Jesus’ First Extravagant Claim: "I am the Light of the World"

What does it mean that Jesus says He is the light of the world? Think about the world having one light, the sun, and then that light goes out! Actually, we are going through the Book of Revelation and it describes the final Judgment Day as the lights going dark (Rev 8:12). The absence of the sun’s light would suddenly make life disappear. Although we are just discovering how to capture the power of the sun’s light today, God made life from the beginning to be fully capable of capturing and efficiently utilizing this light.

But all these illustrations reinforce Jesus’ message through the sun: there is but one light and without that light, we have no life, no heat, no energy, no way to function.

The same is true of Jesus. If we do not seek Jesus, then we have no light. He claims to be not just one of many lights, but like the one sun shining on the earth, the Light for mankind.

(The Disciple 1 Digitial Library has the slides, article and audio/video of this talk and much more!)

The reason is that it is only through Jesus that forgiveness of sins can come. We have all fallen short of God’s glory, trampled our conscience, been selfish, come short of love. Most religions have sacrifices, but usually it is man or animal that die. They can’t bring forgiveness but Jesus, the Light, points the way to gain forgiveness through His death on the cross where He pays the sin for all who seek Him and follow that Light.

I once visited the huge Borra caves of AP. It is like a literal hole in the ground. The further one goes in, the deeper he goes down. It gets a bit exciting as one distances oneself from the little light at the entrance. It was a fun experience until the lights went out. There were several minutes before the people got their generators working and the lights came back on, but before they came on, we were in complete darkness. I didn’t dare move one foot, not knowing where it would lead. Some of the paths in the cave were very narrow and dangerous.

The many imitation lights can and will one day be extinguished but thankfully God’s light in Jesus will never be put out. All things including the heavenly lights were made through Jesus. They are temporary but He is eternal. What light will do you walk by?

Next => Jesus' second extravagant claim