<p>8:12 <i>Again Jesus spoke to the crowd, saying: I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in the darkness but shall have the light of life</i>- The Lord's subsequent teaching in this chapter is allusive to the incident with the woman taken in adultery, so I would not be supportive of any attempt to exclude that section as uninspired. &quot;I am the light of the world&quot; alludes back to the prologue; the life the Lord lived is to be our light, which we live by and understand life according to. Hence here we read of the &quot;light of life&quot;. Life lived any other way is lived in darkness. John's letters develop the thought in practice by saying that if we live in hatred towards our brother, we walk in darkness. Such a hateful life is lived because the heart is focused upon the life of Jesus, His Spirit, His life, doesn't live within us. Having the light of life may be another way of saying what we read in Mt. 5:14: &quot;You are the light of the world&quot;. In His light we become light to others.</p><p>The teaching of Jesus was very much centred around Himself. Other religious teachers tend to say &lsquo;This is the truth, these are the ideas I have put together: follow them&rsquo;. But Jesus says: &ldquo;I am the truth; follow <i>me</i>&rdquo;. His formula was not &ldquo;Thus saith the Lord&rdquo;, but rather &ldquo;Truly, truly <i>I </i>say unto you&hellip;&rdquo;. The personal pronoun forces itself upon our attention as we read His words:<br />&ldquo;I am the bread of life; he who comes to <i>me</i> shall not hunger&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;I am the light of the world; he who follows <i>me&hellip;</i>&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;I am the resurrection and the life&hellip; whoever lives and believes in me shall never die&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;I am the way and the truth&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Come to <i>me</i> &hellip; learn of <i>me</i>&rdquo;.<br />He called people to Himself- to come to Him, learn of Him, follow Him. He knew, too, that the example and achievement of His death would exert a certain magnetism upon men and women: &ldquo;I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself&rdquo;. He is drawing them not primarily to a church, to a statement of faith, to a &lsquo;truth&rsquo;&hellip;but to Himself.</p><p>The &ldquo;light&quot; was a lifted up torch of fire, exactly as He was to be lifted up on the cross (see on Jn. 3:19-21). But He saw Himself as there and then lifted up as the light of the world. The principles of the cross must be the light, the only light, of our lives. When the Lord speaks of Himself as the light / burning torch of the Jewish world, He continues: &ldquo;He that follows me shall not walk in darkness&quot; (Jn. 8:12). Nobody follows the sun when they walk- so the &ldquo;light&quot; referred to is hardly the sun. Surely the reference is back to the fiery pillar in the wilderness, which gave light by night so that the Jews could walk in the light even when darkness surrounded them. And there's an upward spiral in all this. If &quot;the light&quot; is specifically a reference to God's glory manifested through the crucifixion, then this must provide the background for our understanding of Jn. 12:35-50. Here the Lord teaches that only those who walk in the light can perceive who He really is, and &quot;the work&quot; which was to be &quot;finished&quot; on the cross. It is the light of the cross which reveals to us the essence of who the Lord really is... and this in turn leads us to a keener perception of the light of the cross. Which in turn enables us to see clearer the path in which we are to daily walk.</p><p>Is. 42:16, amidst many exodus / Red Sea allusions, speaks of how God makes the darkness light before His exiting people. The many Johannine references to the Lord Jesus being a light in the darkness for His followers would then be yet more elaborations of the idea that the Lord Jesus is the antitype of the Angel that led Israel out of Egypt (Jn. 8:12; 12:35,46)<br />The light of the Gospel is not just light which we behold and admire for its beauty; it is a light which by its very nature opens the eyes of blind people (Jn. 8:12)</p><p>Many passages in John speak of the believer as being in a state of constant spiritual strength; e.g. &quot;he that followeth me shall never (Gk.) walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life&quot; (Jn. 8:12). These kind of passages surely teach that God does not see us on the basis of our individual sins or acts of righteousness; He sees our overall path in life, and thereby sees us as totally righteous or totally evil. Thus Proverbs contains many verses which give two alternative ways of behaviour, good and evil; there is no third way. Thus, e.g., we <i>either</i> guard our tongue, <i>or </i>we speak rashly (Prov. 13:3). At baptism, we changed masters, from 'sin' to 'obedience'. It may seem that we flick back and forth between them. In a sense, we do, but from God's perspective (and Rom. 6:16-20 describes how <i>God</i> sees our baptism), we don't. The recurring weakness of natural Israel was to serve Yahweh <i>and</i> the idols (1 Sam. 7:3; 2 Kings 17:41; Zeph. 1:5).</p>