Jesus Ranks Above Men

Lesson #138

In our last lesson, lesson #137, we briefly looked at John 8:12, the second I AM that Jesus claimed for himself: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Our last lesson was primarily links to work that was previously done. Before moving on to the next verse, let us consider another thought. John tells us in John 1:4 (NASB): “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” Jesus is the source of life and that life produces light. That light is what removes the darkness we experience. Those who are unsaved and apart from Jesus walk in darkness and do not know where they are going. The closer a believer is to Jesus, the less darkness there is; if there seems to be a cloud of darkness over you then you need to check your walk with Jesus because Jesus is light and darkness is displaced by his presence. As you allow Jesus to be squeezed out of your life then darkness invades, so stay close to Jesus.

As you can imagine, a claim like “I AM the light of the world” would cause the Pharisees to react: “So the Pharisees objected, “You testify about yourself; your testimony is not true!”” (John 8:13 NET). The Pharisees objected because the law requires at least two witnesses. Without another witness the Pharisees insist that what Jesus says about himself cannot be trusted, so to be safe they reject it as not being true.

“Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.”” (John 8:14 ESV). Even though Jesus is testifying about himself, he insists his testimony is true. The Pharisees are correct and supported by the law not to accept the testimony from man about himself. However, Jesus raises himself above the rank of men by knowing things that men do not know. Being the Son of God, he knows where he came from and when his assignment is completed he knows where he is going. This is something the Pharisees do not know.

By saying he knows where he came from he is implying that his origin is not from this world but from God and thus he should not be subject to the laws of men. From their law the Pharisees should know that it points to the coming of such a person as Jesus. But the Son of God coming into the world as he did; born of a virgin; clothed in the flesh of a man, the Pharisees could not accept who Jesus was.

Since the Pharisees could not accept where Jesus was from or know where he was going, they could not accept his testimony as being true. We must keep this in mind; we need to be sure that we know and accept that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, who came from heaven and that he came to die for our sin and then rise from the dead and return to his Father. We need to embrace this and embrace Jesus and as we do we will walk in the light as the darkness of unbelief is overcome. We must stay focused on Jesus, no matter the trials we encounter, and stay close to him so as to walk in the light of understanding. Do not fail to see the importance of staying near Jesus to keep the darkness of doubt and feeling of defeat from overcoming us. Our victory is found in staying close to Jesus where we can walk in the light of his glory.

Prayer

Father, thank you for bringing me to the Lord Jesus Christ where the darkness of sin was overcome by the light of his glory. Thank you for showing me through this lesson the importance of belief and staying close to Jesus to keep darkness from creeping into my soul.