In the Beginning: The Book of John

(John 8:12-20[HCSB])

12 Then Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

13 So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

14 “Even if I testify about Myself,” Jesus replied, “My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge by human standards.5 I judge no one. 16 And if I do judge, My judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent Me judge together. 17 Even in your law it is written that the witness of two men is valid. 18 I am the One who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”

19 Then they asked Him, “Where is Your Father? ”

“You know neither Me nor My Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew Me, you would also know My Father.” 20 He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple complex. But no one seized Him, because His hour had not come.

No more darkness

Jesus is more than a flashlight in the darkness … He is the Light itself, the origin of it. The darkness cannot overcome Him. His spiritual batteries will never lose their charge. In this way we never have to remain in spiritual darkness … if we believe in Him and rely fully on Him. All we must do is seek His Spirit, and His wisdom, and the lights are on all over the house! No amount of darkness can put out the Light which is Jesus Christ.

When Jesus told the Pharisees this “good news,” their concerns were only heightened because God Himself was defined as being Light and Breath. In Greek, phos and pneuma.

In verses 14-18 He leaves no doubt in the minds of His contemporaries, or in ours, that He is equating Himself directly with God. He says that only He knows where He is going or where He is from; that He has the authority to judge as God judges; and that because He is God in Son, Spirit and Father, He can bear witness unto Himself. No one else could make such a claim, and back it up, then or now.

Jesus said all of this and no one laid a hand on Him, even though He was in the Temple complex, out in the open with nowhere to hide.

I believe that the authorities were literally awestruck by His presence, and by His words, stripped of their capacity to respond.

This is what we mean when we say, “Our God is an awesome God.”