The believers may enjoy Christ as the life essence through His death and resurrection; that is, they may enjoy Him as the life essence released through His death and dispensed through His resurrection. The Lord, as a grain of wheat falling into the ground, lost His soul-life through death that He might release His eternal life in resurrection to the many grains. As the many grains, we also must lose our soul-life through death (v. 25) that we may enjoy the eternal life in resurrection. To lose our soul-life is to follow Him that we may serve Him and walk with Him on this way, the way of losing the soul-life and living in His resurrection. This is indicated by the Lord’s word to the disciples in verse 26a, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also My servant will be.” Thus, we need to pray, “Lord, grant me the grace to be willing to die. Lord, I want to follow You. You said that wherever You are, there will Your servants be. Lord, since You are in death, we must be in death also.”
One difference between Christ as the one grain and us as the many is that He was willing to fall into the ground, but we are not. Instead of falling into the ground to die, we like to be uplifted. However, if we are lifted up, there will be no multiplication. The only way for a grain to multiply is to fall into the ground and die. Otherwise, it will remain alone, perhaps in a high place. All genuine Christians are grains, but not many are willing to fall into the ground and die. There might be a huge crowd, but there might be very little life because few are willing to experience the death of Christ. Since nearly everyone is unwilling to die and prefers to receive glory, no life is imparted into others. It is easy to have a crowd but difficult to impart life into others. To do this, we need to die. In the Lord’s recovery we do not need a crowd; we need the death that releases life. We need to experience this aspect of Christ’s death.
The Lord’s death not only releases the divine life but also multiplies it. The shortage of life among the believers is due to the fact that we have not died enough to minister life to one another. Life comes out of death. The divine life is within us, but how much this life is multiplied depends upon how much death we undergo. The more death we experience, the more life will be released from us. Only death can bring about the multiplication of the divine life; power cannot do it. Today’s Christians devote their attention to power instead of to life. But only the death of Christ can multiply life. He is the unique grain of wheat, and we are the many grains of wheat. In our function we should be the same as Christ for His multiplication. Hence, we need to enjoy Christ as the grain of wheat by experiencing His life-releasing death for the multiplication of the divine life.
In verses 35, 36, and 46, we see that Christ is the light. In verses 35 and 36, the Lord Jesus said to the crowd, “The light is still among you a little while. Walk while you have the light so that darkness may not overcome you; and he who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe into the light, so that you may become sons of light.” In verse 46, the Lord then said of Himself, “I have come as a light into the world, that every one who believes into Me would not remain in darkness.” This indicates that the Lord Jesus came to this world as the shining light that man might not remain in darkness. Christ is the manifestation of God as light, and if people receive Him as light, they will have God. If a man believes into Him, he will not remain in darkness. However, if a man refuses to receive Him as light, he simply rejects God and will be overcome by darkness. Christ comes as light. If a man receives Him, he will have God and will become one of the sons of light, the children of God. Here the Lord was making a declaration to the religious crowd that He is the manifestation of God coming to them as light. If they receive Him, they will become sons of light, and if they do not receive Him, they will be overcome by darkness. Christ is the light into whom we believe, that we may become sons of light who do not remain in darkness and are not overcome by darkness.