Jesus in His World

"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

John 8:12

How blessed we are that God has given His only begotten Son Jesus to be the Saviour of the world!  One thing I love about the Bible is how Jesus is the central figure in it from beginning to end.  The first verse of Genesis tells us, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  The Gospel of John starts this way in John 1:1-3:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."  The celebration of Christmas reminds Christians how God did not remain distant from the world or mankind He created, but God put on human flesh in the person of Jesus so we might know Him and so He could save us from our sins.

The apostle John began his first epistle in 1 John 1:1-3 with his eyewitness account of Jesus:  "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life--² the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us--³ that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ."  Jesus is the light of the world, the Word of life, the Word that became flesh, and He has manifested eternal life to us through the Gospel.  God is eternal and living, and from Him all living things have come.  Life has never been observed as arising spontaneously or by any means from what was not living.

Life is truly wonderful, and because this world is teeming with life the enormity of the implications of life's existence may be lost on us.  The fact we are alive is a little thing in itself, but it point to the clear fact life has been passed down to us.  Go all the way to the beginning and the living, eternal God was there--one God revealed in the Father, Son (Word) and Holy Spirit.  This reality impacts not only our past but our present and future.  Knowing we have been created by God for God, we ought to live our lives to glorify, praise and serve Him.  Having received assurance of eternal life by faith in Jesus, we are content knowing when we put off this mortal frame we will be gathered to the presence of our Saviour in eternal glory where we will live with Him forever with His redeemed saints.

It would be tragic to be alive and not realise our living Creator and His divine purpose for living.  We would be remiss to see the sun rise every day and not consider Jesus Christ is the light of the world who spoke the sun into existence.  To light the candles of the Menorah without recognising Jesus is the light of the world would be to miss praising God who always does miracles, who breathed life into dust and made man, who came as the light of the world to a world darkened by the spectre of sin and death.  To give and receive gifts on Christmas without realising Jesus is the greatest gift ever given we ought to treasure every day is to miss out on who is most important.  We can be central in our thoughts and little worlds we try to maintain for ourselves, but how blessed we are to make Jesus central and serve Him.  May the LORD open our eyes to perceive God as central in His word and His world God allows us to inhabit for a season.