“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” — John 1:4–5
As we’ve been hearing, John's got an incredibly high view of Jesus: on the same footing as the Lord God of Israel's Scriptures, and the agent or means of creation itself. Today, we come to another word John uses to get Jesus' character and purpose in the world across: “that life, was the light to all mankind" (or all people).
John uses a good deal of literary devices in his writing, which includes dualism. Life and death, light and darkness, being the most prominent. John can find no more archetypal language to get the Lord Jesus across to his first listeners. In Jesus, all life originates and is sustained. And, Jesus is the light bringing illumination to a lost world, dispelling darkness even now.
We might be able to ensure a few things are stable around us, but what about the bigger stakes of human life? No matter our means, clout or influence, every human faces uncertainty, suffering, and the unavoidable problem of death.
Enter, Jesus. Because of Jesus, hope began to be seen differently — and the tone in which the word hope might be spoken changed. The first believer’s put their hope in a crucified, resurrected, and ascended living Lord Jesus. Hoping became not a foolish or weak posture to take, or a miserable state in which to find oneself, a kind of gamble, but, because of Jesus, a state of assurance.
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