John uses 'true' here, something he will do again. Jesus is the true light. What is the 'not true' light? Possibility: Israel as God's light to the world. In some sense, Jesus is the reality of which something else was the shadow, the picture. Thus, Jesus is the 'true bread' [John 6] and the manna the shadow [Exodus 16], the 'true vine' [John 15] and Israel the shadow [Isaiah 5]. Jesus is the fulfillment of those OT things that pointed to Him: type/antitype. This re-enforces the idea of the OT as prefiguring Jesus in lots of different ways.
This also hints at how God's natural revelation [light, bread, vines] can be viewed in ways that point to aspects of who Jesus is and help us to understand Him better. So, Jesus as light overcomes the darkness that is not only in us but also around us. As the bread from heaven, He feeds our souls so that we flourish. We are branches in Him, the vine, and as such His life [the sap] is our life.
Bottom line: we look for pictures of Jesus both in the Bible and [guided by Scripture] in nature and thus we grow not only in our understanding of Him but also in our enjoyment of Him.
This also hints at how God's natural revelation [light, bread, vines] can be viewed in ways that point to aspects of who Jesus is and help us to understand Him better. So, Jesus as light overcomes the darkness that is not only in us but also around us. As the bread from heaven, He feeds our souls so that we flourish. We are branches in Him, the vine, and as such His life [the sap] is our life.
Bottom line: we look for pictures of Jesus both in the Bible and [guided by Scripture] in nature and thus we grow not only in our understanding of Him but also in our enjoyment of Him.
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