THE WAYS OF THE KINGDOM

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"This we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The Life appeared; we have seen and testify and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared."
St. John 1:1,2

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."
St.John 1:4

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THIS SCRIPTURE perhaps does not at first seem to be a particularly Christmas text, yet that is precisely what it is. The Word of life is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture is abundant with fresh names and titles to proclaim him, and this one is pregnant with meaning. When John in this opening of his letter says that "the Life appeared" it can be none other than a reference to the incarnation of Jesus, and in this short startling way of speaking, John expresses the wonder and amazement he and the other disciples had at the coming of Jesus and all that it meant for them.

When we read the passage in our Bibles we may be forgiven for supposing that John is referring to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ when he speaks of the Word of life, because the NIV translation puts the word 'it' in twice where the Greek of the New Testament does not. The NIV says "we have seen it and testify to it". This interpretive translating is unfortunate.

There can be no doubt that John is speaking of Jesus. He speaks of seeing, looking and touching the Word of Life. These are words which hardly fit a message, but rather fit a person. The Word is the title which John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives to Jesus in the opening of his Gospel. The Gospel surely leads us to Jesus as the Word of life, because in the Gospel, John says that "in the Word was life". John in this letter goes on to speak of this eternal life as being with the Father before appearing in time in this world on that first Christmas Day. None other than the eternal Word himself did this. Thus we have the Christmas message. The birth of Jesus is described here in the exalted terms of the Word of Life appearing. Let us enjoy and enter into the Christmas message as it is spoken of and revealed to us here.

The Epistle of John, like the Gospel, commences with a vivid and blunt declaration of the eternal existence of Jesus. Because John speaks of Jesus before he became man, he cannot rightly use the name Jesus Christ, which is his title and name after his incarnation. So the name he uses here is 'The Word'.

"That which was from the beginning" - these opening words can only refer to the fact that Jesus had no beginning, but existed always. He is the eternal Word, who was with God and was God, just as this apostle is inspired to declare in the opening of his Gospel.

The exciting thing about the revelation here before us is this name John is inspired to give Jesus. John proclaims "the Word of Life." Life is the very essence of God. He is life, for he has always existed. But what is expressed in this title, the Word of Life, is that life is the essential nature of God, and it speaks not just of existence, but of abundant life. God is the essence of life, all that excels in joy and love and goodness. Life which is in God and from God holds all that is true joy, purity, love, goodness, grace, thought, intellect, understanding, wisdom, mind and imagination.

All life comes from God. If there is life in this world, it comes from God. Without God there is no life, for he is life. Thus in the Gospel we read that Jesus is the life of men. This is the root meaning of the words that the life in Jesus was the light of men. Jesus coming meant that this light of life was brought near to us and made possible for us to receive. This is the glorious revelation of Christmas.

In John 14:6 Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father, but by him. Jesus is the way to the Father - there is no other way but in him. Jesus is the truth of the Father - there is no one else and nowhere else that we can really know God and the truth about him. Jesus is the life of the Father - there is in no one else, and there is nowhere else, that we can see and experience real life, that is the life that is in God and is God.

We do not know what real life is. We have human life. This life came from God. It has something of the divine image in it, but it is far far below the quality of real life which is the Word, which is Jesus. The life that God gave to Adam has been marred and corrupted, and human life now is a mere existence, soiled and distorted, compared with real life which is in Jesus. This revelation of Christmas is a revelation, in the coming of Jesus and his birth, of real life that we may know and long for.

The Christmas message is that this life of God has appeared. It has come into this world which lost it when Adam sinned. It is the entrance of deliverance from the death and darkness which Satan now brings upon all, because Adam's decision placed the world under his dominion. In the appearing of Jesus is the hope of the world. When the angel said to the Shepherds that he brought good tidings of great joy, this included that life had now returned to this world, suffering under the sentence of death.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and we beheld his glory, we beheld this life. In the living of Jesus that we see in the Gospels we see the real essence of God like life. We see what life really is meant to be as given by God. In contrast we see the poorness of the life we have, and it dawns on our consciousness all that loss which sin has brought upon us.

