THE LIFE OF JESUS AS LIGHT FOR MEN
D. T. Pye
These are not the scriptures that I had meant to read this evening but what we had in the reading this afternoon directed my thoughts to the life that is in Jesus. What could be greater?
There has never been life seen in anyone like the life that was seen in Jesus. You say, that is very good but that was two thousand years ago, but you know that light is still shining and it is shining towards all men because it is God’s desire that it should be so. What a light it is, how wonderful, God expressing His heart of love towards His creature. There are plenty of things that hinder man in his thoughts, interests and outlook, but we always need to be drawn back to what God is saying. You find that God has always had man in mind; He has always had man in mind for blessing, and for His pleasure. It tells us that in the very beginning of Scripture. It comes in again in glory related to the birth of Jesus, heavenly hosts proclaiming the greatness of God’s outshining in His love and light to men in the person of our Lord Jesus as a babe. They proclaimed “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, Luke 2: 14. What a declaration of love towards man, yet the sad side is, as we look around, and we well know our own hearts, everything that God has set out in fulness and completeness and with its own glory, man has spoiled.
You find it in the very beginning of Scripture. There was Adam, or man as he was first stated as, created of God for God’s pleasure, even as it says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”, Genesis 1: 26. How wonderful these matters are. There in innocence, able to speak as to created things and give them names, what wisdom man had; and he was given a helpmate, his like, but how quickly there was departure from what God had set out in His love towards His creature. Sin came in through disobedience. Man was greatly favoured, placed in a garden of delights, Eden as we speak of it, and there everything was available to him for food except one tree, and that was the very thing where the man disobeyed and ate of it. So you see that man has always spoiled what God has set out in all its glory for man’s blessing and pleasure and enjoyment, and to know too the relationship of love for himself. There are so many other instances we find in Scripture. There was Noah, a man who walked with God, upright in that regard; what a man he was in his day, and he got a message from God and he acted on it for the saving of his house. He did save his house, building an ark, but on a renewed earth very soon departure came in, and it was through disobedience again. It is very sobering, we know our own hearts, sin is very near but we need to overcome. The only way we can do so is by having a link with this living One, Jesus, for God has set out everything in Him. The need for us is to pay heed to that and attention to it too.
How great God’s thoughts are. He reaches out towards His creature, He knows man’s inability to help himself, “perhaps for the good man some one might also dare to die”, Romans 5: 7. That is a goodness that is in the heart of man, but there it is, you cannot meet the need of your sinnership before God, and that is what we all need, a conviction as to what sin is in God’s sight. How awful, no one can meet it. Scripture speaks of it, “None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him”, Psalm 49: 7. But God has come in in infinite grace and mercy towards His creature and met the need; that need has all been met by Jesus. He came into conditions here among men in lowliness and humility, and yet in such wondrous power as He moved about doing good on every hand, proclaiming the glory of the One who had sent Him, and completed the work that He was given to do. That was the whole life of Jesus. He came to live in conditions here and to die. “In him was life”; what a life was the life of Jesus, there in glory in fulness and perfection in all that He did. What a reaching out towards man there was in the Lord’s person and yet many heard and did not accept it. They turned away, occupied themselves with their own things, and not to their profit where all the glory of God’s great thoughts were towards them in the way of blessing in Jesus. How attractive the Saviour is.
He was in His humanity here doing good on every hand. Persons had to say, “He does all things well” (Mark 7: 37), and that is very true of Jesus; this kind of life is different because in the Lord Jesus the condition that is upon all men was not there. I am referring to sin, but “in him sin is not”, 1 John 3: 5. That is a definite statement. How difficult it is for you or me to understand what relates to the fact that there was a Man here, in whom sin was not, perfect, righteous, holy, so meek, so gentle. The Lord in His ways was so gracious in His healing power. All these things were witnessed in the life of Jesus and how attractive they are. But sin bore upon man; it hardens the heart. It makes you think of yourself rather than thinking of God, or thinking about the condition that you are in as a sinner before God. Well He waited a certain time. You have it in the epistle to the Galatians, “when the fulness of the time was come” (Galatians 4: 4), God acted. He also spoke in the person of the Son (Hebrews 1: 2).
Much had gone before, God had dealings with a people, with a nation, but they had been rebellious and disobedient because sin was operating in them. They did not see the glory of what God in His outshining towards them was, and they turned to other things, but the fulness of time came and something different happened. Jesus, as we have said, came in as a babe.
