Jn.8:12 – Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
Jesus called Himself the light of the world. He was saying that as the natural sun is to the whole earth, so is He the spiritual light to the whole world. No one on the planet could see anything without the sun, the sun lightens the whole earth. In the same way that Jesus gives light to the world, without the light of Christ we are left to groping around in the dark. When the light of Christ shines into our soul we experience an awakening from the sleep of death. Jesus becomes real to us as we see Him in all His works. This light opens our eyes to view our world differently. Things that we blindly walked by everyday become important and even precious to us. Just as all of the earth is dependent on the warmth of the sun, the rays flowing out from the Lord bring His warmth into our hearts. This warmth starts as a love for God and pours out to into a love for those still walking in the darkness of this world. We have become the light of the world through Jesus and the world tastes the warmth of His love in us. Here is how Jonathan Edwards explains this when he was a twenty year old preacher.
“As the sun, when it rises, all things are thereby revived and awakened out of sleep and silence, so when Jesus Christ shines into the souls of men, they are revived out of their deep and dead sleep of sin. When the sun arises, the world that before was all still and silent, and seemed to be dead, now is revived and raised up by the light thereof, and all things begin to stir and move: things seem to have new life put into them; man rises out of his sleep and sets about his business…. So it is in spiritual matters with respect to Christ. Before he shines into men’s souls, they are dead and dull in a deep sleep, are not diligent at their work, but lie still and sleep and do nothing respecting their souls. All their affections are dead, dull and lifeless; their understandings are darkened with the dark shades of spiritual night, and there is nothing but spiritual sleep and death in their souls. But when Christ arises upon them, then all things begin to revive, the will and affections begin to move, and they set about the work they have to do.”
Just as we take in the rays of the sun everyday and experience the blessings that the sun brings, believers live their lives taking in the goodness of the Son of God. The more we bask in His beauty the more we become like Him. We are the light of the world according to Jesus, maybe its time to catch some rays.
