In Him Was Life

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

John 1:4

No matter how long someone has lived on this earth, they may be advanced in knowledge and wisdom and have deep understanding in many areas. However, one thing that remains undefined is life. If you ask anyone to define life, you would likely receive a variety of answers, most of them descriptive rather than definitive. Some may call it breath, DNA, or other terms, but no one can accurately define what life is. The reason is that we are asking the wrong audience. As we previously established, only the Creator knows what He created and why He created it. To understand what life truly is, the Apostle John offers insight. He helps us understand that not only were all things made through ‘The Word,’ but that in ‘The Word’ was life. Therefore, in our quest to understand life, we need to understand the person of ‘The Word,’ which is the focus of our study this month.

Now that we know life is in ‘The Word,’ who is Jesus (John 1:14), we can consider the creation of man in the beginning, as described in Genesis 2:7: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” If we study the Book of John, one of the words frequently mentioned is ‘Life.’ It appears more often in John than in any other book of the Bible, because ‘Life’ exists only in the person the book reveals to us—Jesus. In Jesus is Life. It is in Jesus that you and I live. There is no life outside of Him, only death. Jesus himself said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. This raises the question: “How can people live without Jesus?” The answer lies in the definition of life. Life only exists in Jesus; anything outside of Him is death. Therefore, we can infer that many people walking the earth are spiritually dead. In God’s sight, they have no life, which explains why they cannot approach God in Heaven after leaving this earth—they are already dead. This is the first level: those who live without Jesus are dead, even though they appear to live. If you are reading this and find yourself in this situation, I urge you to come before God in faith through Jesus, so that He may give you Life.

Let’s take it a step further. Life in Jesus also refers to the way we spend our lives. When we say someone lived “a life well spent,” it’s not just about the fact that they lived, but how they lived. Jesus is not only concerned with giving us life but also with giving us a way of life. Therefore, Jesus is the centrepiece of how we live our lives because in Him is Life. The Word of God should be the lens through which we view all aspects of life. This means that life was never meant to be lived outside of ‘The Word.’ To make this point, the Apostle John says that “His Life was the light of all mankind,” meaning that all humanity should process life through Jesus. The kind of life we live should be guided by God’s manual for life, which is written in His Word. As the Psalmist says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” The Word of God remains the only manual for life that we have. We live in the Word and by the Word. Therefore, never walk in paths that are contrary to the Word of God—that is not life, but death. God has placed before you Life and Death, and He pleads with you to choose Life, so that you may live.

PRAYER