John 1:9

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

The light of the sun changes to heat energy, also into the energy of oil, and to electrical energy; because of this it may be said to be destructible (mi rtag-pa). But the true light that came into the world 2000 years ago is the Messiah Yeshu Christ (1) Himself.

He not only had good character, but came to give men through His indestructible (rtag-pa) decree complete character, hope and the spread of happiness.

[1. Messiah and Christ have the same meaning, i.e. anointed one.]

John 1:10-11

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 Word, the Lord who had created the world, came down and became a mere babe in an ordinary home in Israel; and His mother called him Yeshu, which means Saviour in the Israeli language.

Being an ordinary villager, His fellow countrymen and even his own younger brothers and sisters did not want to recognize Him as being God’s Son.

Because their rejection of Him would cause them suffering in hell, it made Yeshu sad.

John 1:12-13

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

What a privilege! Believers are given spiritual rebirth in this lifetime.

For obtaining new birth the power of one’s own thought is not the key. A person cannot give birth to himself! The power of other persons cannot be the cause; not even the energy of a lama.

It is through belief alone that new birth comes as a gift from the very hand of God.

John 1:6

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

Who was this messenger called John?

In the past there had been prophets who spoke to the people of Israel (1), because it was this nation that God had chosen through whom to reveal Himself by the mouth of messengers. Treasures-for-revealing were given by the Spirit of Purity to these special messengers, and of them John The Water-Anointing Man (John The Baptist) was the last and greatest (2).

What did John say?

His prophecy was the last revealed treasure. He said, “Mashiga (The Messiah) has arrived. So, repent  and believe the gospel.”

[1. God did not choose India, Russia, Britain. He chose the little West Asian nation Israel. Why was this? Were Israel’s people better? Alas they were not!

2. This John was a different man from John the Gospel-Writer.  John was a common name in Israel.]

John 1:7-8

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Two thousand years ago the nation of Israel had been crushed by the heel of the invading Roman army. Villages had burned. Crops were stolen. By sword and club men were forced to work; others hid in the mountains. At such a time how much were light and hope needed!

“See,” said John, “the light has come!” Light? what light?As the prophet of old had written, ‘Formerly  there  was  gloom;  but  in  future  a great light will  dawn.  In  the  past  there  was  sadness;  but  just  as  there  is happiness  after  a bumper  harvest,  so  joy  will  bubble  over.’

Because people knew this prophecy, John was encouraging their faith by this means. He himself was not that light, but he was giving advance notice of another person.

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

At the first there was One Who spoke. He commanded, and – yes – it was so. He commanded that things animate and inanimate be given existence.

“Let them become.” And so they came into being. The Word of Command lived alongside the Rarest and Best, for the Word too was God Himself.

It is not possible for a powerful command to come without some great person giving it. Messengers and ambassadors, party secretaries and generals travel swiftly with the decrees of the Chairman or President. The letter, the email, the voice of authority is the very voice of the person who first spoke it.  It is as though they are the same.

John 1:2

He was in the beginning with God.

 Not only does the Word live in God’s presence; but, because He came down, there was a beginning.

John 1:3

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Just as the tractor’s wheels will not turn until the starting key is switched on, so the cycles of existence would not have turned unless they had first been commanded.

No gravity except by Him; no gelogical eras, no sequence of winter and summer, no soil formed from the rocks and by weather, no plant that grows from the seed, no birth of animate being, no consequence of sin; nothing whatever can either be or happen except by the ‘seed-cause’ of the Word.

John 1:4

In him was life, and the life was the life of men,

As the pure light of the rising sun chases away the dark shadows from the hills, turns the fields green and makes the waters sparkle, so Yeshu Mashiga ignites a light that never dies.

His light is the dawn of a new kind of day, the start of a new abundant life for mankind.

John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

As the sun rises the many shadows cannot remain, but flee for hiding into the valleys and caves.

What an excellent sun! This sun does not set, but shines on and on. There is no evening darkness creeping back slowly from dark corners to take its brightness prisoner, but the world stays lit up in a flood of glorious light.

What of darkness meanwhile?  It can only make hide-aways in black robbers’ dens as it were, and finds no way to steal forth and overpower the good and true light.