The Life Behind the Light

“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, NKJV).

Jesus was and still is the light of the world. John says this light was produced by the life that was in Christ: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Simply put, the life that Christ possessed was his source of light to the world, and all who believe “shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). What is the “life behind the light” that scripture speaks of?

Most of us think of this life as the eternal existence that’s embodied in Christ. We see it as his power to bestow eternal existence on all who believe, but John is talking about even more here. When he uses the word “life,” he is speaking of the whole biography of Jesus’ existence.

Jesus tells us that we are to live as he did. For us to be as Christ was in the world, his life has to be something we can know and experience for ourselves. It has to relate to our own lives.

I want to tell you how I relate to the life that is in Christ. I rejoice in the kind, little things that Jesus did and spoke. I believe his everyday deeds, words and walk with the Father are meant to define the meaning of the Christ-life to us.

I think of Jesus’ friendship with Lazarus. I think of him as he retreated from the multitudes after a long period of ministry. I think of him as he relaxed in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. I think of Jesus taking the little children into his arms and blessing them. I think of his obedience to his mother even as a grown man when he turned water into wine at the wedding feast. I think of Jesus’ love and care for the scorned, the unlovely, the poor. I think of his compassion for the woman caught in adultery or his honoring the widow who had only two mites to give.

In these passages, we find the ways we are to relate our lives to Christ’s. This is how we are to live a life that is in the light.