We see this life in some measure through the veil of the flesh of Jesus. Jesus when he became flesh took on the likeness of sinful flesh. These are the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:3. These words mean that when Jesus became incarnate, he took on our human nature in every respect, except for sin and sinning. That is he took on the pain and suffering which sin has brought upon our life and living. So Jesus knew suffering, and what it means to be hated and rejected. He knew hunger and thirst, sadness and pain. He knew and suffered, at least on the cross, the anger and judgement of God against sin, though he was sinless. All the pains and sufferings of human life due to the curse brought by Adam's failure, he experienced and knew. Because of this the wondrous life of God was in some measure veiled, but it appears through.

The apostle testifies to this here and in his Gospel, when he says that we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The life is seen in his grace and love and mercy; in His compassion, purity, and goodness; in His ineffable communion with the Father, and the serenity of soul which issued from this. We see it in his caring for people, and in the truth that he expressed in his words and teaching. We see the life as we see beyond the outward body, which suffered so inexpressibly, to the spirit which shone through in all his actions and words.

What a wondrous revelation this is, and how it makes the heart hunger for this life. And having tasted of this life in our faith in Jesus, we long to experience more of it.

When John talks of the Apostles hearing and seeing and touching this life, he evidently testifies to the reality of the person of Jesus and his incarnation; but what the Apostles are really expressing is that they have found this life in him available. John is therefore declaring that this life appeared so that it may be available to humankind. So he says, "we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has appeared to us." We proclaim to you Jesus in whom life is available.

This is the testimony to the fact that the incarnation does not stand alone. Life is not available, is not brought near to us, by virtue of Jesus becoming man, as some would say, but that he became flesh, that life may become mortal and so die, so that mortal under the sentence of death, may receive life. In the appearing of the this Life, this appearing of Jesus who is the Word of Life, was the beginning of the road to the cross where life would take on death and defeat it, so making life available to those under the sentence of death.

This is the Christmas message - The Life appeared. The Word of Life appeared to make available his life to the world.

The joyous culmination of this testimony of John is that he and the other disciples had received this life, and he is testifying to it, so that others may receive this life that has been made available.

John says, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us". What he means is that we may enter into the same experience of life in Christ that they had. They had felt the wonder and glory of this life. They had received the blessed hope of the fulness of this life, which was in the foretaste in which they lived in the present. They want us to know this same life, and have fellowship with them in this blessing.

John then goes on to express what this life really is in its glorious essence. He goes on to express this in the words "And our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ". In other words what the apostle testifies to is that they have received the very life of God which has brought them into the company of, and communion and intimate relationship with, God who is the source of all life. Eternal Life is a glorious joyous experience of dwelling in the love and presence of God, where our whole being is filled with the glory of God and the satisfaction, peace and contentment which is the result of such experience. To dwell in God and know him and commune with him is to live and be exalted to inexpressible joy. It is to be delivered from all the sin and degradation which is ours in our fallen state, and to be changed into the likeness of Jesus. In the present time we still suffer from our sinful flesh, but still are able to dwell in this life in the presence of God. It is at these times that the lust of the flesh is quenched and silenced. We look forward to the day when we enter into this life completely, when this sinful flesh is replaced with a new body in purity and truth.

The appearing of Life - the coming of Jesus - was not just that we may be saved from our sins, of even delivered simply from death which is the consequence of sin, but rather that we may have this same life and have it abundantly, and know what it really means to live and be truly happy. It is to be raised to heaven to dwell in the presence of God. What the apostle testified to was the real foretaste of this communion with God, which in this earthly life raises us to sit in heavenly places with Christ, and gives to us that sure hope that in the future Jesus will call us home, to enter into the fulness of that life in glory.

John ends this introduction to his letter with the words "We write this letter to make your joy complete". We enter into the joy of Christmas as we enter into all the experience of this life the Apostle relates to us. Let us at Christmas, and always, see Jesus as "The Life Appearing" and by faith in him dwell in this eternal life that he has made available and which he gives to all who come to him by faith. We shall live in this joy as we make Christmas one where we seek to have communion with the Father and the Son. Let us enjoy our family reunions, the fun and the food, but the real life to enjoy is the time where we seek the Lord, either in Church or in the quiet of our homes, or in the fellowship of the Lord's people, and as we seek to dwell in the love of God even in all the earthly festivities.