In John’s gospel we have this beautiful touch as to Him coming in, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. How attractive that life was. Did men see it? God saw it, the angelic hosts saw it, a life that had never been witnessed on earth before was the life that was in Jesus, and what a light it
was amidst the darkness; the darkness did not apprehend it. If you want to do your own will and go your own way in the paths of sin you are held by the power of darkness, and it does hold. You need light to touch your soul as to how God has operated. Think of the glory of what God has done. You find it in Romans 11. It says as to the Jew and the Gentile, how does God act towards them? He shut them both up in unbelief. You say that is a terrible situation, but that is not all. What did He say? In view that He could show mercy to them both. That is how God acts, how He has acted in mercy in the goodness of His heart towards His creatures and has made a full provision in His well beloved Son to meet your need; He has certainly shown mercy to all.
It tells us too that God is “rich in mercy”, Ephesians 2: 4. How thankful we can be that He is so, because I have proved it, and it is there available in the day of grace towards all men.
How is it set out? It is set out in none other than His well beloved Son, Jesus. In the old dispensation God had desires to have relationships with His people, and there was the ark that was built, and it was to be the centre of God’s things at that time in the tabernacle system.
But on the top of it was the mercy-seat, and blood was required for the priests to enter and serve God, and it says touchingly, “there will I meet with thee”, Exodus 25: 21. How wonderful that God would meet His creature in mercy. God could well have left us in our condition, but that is not the God that I know or men know, because He is rich in mercy and in His great love He has made provision for His creature, not to be lost for ever, but to be redeemed and brought into relationship and conditions afresh with Himself, settled relationships, and that can only be through the death and the shedding of the blood of Jesus, the sinless offering.
There had been plenty of offerings in the old dispensation and what do you find related to them? The service had to go on constantly, but one sacrifice for sin has now been made. That is, following the perfection of the life of Jesus. He offered Himself spotless to God, meeting the wrath of God poured forth upon sin in Himself, the sinless One. He met it all and bore that wrath and the awfulness of the judgment of God related to it in Himself, but He did it vicariously on your account and mine. That is the Saviour, this One in whom was life, and that life was the light of men. Do you know that life?
Are you bound up still with the things in the world? They have their appeal, an appeal for every man. It requires to be met in our lives, but there is not this kind of life in the world or in its pleasures. The pleasures of sin are but for a season, and alas they have their bitterness too, but there is no lasting joy or peace or life in these things. How sorrowful that we occupy so much of our time related to them, but here there is something set out of God in the person of Jesus that is so attractive, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”.
There was even a witness sent beforehand to testify to this One who was coming, John the baptist as we speak of him, and it was he who brings home to the souls of men their distance from God and their need of repentance; many came to it, but he was but a forerunner for this One who was coming in, Jesus. He was actually sent from God to witness concerning the light, “The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”. So there it is, that light has come in, it is enough to lighten every man. It is my responsibility as to whether it lightens me, or whether I go on with the things of darkness. It is sobering. We sung at the outset, ‘Soon that voice will cease its calling’ (Hymn 266). There is a challenge in that but there is meant to be. How easy it is to slip into these things and never come to a real and living conviction in your own soul that you need a Saviour and there is only one. Scripture is so plain in relation to it that there is only one Name that is given under heaven whereby we must be saved (Acts 4: 12). There are not two ways, there is only one, and that is coming to appreciate something of the awfulness of what sin is in God’s sight and I can do nothing about it, but it has all been met by Jesus.
So we find in John 3 where we have read that there was one, a very intelligent man. It speaks of him as being the teacher of Israel. A very intelligent person he would be too, but something had pricked his heart as to this light that had really appeared, Jesus. He could not understand it. He was so steeped in what had gone before, but God in the fulness of His power had operated toward His creature freshly, not under law but under grace, and what an appeal there is in it. So he is challenged here as to how can these things be? He is wondering about things. It is good to ask questions; it is good to get answers too, and you find that the answer is not in yourself exactly; it is an answer outside yourself but it is related to what God is doing. He says, “How can these things be?”. But Jesus reproaches him, a teacher of Israel, he should have known who the Lord was. He says, “I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and we bear witness of that which we have seen, and ye receive not our witness”. Now John the baptist had brought forcibly home to them the need of repentance.
