Relative to those who may not have heard the gospel, in what sense may we understand John 1:9? In what sense has the light come to every man?

This text is from a transcript of talk given by David Gooding entitled ‘The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God’ (1995).

There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world. (John 1:9)

John chapter 1 tells us of the Word that was with God already in the beginning, and was God. It adds that 'all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made'. To explain that further it says: 'In him was life; and that life was the light of men' (John 1:4).

In him was life—what does it mean? It doesn't mean simply that he was alive. We are alive but we are not a source of life. When this verse says 'in him was life', it is explaining and elaborating on the fact that all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. If you observe the vast variety of the created universe and all the kinds of life that are there—giraffes and centipedes, angels and men and orangutans and things, and you say, 'Where did he get the life from to make all these things?' Well, he didn't get it from anywhere! He is the source of life—'In him was life'. And (permit the translation that the Greek allows here): 'In him was life and that life was the light of men'. What life? The life we have just been talking about! If you want to know the meaning of the created world around you, you must trace it back to its source.

Life is one of those things; it is like light. Imagine you are walking along a dark road in the middle of the country when suddenly through the hedge a beam of light appears across your path. Your friend says to you, 'Where did that light come from?' And you say, 'Don't be silly; it doesn't come from anywhere!' I think he might call for a psychiatrist! Light doesn't come out of nowhere; it has to have a source. We have a universe teeming with life: it is a light to mankind, demanding that we seek the source of this light. That evidence is open to all mankind. Romans 1:20 says that the fact that the creation offers us evidence about God is not an accident. God has arranged it so, revealing himself—his Godhood and power through the things that are seen in order that his creatures may be without excuse if they reject that knowledge and go off into idolatry.

In what sense does the light lighten every man? First of all: that light, who in creation gave evidence to all mankind, eventually came into our world (see John 1:10, 14). So all men have evidence; they have light. Romans 2:15 argues that they have the light of conscience.

Now let me point you to what Romans 3:25 says in great precision: 'God passed over the sins done aforetime'. It means the sins done by men and women who lived before Christ was born into our world. Jews, for instance, and others who sinned, when they did what they were told and repented and brought a sacrifice, they were forgiven, says Leviticus. But their sacrifices didn't pay for their forgiveness. So their sins were not paid for—'passed over'—until Christ came and died and paid the price of the forgiveness that God had given those early people. This made it apparent that God was just in passing over the sins that had been done, and which he had forgiven even before Christ came into the world. He was just in doing so because now when Christ came he paid the penalty and paid for the forgiveness that God had given in times past.

Now the people who lived in those times past—even the Israelites, let alone the Gentiles—hadn't heard of Jesus. Nobody knew that the Saviour was going to be called Jesus until the angel informed Joseph of the matter. So, not knowing about Jesus, yet in repentance and faith, and believing what God had revealed to them, they were forgiven. Now at this time that Jesus has come and offered his sacrifice, God is seen to be just in justifying 'him who believes in . . .' Ah, not just like Abraham—Abraham 'believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness' (Romans 4:3). God is now just in justifying 'him that believes in Jesus' (Romans 3:26). Notice the human name: they couldn't possibly have believed in Jesus until Jesus had been born and named. So at this present time those who believe in Jesus are justified.

What then of those who still have never heard of Jesus? I am for missionary work, but I am bound to upset some of my missionary friends, and I beg their forgiveness! I hold that God will never condemn anybody for not believing what they never heard, or for not seeing what they couldn't see. Old Testament folks and many folks still today have evidence. They will be judged according to the light they have—not the light they don't have. Our Lord himself said (and I elaborated on this in the seminars), 'If I had not come and spoken to them, and done miracles in front of their very eyes that no one else had ever done, they would not have sin'—they would not have been blamed for not believing what they had never been told and never had seen (cf John 15:22). But of these particular people he says, 'Now they have seen, of course.' That alters the case completely.