Understanding  the Bible

A Monthly Comment on the Sayings of Jesus Christ

January 2007:  "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'"

In the New Testament, light and darkness are very powerful images. Apart from what Jesus Christ Himself says (as here), John and Paul specifically use this contrast to great effect. In these images, 'darkness' represents evil, ignorance of God, lack of understanding, and death. Conversely 'light' represents goodness, the knowledge of God, understanding of spiritual things, and life. 

In the beginning of his gospel, John says of Christ (the 'Word') ' In him was life, and that life was the light of men' (1:4).  Later in 3:19 John writes 'This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. '

Paul in Eph.4: 17-17 speaks of those who will not believe in Christ ' So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the heathen do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.'

So in the statement by Christ which is the focus of this brief study, we find Christ asserting that He is the source of what we do not have by nature, namely the knowledge of God, understanding of spiritual issues and therefore of true life. Only through Him can we know how to relate to God; how to discern what is godly and what is not; how to understand what God requires of us; and how to find true life that elsewhere he calls 'eternal life' (John 6:40). This is life is of a spiritual nature which re-orientates our human life (which otherwise is always turned-in on ourselves) so that we are orientated towards God. This life is also the life of heaven (eternity) and endues us with everlasting life after death. 

The reason why Christ is this 'light' with all that it conveys, is because (a) He is from heaven [John 1:1-5] (b) He is the Son of God [Matt:16:16] (c) He came to die as a ransom for the souls of all who will believe in Him [Mark 10:45]. 

{Further explanation of what Christ has done through His sacrificial death on the Cross will be found throughout this web site, but particularly on the page ' What is the Christian Gospel?' which can be accessed from the Home page.}

December 2006: MATT.13:31-33 'The Kingdom of heaven in like a mustard seed which a farmer took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.......The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a women took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.'

It is very easy to become depressed about the progress of the Gospel in the times in which we live. In the West, few seem interested - materialism is rife, while the organised church is largely compromised and in decline. In much of the rest of the world, Christians are being persecuted and even killed. What hope is there that the message of Christ will survive and even be triumphant in the end? 

In Matt.13:31-33, we find two of Jesus’ parables which will help to return our confidence that the Kingdom of Heaven is at work even in our day. Let’s read the first parable in vs.31,32. What is this mustard seed?

THE MESSAGE OF THE KINGDOM SEEMS SO WEAK ... The Christian message was born in weakness. Its author, Jesus Christ, was ‘despised and rejected by men’ (Isaiah 53): crucified. All this was yet to happen (these vs. are prophetic); but Jesus left behind only a small band of believers, his ‘little flock’. Paul refers to the message of a crucified saviour as ‘a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to [everyone else]’. So this is the mustard seed in our parable: the gospel of the Kingdom - seemingly so small and weak. But Jesus tells us that this seed will grow into a tree: that’s what mustard seeds in Palestine do, even today. A ‘tree’ in the Old Testament is often an image of a power of world significance. So what began with an unjust death and a small band of fearful men in Jerusalem, is going to end with the gathered multitude from all the nations. Look at Rev.7:9,10. Note too how the birds nest among the branches of this tree. This is OT imagery too, speaking of safety for those who recognise their need of God. Read Ps.104:10-13. The Kingdom of heaven is not an abstract idea: to belong to it, is to have the path to paradise at your feet. So despite appearances…

THE KINGDOM IS GROWING AND WILL GO ON GROWING…because it is God’s work. In countries where Christians are persecuted, the Kingdom is still growing. So as well as praying for these tormented Christians, we can gain encouragement from their faithfulness and fortitude. In the West, still, wherever the message of the crucified Christ is faithfully declared and explained, people are turning to him; one by one, two by two. Its not spectacular; but all over the place the tree is growing. It is as if Christ is telling us ‘don’t despair, have patience, keep praying, keep exercising faith, keep working, the Kingdom will grow and not fail.’ And what is more ….

THE KINGDOM WILL GO ON DOING ITS HIDDEN WORK ...That’s the meaning of the second parable - of the yeast. Read v.33. Three measures is a huge amount of flour. But the point is, the yeast works secretly and transforms the whole batch! Like the yeast in the flour, the work of the Kingdom is most often not dramatic or paraded in public, but hidden. This pictures people coming to Christ in a quiet and fuss-less way. Also it portrays Christ’s followers taking the characteristics of the Kingdom with them into every human experience and circumstance; where it will gradually but surely bring light into darkness; healing for the deepest of hurts; reconciliation in the face of breakdown, love instead of bitterness; honesty instead of deceit; truth instead of falsehood; kindness in place of envy. 

