the light has shone into our hearts so that we are brought into a sphere of things that is marked by the light of life. That is a wonderful thing, that we are no longer in darkness as to God, but we know him and realise what a God He is because Jesus has made Him known to us.
In John 10 the Lord says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”. How we long that persons might hear Jesus saying, “I am the good shepherd”, that they might receive His word and come into the benefit of all that He would be to them as having laid down His life for them. Oh how much is involved in that! One thinks of the feelings of Jesus as He said, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”. What love was behind these words, for He knew what was involved in laying down His life. How much was involved! It meant His going to the cross, being taken by wicked hands and crucified and slain. And there on the cross He bore the judgment, the judgment
due to the sheep. How glad we are to hear these words from His lips afresh, because they are as true now as when He first uttered them and John recorded them for us: “I am the good shepherd”. We speak now in the light of that great work having been done; He has laid down His life for the sheep. Oh how we thank Him for it! Every one who realises that the good Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep is glad to hear afresh the words of Jesus, “I am the good shepherd”.
Then later in the chapter He says, “I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10: 14, 15). Think of the personal link that Jesus has with every believer. He knows every one, and He is known of them, every one of them. How is it that we have this personal link with the Saviour? We know by faith that He is a Man ascended. The work, the laying down of His life, is completed, blessedly completed in all its fulness. What it meant to the blessed God that Jesus laid down His life, that he bore on the cross God’s judgment on account of our sins. His precious blood was shed, His life given up, and He lay in the grave, there for us, so that what was offensive is entirely removed from the sight of a holy God. He rose from the dead and is now ascended; we know by faith a glorious Man at God’s right hand, and from there He has sent down the Holy Spirit to indwell the hearts of believers. How precious that is! But then as He says, “I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine”. He assures us afresh in the preaching of the word today that every one who puts his trust in Him has a personal attachment to Him, and He gives the Spirit to indwell the heart so that we have an immediate link with the Man in the glory.
There are quite a number of these references. In chapter 10 Jesus says, “I am the door” (John 10: 7); and in chapter 6 (which has been called the great constitutional chapter in John’s gospel), “I am the bread of life” (John 6: 48); how much could be said as to that. But I go on to John 11—“I am the resurrection and the life”. These words were true when He said them to Martha, but they are true today, and this is most reassuring to every believer. No one else, no other man, could say such words, and they result in Martha believing; and the gospel is preached that persons might believe. As we have often commented, John’s gospel is written that believers might believe (see John 20: 31).
Martha at the first says, “If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died; but even now I know, that whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God will give thee” (John 11: 22). Her words sound very pious, but what she is completely overlooking is that the Person there was God Himself. Jesus had said earlier in the gospel, “Unless ye shall believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8: 24). Solemn word! Martha regarded Him as any other man that would have liberty to ask God for something and He would grant it. But the Lord meets that in these powerful words—“I am the resurrection and the life”; that is, He personally is the resurrection and the life. He has the power over death. What a mighty triumphant Saviour is ours! He has been into death and triumphed over it. What a victory He has secured! and He has “set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage”, Hebrews 2: 15. I say, what a victory to know One who is the resurrection, who has the power over death and hades, our glorious Saviour! And He is still saying today, “I am the resurrection and the life”.
What a comfort it is to us, in all the circumstances
through which we pass, to realise that our blessed Saviour is the resurrection and the life, and we can depend upon Him absolutely—if we believe on Him. The Lord says, “I am the resurrection and the life—he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live”. Well, that is very wonderful! As we think of the myriads of believers who have died since these words were spoken it reminds us of what Paul says, “The dead in Christ shall rise first”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 16. There will not be one missing, because all will hear the voice of the Son of God, the One who says, “I am the resurrection and the life”. He is the One who is able to raise the dead in Christ and give them life. “And every one who lives and believes on me shall never die”—what does that mean? I suppose it would apply to every believer living when the Lord comes for us. That may be, as we know, so soon; it may be tonight. Oh how great the Person we know! How glorious a Man is Jesus! a real Man and yet in His Person over all, God blessed for ever. He who is God in His Person has effected for man the work that needed to be done so that souls might be saved for time and eternity.
Oh how our hearts are drawn out to the One who could say, “I am the light of the world”; “I am the good shepherd”; “I am the resurrection and the life”. I think this would be specially comforting to us as we just let Jesus say these words afresh to us. We heard announced this morning the burial of a beloved brother tomorrow, but then, “I am the resurrection and the life”. This is intended to comfort and sustain us in all the vicissitudes of our walk here and in all that is involved in the testimony, He will bring everything through; His sheep have an eternal link with Him; He knows every one, and they know Him. What a beautiful link, as it says, “as the Father knows me and I know the Father”. What a standard of relation and affection there is between the sheep and the Shepherd!
As I said earlier, there is a consequence resulting from answering to the truth presented by Jesus in these words as John records them for us. So Jesus says to Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”. It seems to me to imply that everything we need we have in Him.
But the point here particularly is the link with the Father, access to the Father—“No one comes to the Father unless by me”. That is a very blessed thing, to know God as our Father.
Then how is it that we can have liberty to address God as our Father? We come to the Father by Christ. What we need in order to be at home in the presence of the Father, we have in this glorious Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ—“I am the way, and the truth, and the life”.
For myself I would just like to go over these words and get some fuller understanding of them. “I am the way”; I think we can understand that a little; Jesus has gone to the Father and He has prepared there a place for us, as He says in the beginning of this chapter—“In my Father’s house there are many abodes … I go to prepare you a place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. So we can see that He is the way into all the blessedness that christianity involves for believers. It is something to be enjoyed now because the Spirit has been given to us; something to be entered into finally, which verse three refers to—“I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. We have no doubt about it because we have listened to the words of Jesus and we accept them as He says, “I am the way”.
Then, “I am … the truth”—all that can be known of God is presented in that blessed Man. So we can be at home in the light of God because we know One who is not only the way but is the truth and the life, the means by which believers find life in the presence of the Father.
I commend these references in John to each of us and I would like to go over them too myself because I feel there is a fulness in them which we have hardly touched at this time. There is something very choice in what the Lord says—“I am the light of the world”; “I am the good shepherd”; “I am the resurrection and the life”, and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”.
How blessed to know Him thus! May God bless the word.
Preaching at Croydon
8 January 1978