The Life And The Light

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1: 1, 4.

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8: 12.

Because Christ was God, He could be the Word of God. Because He had the Life of God in Himself, He could be the revealer of that Life. And so as the Living Word He is the Life-giving Word. The written word can be made void and of no effect where human wisdom is trusted for its apprehension. It is only as it is accepted as the seed in which the life of the Living Word lies hid, to be quickened by the Holy Spirit, that it can be to us the word of life. Our oneness with God's written word ought ever to be inspired and regulated by the faith of the Eternal Word, who was God.

The same truth comes out in the expression that follows: The life is the light. When we see the light shining, we know that there is a fire burning in some form or other. And so in the spiritual world.

There must be life where there can be light. There may be reflected light from a dead or dark object. There may be a borrowed light without life. But true life can alone show true light. He that follows Christ shall have the light of life.

These two statements of one great truth strikingly confirm what we learned about the Spirit of God. Even as He knows the things of God because He is the life of God, so Christ is the Word because He is God, and has the life of God; and so the light of God only shines where the life of God is. All three thoughts bring us again to our Bible study with the one blessed, but so needful lesson, that it is only as the written word brings us the life of the Eternal Word, as its light within the heart is the shining of a life that is working there, as the Holy Spirit who knows the things of God because He is the life of God, makes them life and truth within us, can our study of Scripture really bless us.

And so we come back to the one great lesson the Spirit seeks to enforce in regard to God's Word — that it is only as Scripture is received out of the life of God into our life that there is any real knowledge of it.

It is a seed that bears within it the Divine life: where it is received in the good soil of a heart that hungers for that life, it will spring up and bring forth fruit, like all seed, “after its kind.”

It will reproduce in our life the very life of God, out of which it came, the very likeness and disposition of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. We want to turn all this to practical account and to apply it directly to our private Bible reading.

You want to know how to begin. The rules are very simple.

The first: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Take time to be quiet and to realise God. “Be silent before the Lord GOD!” “Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD” “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” Worship and wait on Him that He may speak to you. The next: Remember that the word comes out of the life, the heart of God carrying His life to impart it to yours. Nothing less than the life of God is it: nothing less than the power of God can make it live in you The next: believe in Christ the Living Word. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Follow Jesus in love and longing desire, in obedience and service, and so His life will work in you, and the life shall be the light of your soul.

And then, ask the father for the Holy Spirit who alone knows the things of God, to make the word in your heart living and active. Hunger for the will of God as your daily food; thirst for the living spring of the Spirit within you; receive the word into your will, your life, your joy- the life it brings will give the light with which it shines. The reason I have so often insisted upon the truth put forward in the last few chapters is very simple.

My own experience has taught me how long it is before we clearly apprehend that the word of God must be received into the life and not only into the mind, and how long again even after we apprehend it, before we fully believe and act it out. “To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.”

Study the lesson till you know it. The word comes out of the life of God, carries that life in itself, seeks to enter my life and fill it with the life of God. This life is the light of men, and gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. You may find that this lesson takes more time than you think, that it hinders you more than it helps in your Bible lessons, and that it grows all the more difficult the longer you study it. Be not afraid or impatient; but be assured that if you learn it right, you will bless God that it has become a key you never had before, to the hidden treasure of the word, giving you true wisdom in the hidden part.

So I repeat again the simple words so inexhaustibly blessed and true. As the Spirit that lives in God alone knows the things of God, it is alone the Spirit living in me that can make me know the things of God by imparting them to my life.

As Christ was the Word because He was God, and had the life of God, the written word can only bless me as, through it, the living Word brings the life of God unto me. As the life was in Christ, and as the Life is the Light of men, so it is only as I have the life of Christ through the word that I have the light of the knowledge of God.