THE LAMP, LIGHT AND LAMB

That was the TRUE LIGHT which gives light to every man coming into the world – John 1:9

There is a mysterious interplay between the ministries of CHRIST as LIGHT of the world and as LAMB of God. The purpose behind His coming was to bring Light into the world’s deep darkness and to redeem a battered and broken world by shedding His blood. No other personality has ever qualified, or ever will, to be the LIGHT and the LAMB at the same time!

In John’s account of Christ’s life, the disciple described JESUS as the Light of the world. He wrote: “That was the True Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (Jh.1:9). The True Light was manifesting Himself at the time when John, the Baptist was bearing witness and it was easy to mistake the LAMP for the LIGHT! The true Light was not “true” as opposed to “false,” but “true” as answering to the perfect ideal, and as opposed to all more or less imperfect representations.

John 5:35 says concerning John the Baptist, “He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.” That was describing the LAMP, the fore-runner to the True Light. Only On Person could be described as the True Light. All other persons of significance throughout the ages were at best, Lamps through whom the True Light shined for the world to see. The lamps change; the True Light shines perpetually. He is not subject to the changing conditions of time and space, but “GIVES LIGHT to every man coming into the world.” Have you received His light?

Not only did Christ the Light come to penetrate the world’s darkness, but He is also “the LAMB of God who takes away the sin of the world” (v.29). The eternal Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev.5:6-12). In order to redeem us to God by His blood out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, the Lamb of God had to be born as the baby in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth, ministered in the regions of Judea, and ultimately became the living, risen Christ who rescued us from our sin. The Lamb of God was slain that the Light of God might shine upon our pathways on the royal route to Glory. John therefore instructs us to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1Jh.1:7). Now wonder, He says to us His children, who have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb: “You are the light of the world” (Mt.5:14)!