Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Jesus speaks in the temple treasury. The crowd that wanted to stone a woman has just walked away, one by one. He does not offer a new rule or a better teacher. He offers Himself as the light for the whole world. Anyone who follows Him carries that light inside as life.
The setting matters. He stands in the building where God's glory once lived. He takes that glory for Himself. Then He widens the audience far past Israel.
He was standing in the temple, which He called His Father's house right up to the moment they finally rejected Him. God's glory of old had lived there. He stood in the treasury, where worshippers brought their gifts, and there He claimed that glory as His own. "I am the Light of the world," He says. The Sun is indeed rising above the hills of Judea, and the nations far and wide are to enjoy its light. More than that: Israel herself now appears as part of that world lying in darkness.
Light does not stop at a border. Neither does God, once He shows Himself.
When the sun rises, it treats no one as a special case. Once God shows Himself, we can ask what the apostle asked: "Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also?" That is what we read here: "I am the light of the world." And again: "God so loved the world." And again: "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him."
The accusers had just walked out. That scene is the picture; this verse is the teaching drawn from it.
What happened with the woman shows the Lord as the Light. That Light exposes everyone who comes into His presence. Now He declares openly that He is the Light of the world. Christ came into the darkness of the world, and His presence uncovered man completely and revealed God fully.
The chapter began with men quoting the law of Moses at Him. His answer replaces a written standard with a living one.
He had just acted as light among those who had appealed to law; here He goes on, but widens the sphere... The life was the light of men, the perfect display and guide of the life He was to His followers. The law never is this — good if a man uses it lawfully, but not for a righteous man whose Christ is.
The difference is not only in the standard but in the effect. One condemns; the other supplies what it asks for.
If the law shone, it was death. And man could not bear it... But Christ is something real and positive in Himself: He is the light of life. To walk in the light of this life, you must first have the life. That is why He says, "whoever follows Me."
Everything in the promise hangs on one phrase at its centre. Nothing else qualifies a person, and no achievement can take its place.
These words from the Master's lips stop us short: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Notice the words, "whoever follows Me." Only Jesus gives life and light. A man who does not follow Jesus is sunk in death and darkness, even if he has the most brilliant mind and all the learning of science and knowledge.
The promise also works in reverse. It gives a test for dark days.
If, as too often happens with us, our way seems dark, does it not warn us that we are only following Him feebly?
The promise is more than a lamp held out on the path ahead. Light also enters the heart.
In Himself, Christ is the Life, and that Life is the Light of men... But Christ received in the heart, the life received, becomes the light for that heart. In His light it finds light, and so in following Him it has the "light of life."
The two gifts belong together. God does not give the one without the other.
As we get "life" so we get "light" in Christ... God would not give us life and leave us in the dark. This would not be like Him. He has given us His Son; and believing in Him, we get life. Then following Him, we get light — the light of life.
- Light — He claims the temple's ancient glory as His own. He will not keep it inside one nation. The sun rising over Judea is meant for the world.
- Exposure — Light shows things as they are. It uncovers man and reveals God — as the accusers had just found out.
- Following — The whole promise turns on "whoever follows Me." Talent and learning leave a person in the dark without it.
- Life — Light received is not only a path lit ahead but life within, because God does not give life and leave His people in the dark.
- Freedom from darkness — The law shone, and it meant death. This light gives the very life it asks for, so the follower never walks in darkness.
The Pharisees therefore said to him, Thou bearest witness concerning thyself; thy witness is not true.
Jesus has just called Himself the light of the world. The Pharisees do not answer that claim — they attack the One making it, so the argument turns to who He is.
The Pharisees are not attacking one phrase. They are attacking the whole claim.
The Pharisees did not want to follow Jesus. They did not want to hear that if they refused, they would lack the light of life. So they argue that He was bearing testimony to Himself. The argument now is about the truth of His Person and His testimony. The two are joined in "light of the world" and "light of life," and they could not be separated. Earlier in the chapter their hostility showed itself another way. They tried to set Jesus against Moses, to destroy His testimony to the people. Here they try to make it invalid by claiming that He bore witness to Himself.
The charge is not that Jesus is lying. It is a point of law.
A full, divine claim; and the Pharisees on their side at once challenge it. They say, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true." But that can only mean "invalid." A man may of course speak truly about himself. But if nothing supports his testimony, it is not enough. The Lord tells them that He speaks from knowledge, while they have only ignorance to set against it. They should at least have been able to see that God had sent Him. If they had admitted that, they would have seen that He was able to testify too.
Earlier Jesus had said that if He bore witness of Himself, His witness was not true (John 5:31). His opponents now quote that principle back at Him — and misuse it.
Such powerful testimony stirs up the pride and hostility of those listening. They could not help feeling that He spoke of a privilege and a blessing they did not share... They turn His own words in John 5:31 against Him, but very unfairly. There He was speaking of testimony that stood alone and was only human — the kind that pride gives itself. Here, as He goes on to show, He has the highest support of all, God Himself.
John 5 and John 8 look like they clash. The answer turns on one word: alone.
In John 5 He speaks not only as Son, but as one who has become flesh. He does nothing of Himself except what He sees the Father doing. Our Lord's argument is that if He were the only one bearing witness of Himself, His witness would not be true. So He answers the Jews with grace, and His answer searches them. They had claimed that if a man bears witness about himself, his witness cannot be true. There had to be two witnesses; three were better, more than enough, according to Jewish law. So Christ says, "If I (alone) bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." It could not be that His should be the lone testimony concerning Himself. First, John the Baptist bore witness to Him. Next came the witness of the works given Him to do. Third came the Father's voice. And there were the Scriptures as well. It was far more than enough.
Their demand for proof says more about them than about Jesus.
They are in the dark about the glory of His Person as the Son. They see Him only as a man, and judge Him by man's standards. So they conclude that His witness is not true, because He bears witness about Himself. As someone has said, "They stand in the light of day and demand formal proof that the sun has risen."
The Pharisees keep arguing, and their problem is not a shortage of evidence.
Despite what had just happened, the Pharisees keep up their pointless arguing. They talk about testimony. But how can they accept testimony about Him, when they refuse to bow to the testimony about themselves? They do not know Christ, yet they would sit in judgment on Him.
- Light offered. Jesus claimed to be the light of the world. His Person and His testimony stand or fall together.
- Light challenged. "Not true" means "not valid." Their argument: a witness with nothing to back him up does not count.
- Light misquoted. They turn His own earlier words against Him. But there He spoke of testimony that stood alone and was only human.
- Light confirmed. He does not stand alone. John the Baptist, His works, the Father's voice and the Scriptures all speak for Him — far more than the two witnesses their own law required.
- Light refused. They would not accept the light's verdict on themselves, yet they demanded more proof. They stand in daylight and ask whether the sun has risen.