True Light

Who is the True Light?

John 1:9-13 True Light

JOHN 1:9-11 9 The true Light, who gives light to every man, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Who is the “true Light” (John 1:9), also referred to as “the/that Light” in John 1:7 & 8?
John 1:10 onwards refers to the true Light as “He” and “Him,” and states that the “world was made through Him,” equating Him with the “Word” (John 1:1). So the “Word” is now being referred to as the “true Light.”

Where is this “true Light”?
John 1:10 states, “He was in the world,” and John 1:11 states, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”

What is “His own” in John 1:11?
The Israelites.

JOHN 1:12-13 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those believing in His name, 13 who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

To what does the “blood” (John 1:13) refer?
The bloodline of the Jews, who descended from Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob.

To what do “the will of the flesh” and “the will of man” (John 1:13) refer?
The human desire to have sex and the husband's desire for offspring.

But who can become children of God?
“Those believing in His name” (John 1:12).

And who can believe in His name?
The Jews believed that they were God's children by virtue of having been born Jewish. John 1 declares that God's children in fact are those who believe in the Creator God who came into the world (see next page), and the ability to believe in Him is granted by God Himself: “born... of the will... of God” (John 1:13).