In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
— John 1:4

The apostle John, as some have pointed out, was an uneducated fisherman, and as such he uses a very simple vocabulary in his Gospel; and yet, the thought he conveys in his writing is often profound beyond human comprehension.

That is certainly the case in the verse above. A little while ago I was so struck by the phrase, “In Him was life.” How deep is John’s meaning with this simple statement!

John has already told us, in verse 1, that God was the Word who existed from eternity past, before anything else was. And as the Word, He surely desired to express Himself (See “In Him Was Life” • 1.)

Now, in this verse, we see how God desired to gain His expression: by imparting the divine, eternal, uncreated life that was within Him, in the very beginning, into another class of beings. In particular, He would impart this life into mankind, whom He would create for the very purpose of receiving this life, so that it would become “light” to them.

Thus, a few verses later, we read,

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
— John 1:12-13

So, as the believers in Christ, we are absolutely not God’s “adopted” children! Rather, we are the natural born, genuine “children of God,” as the apostle John tells us here, who share not only in God’s divine life, but also, along with that life, His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). And eventually, as this divine life and nature grows and develops within us, we will be fully conformed to the image of the glorified Christ; as a man, He will be the Firstborn Son of God, and we will be His many glorified brothers (Rom. 8:29-30), the many sons of God, expressing Him for all eternity.

Hallelujah for God’s marvelous purpose, to express Himself by giving us His own divine life and nature!

This is the ultimate purpose of God as revealed in the Bible.

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—  21 October 2025 —