In one of his stand-up specials, the comedian Jim Gaffigan talks about camping. In the monologue, Gaffigan mentions that his wife enjoys camping and says that it’s a tradition in her family. 

But he points out that it used to be a tradition in everyone’s family before we invented the house. 

He asks “If it’s so great outside, then why are all the bugs trying to get in my house?”

During the bit, Gaffigan describes himself as being “indoorsie.”

Full disclosure. 

I don’t enjoy camping. I don’t understand leaving the comfort of home, of a bed, of air conditioning, of indoor plumbing, of restful sleep. I’m not judging you if you like camping. 

But it’s interesting to consider leaving my house to go into the woods. 

And I think about that and I think of what Jesus left to come into the world. 

Jesus left heaven to come into the world. 

I like my home. 

But that’s not heaven. 

Jesus left the most perfect and spectacular place in creation to come into our world. 

He left a sinless place to come into a fallen world. He left a place of perfect beauty for a world that has gray skies and thunderstorms. He left a place of adoration for a world where he faced condemnation. 

1. A righteous God 

In the opening verses of John 1, it’s establishing the divinity of Jesus. 

Jesus is eternal. He exists in fellowship with God. He is God. He made everything. 

But as this passage continues, it will also point to the righteousness of Christ. 

Verse 4: In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Life is found in Jesus. This is true both in terms of all physical life but it is also true of eternal life that comes through Jesus. 

All life is in him. 

And we’re told that his life is the light of men. Verse 5 says:  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus was and is the true light. 

The light of Christ shines in a dark and sinful world. Verse 9 says The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

In this metaphor, light is good because it is light which provides illumination, truth, and enlightenment. 

John 8:12, Jesus says: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life

Jesus will talk at greater length of light in darkness in John 3. The Lord contrasts light and darkness with good and evil specifically. 

He’ll talk of himself as the light that is in the world and people who love the darkness of sin more than the light of God.

the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” 

Light and darkness is an almost universally recognized metaphor for good and evil. 

The light is associated with the goodness, and righteousness, and truth of God. 

John 12:46, Jesus says:

 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

Jesus associates life through following him because he is the light. He is righteous and holy. 

Numerous texts in the New Testament speak to Christ’s sinlessness. 

2. A blind humanity 

So far, we’ve been talking about the divinity and righteousness of Jesus. 

He is sinless. He is the light of the world. 

But the world is both sinful and blind to Christ. 

John 1:10-11 says:  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

The God who created the world was not recognized by his world. 

The only appropriate response to the Lord entering into creation would be to bow down and worship him, to behold his glory, to listen to his teaching, to bask in the glow of his light. 

But the world was so sinful that that was not what happened. He was despised and rejected. His teachings led many to hate him. And his teachings still do that. 

The world is often offended by the very words of God on earth. The world hates the gospel. 

1 Corinthians 1:18 says:  For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God

People dislike the exclusivity of Jesus. They dislike that they have to turn to him for salvation. People dislike his moral teachings which expose our sin. The world loves its darkness, and when the light of Christ shines on our darkness, many reject the light. 

everyone who does wicked things hates the light

Our passage says that the world did not know him. 

The world did not know what they had. 

John 1:10 says He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (John 1:10).

Jesus came to his world. It was his creation. And the world did not know him, the world did not respond to him as it should have, the world did not worship him. 

And it’s doubly ironic by the fact that Jesus came to the world that he made in order to die to save a world that was sinful. 

How sinful? 

So sinful that the world didn’t even accept our own creator when he came into the world. 

Many did not recognize Jesus for who he was. 

3. A worthy savior

John 1:10-11 focuses on the world and its failure to receive Jesus. 

But that’s not the case for everyone. In John 1:12-13, the Apostle writes: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 

Jesus is God. He is the light of the world. His world has largely rejected him, even though the world desperately needs him. 

But there are those who receive and believe in the message. That is the good news of the gospel. Notice that it doesn’t say opportunity. It doesn’t say chance.

If you believe in Jesus, because of his tremendous goodness and grace, he gives you the right to become a child of God. 

It has nothing to do with human goodness but our salvation is entirely by the will of God.  

Of Jesus, John has already said “he was in the world” and that “he came to his own” and that the light was coming into the world. 

Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe. This post is the third in a series looking through the Gospel of John. For more posts in this series, please click here.