Then there was a need, as having come to repentance, that they should come into the joy of salvation too, and that really involved the Lord Jesus and the work that He was to accomplish. He says, “If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not”. Now how true that was. “If I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?”. There it was, man would reason on earthly things but the heavenly things were so different. This was the life that was the light of men that was being presented. Not that you did something on your own account to secure your freedom and liberty. No, it has all been done from God’s side, and here is the Lord Jesus Himself speaking of it so simply and so feelingly towards these persons. He goes on to touch as to the fact of how God was operating. He says, “no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”. You say, what does all that mean?
There is the glory brought before us as to this Person who was there, the Son of man. He was here on earth in lowly conditions of humility, yet ever rejoicing in His links with the Father in heaven. How blessed these matters are, and these things that emphasise to our hearts the wonder and glory of the Lord’s life and pathway.
It was on your account and mine that He was here because no other could meet the question of sin to God’s holy satisfaction; it required a sinless offering. That could only be this blessed One, and touchingly He brings in the reference to Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, and He says “thus must the Son of man be lifted up”. This is what took place. In the wilderness they had been bitten by the fiery serpents and they were in distress, they were dying, but Moses was told to make a serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and it was only those who looked who lived. It is sobering, it is available, but I can turn away from what God has provided in His wondrous love and grace and at such cost. Would I refuse it? You refuse it to your cost. The Son of Man was to be lifted up, that involved His being crucified, but it brings in the wonderful sphere of blessing, “every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. O what a life that is! But it meant such suffering in view of our blessing. It is something that our souls need to dwell on, the depth of what the Lord Jesus went through. There is a verse of a hymn which speaks of it, ‘How deep were the waters crossed ... how dark was the night that the Lord passed through’. It is far beyond our understanding to realise what Jesus faced in meeting the holy wrath of God relating to sin. He was alone. The awfulness of what sin was He knew in God’s sight, but He was prepared to suffer. The glory of it is He completed the work; He did not die in extremity. He delivered up His own spirit. There is the power related to the One who accomplished the work, but it involved those three hours of darkness when the agony of the judgment of sin was borne by Jesus.
Well it was on my account; has it been on yours? That is where the challenge always comes home. You have to accept it or reject it, there is no middle way. You will find the life that is in Jesus is well worth coming to realise. He died for you in those circumstances at Calvary.
As we know, after He had died His side was pierced and there came forth blood and water.
Men will tell you it is an impossibility in a dead person; it is true in relation to Jesus. That shows the intrinsic worth of the sacrifice and the offering and all that there was in the Lord’s person; He also was buried, but death could not hold that One. He had already said on the third day He would rise again, and the glory of it is that He did; it is witnessed to as to the fact that He rose from among the dead. Now that Saviour Jesus is on high today still available towards men. In His life here He moved about in Israel, but now He is available to all men, and what a Saviour He is.
It says here as to Moses who lifted up the serpent, “thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish”. That shows the availability of the Lord Jesus in the glory. He is there a Prince and a Saviour for all men who in faith would come towards Him and prove what blessing there is for them, “that every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. That is the kind of life you want to have and to enjoy.
Then it brings in this wonderful touch as to God’s attitude towards His creature, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son”. How appealing these words are. “That whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”.
‘Life is found alone in Jesus,
Only there ‘tis offered thee;
Offered without price or money,
‘Tis the gift of God sent free’. (Hymn 266)
Would you not have that life? What is there in this scene that would hold you? There is so much more related to the scene where Jesus is and, as it says, “For God has not sent
his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him”. How full and complete are God’s thoughts, but it is man’s responsibility whether he answers to it. I was struck in reading it in John 1, when John the baptist says concerning the light, “that all might believe through him”. God has great thoughts in mind for man. He takes no rejoicing in the death of the wicked. God has in mind blessing for His creature, but you personally must access it for yourself and that is through faith in His well beloved Son.
Not only do you find that there are gifts and blessings to be enjoyed, eternal life, there is also the blessed Holy Spirit of God who has been given from the glory, to take up a place where there is faith and love for the Lord Jesus and the spirit of obedience in the hearts of believers.
The blessed Holy Spirit of God would take up His residence in such hearts to help and strengthen and guide and help us in the sphere of testing here, and help us to enjoy this life, the life that is in Christ Jesus. What a life it is! Is it not attractive? Do you not want to enjoy it? The challenge is left to come home to every soul. We can occupy ourselves with many things but there is nothing to compare with this life, the life that is in Christ Jesus. May our hearts be encouraged to lay hold of it in greater measure.
Preaching at Dundee
13 January 2008