The Kingdom of heaven is growing in the hearts of men and women and children: sometimes unseen, but bringing assurance of salvation from God and changed lives lived for Christ.

November 2006: 'For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.' Matthew 12:50

Jesus has been teaching in a house that is so full of people wanting to hear Him, that when His mother and brothers turn up at the door they cannot get anywhere near Him. So the man at the door sends a message in to Jesus 'Your mother and brothers are outside wanting to speak to you.' (v.47) To which Jesus surprisingly replies 'Who is my mother, and who are my disciples?'  We are not to take this as any form of rejection of His human family, but Jesus is taking the opportunity to teach something important. He goes on to say ..' For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'

Jesus is evidently saying that apart for His human family, He has a spiritual family consisting of those who do the will of His Father in heaven. First, we might comment that there appears to be emerging here some very good news for the many people today whose family is so fractured or disfunctional that they feel alone and cast adrift, with no loving group to belong to. Perhaps they could belong to Jesus' family?

But, second, we must note that there is a condition to being Jesus' brother or sister or mother' - doing the will of His Father in heaven. What does that mean? Fortunately we do not have to conjecture what that might be because we have the answer in Jesus' own words.  They are found in John 6:28 and 29. Here some men asked Jesus the question ..

'What must we do to do the works God requires?'

Now this is obviously a very key question: a great deal hangs on Jesus' answer. Is He going to say 'give all you have to the poor' for example? Well, His actual answer is very instructive. He answers ..

'The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.'

This 'one He has sent' must surely be Jesus Himself! So we learn that doing God's Will means first and foremost believing in Jesus Christ. Doing good things will follow believing, of course. But the believing must not be left out. Doing good things alone is not the way to a family relationship with Jesus Christ. We must first believe. Many people, sadly, don't seem to know this. They seem to think that God will weigh their good and bad deeds in scales and if the good deeds out-weight their bad ones, they will be all right before God. 'Not so' says Jesus. 'You must believe in me' which means trusting in Him for our forgiveness through His Cross and submitting to Him as the Lord of our lives.

But those who do this are His brothers and sisters - members of His spiritual family. What a wonderful relationship to have!

October 2006: 'So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed' John 8:36

At this point Jesus Christ is talking to a group of Jews in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles (8:2). This section of the narrative begins at v.31. His listeners already believe in Him, but it soon transpires that they have understood very little of who He is and what His message really is.

Jesus begins this particular conversation by saying (31b,32) 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.' His hearers, being keen temple-attending Jews, somewhat object to that comment because they pride themselves on their religious heritage. They believe themselves to be free already. So they object indignantly 'We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves to anyone. '(They repeat this assertion in v.39 as if it is a trump card) 'How can you say that we shall be set free?'

They surely have not forgotten the slavery of their ancestors in Egypt with the ensuing Exodus that they remember every year at Passover? No, they are referring to their freedom from the idolatry of the heathen nations that have always surrounded them. But their reference to their religious heritage alerts Jesus to the fact that they have not understood what their real problem is. They are blind to the truth about themselves - as we all are until we listen to Jesus. He goes straight on to say 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.'

By this, Jesus does not mean that everyone who commits 'a' sin is a slave - although that is a symptom of what he is really getting at. He is thinking at a much deeper level. He means that our fundamental human nature ensures that we are all subject to the power, rule and penalty of sin - of our rebellion against the rule of God. His hearers, despite being Jews with a great spiritual inheritance, are just as captured by sin as everyone else. Their heritage cannot deal with this problem of sin. Only He can deal with their sin, and ours. The souls of men and women are fettered in a way which no amount of nominal belief or external religion could remove. Only complete submission to him could achieve that.

Jesus then proceeds to say something rather puzzling 'Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it for ever.' What does He mean by this? Well, first, slaves cannot emancipate themselves. And, second, their position is only temporary. They have no permanent place in the family: but a son does. This saying may be doubly clever on Jesus' part. He may be referring to the fact that the dispensation of the Old Testament covenant is only temporary - as it was - but that a new covenant is coming; one installed by the son. But the overwhelming thought here is that the slave cannot save himself. None of us can save ourselves. Hence to the statement we are focussing on - 'So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed'.  John the writer understands precisely what Jesus is getting at and elevates the word 'son' to 'Son'.

Only the Son of God, the man sent from heaven, can release us from our slavery to sin. And He is going to die a sacrificial death to make that possible. His death on the Cross was in our place. He took the punishment for our sin so that we do not have to answer for it before Almighty God. We receive this benefit by believing in Christ and submitting to him as the Lord of our life.

Watch for next month's comment.