In Him Was Life

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:1-5)

I think that these verses in St. John are best illustrated by the first few verses of the Bible in Genesis. Both of these passages start with the words, "In the beginning...," and tell the story of the world when it was fresh and new. To me, they also give an allegorical description of the human condition.

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." (Genesis 1:2a) For whatever reason - and theologians and scientists will debate this until the end - the earth was empty and without form before God began His work of regeneration in Genesis. Similarly, our lives outside of Christ were empty, and spiritual darkness covered over the depths of our being. There was no real purpose or form to our lives. We were lost, set adrift in the universe without an anchor.

"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2b) The Spirit of God then began to move in our lives, giving us hope, and giving us direction. When God's Spirit begins to move, glorious things happen. Miraculous things happen when God's Spirit moves.

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." (Genesis 1:3) When God spoke, His Word was revealed; and what He spoke, came to pass. He shed His light upon the world just as He sheds His light into our hearts so that we may know His will. After the light is revealed, God begins the work of creating order and beauty in our lives, just as He did in the beginning of the world.

The wonderful thing that separates our God from all those other gods that have been worshipped by man, is that our God speaks. He is not silent. It is His pleasure that we know Him and understand Him. It is like when we meet someone for the first time. Unless they speak, or express themselves in some form, we cannot know too much about them. The more they talk, however, the more we can understand who they are, and what they are like. God's Word is the expression of Who He is, and we know that God went one step further and placed His Word in flesh and blood, and allowed Him to walk among us. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) Jesus is the Word. He was in the beginning with God, and is God, and nothing was created without Him. In Him is life, and the life is the light of man.

In my own experience, it was not until the Spirit of God called me to Himself and revealed His Word to me that I could begin to comprehend Who He was, and what He expected of me. When He spoke to my heart, there was a bright light of spiritual understanding that turned on in my soul. I could finally see what I had been missing all my life up to that time. When I accepted Him, and simply received His great gift of redemption, I was born again, and He breathed His life into me.

In the beginning, man truly had it made. God created a beautiful world for man to live in. He planted a garden filled with all the things necessary to sustain life. Best of all, though, was the fellowship that man enjoyed with God. God Himself walked and talked with man, and man was innocent in his worship of his Maker.

God placed two trees in Eden that were very different from all of the other trees. They were the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat freely of all the trees of the garden with the exception of one: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of course, that was the one that they felt they just had to have. The serpent used his subtlety to beguile Eve into eating of the forbidden fruit, and then Adam ate as well.

God had told the couple that in the day that they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would die. No, they did not keel over on the spot, but they died in a spiritual sense by losing the relationship they had previously had with the Creator. When they sinned, they found a need to hide from God out of shame. Also, they lost access to the Tree of Life. They could have lived forever had they continued in obedience, but when they broke God's one commandment, death began to work on their bodies, and their days became numbered.

God knew from the beginning that man could not handle the knowledge of good and evil, but man had to learn it for himself. God will not violate the free will of man, even when that free will leads him down paths that are not to his best interest. He gives man a choice. Light and Life, or sin and death. Unfortunately, man often has to learn the hard way that he can't do it for himself before he will yield to God's true purpose. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:10-13)

In Jesus, the "Word Made Flesh," we are restored to the life and relationship with God that Adam and Eve lost in the beginning. We again can walk and talk with our Maker, and know His will for our lives. As the first couple were free to eat of all the fruits of the garden, we now find the fruit of the Spirit in abundance. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are now the characteristics that define our lives. The light of the truth also illuminates our pathway so that we no longer need to stumble in the darkness. Jesus Himself becomes a Tree of Life that breathes eternal life into our being and will ultimately preserve us for all eternity.

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." (Revelations 2:7)

"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." (Revelations 22:14)

"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4)