Last time we considered John
3:1-15, in which we find a dialogue between Jesus and a
Pharisee named Nicodemus.
Nicodemus is
one of those who has seen the signs that Jesus was doing (2:23). He has seen something in Jesus, but not enough to make him
believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Word of God, the Creator of all
things (John 3:1-3). To Nicodemus,
Jesus simply is ‘a teacher
come from God’ (3:2), and isn’t that the way many
people have looked and are looking at
Jesus Christ? The gospel of John
challenges us to look further than
just an enlightened teacher or a miracle worker. In this conversation Jesus essentially
challenges Nicodemus to look further,
but not with human eyes. In order to see
and enter the kingdom of God (3:3,5),
to understand who Jesus is, one needs to be born again. This will enable one to see and enter the
kingdom of God (3:3,5). Jesus invites
Nicodemus to look to Him
and believe in Him, who in due course
was going to lifted on a cross (3:12-15).
We have every reason to believe that in due time Nicodemus was
born again. We have two more encouraging references to Nicodemus in the gospel
of John. In John 7:50-51, we find Nicodemus defending Jesus
against a group of Pharisees who wanted to arrest Him unlawfully. Later in John
19:39, after Jesus had been crucified, Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea
in giving Jesus a traditional Jewish burial. Nicodemus “brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds” (John 19:39). All this suggests that this
encounter which Jesus had with Nicodemus in this 3rd chapter was
indeed a life changing encounter.
John 3:16-21
Our text follows from where we last finished.
Jesus invites Nicodemus to believe in Him, the Son of Man[1],
one of Jesus’ favourite self -designations.
John 3:16 is the most famous and
most quoted verse in the Bible.
There is some debate as to whether vv.16-21
is the continuing conversation of Jesus, or
whether this is the commentary of John. It seems most likely
that vv. 16-21 are John’s added comments. The reason why we say this is that in 3:16,
the phrase ‘God gave his only Son’
(a reference to the cross) is stated in
the past tense[2]. Whatever
the case may be, these are the
words inspired by the Holy Spirit. This
is what the Holy Spirit caused John to
write down. And here we learn
about
(i) the amazing reason as to why God
sent Jesus into this world
(ii) the amazing disbelief of the world.
We close with a
summary of the gospel – what it means to believe in Jesus and the consequences thereof , and what happens if we do not
believe.
1. God’s love for this
sinful world
a. An extensive,
inclusive love:
John 3:16 is a radical
statement from every point of view. From a Jewish perspective this would have been radical. If John had written, “For God so loved the Jews”,
this would have been entirely acceptable. The Jews prided themselves in being God’s
chosen, specially loved people[3].
In the course of the Exodus from Egypt and through the desert, His special love
for them is evident. Even when they were sinning, God remained faithful to
them. The reference in 3:14 is a
point in case. God sent a plague of
biting vipers among them. He made a way for them- a bronze serpent- to which
they only needed to look and be healed. But
when John writes, “God so loved the
world“, this statement comes with a new force. God loves the whole
world. The love of God now also
includes the gentiles. The thought that Yahweh, the God of their covenant, could love the whole world would have
disturbed the average
Jew.
b. A surprising love: John’s usage of the word ‘world’ is
usually a negative one (see the ‘world’ mentioned 3 times in our text).
He sees the world as being sinful and hostile[4].
This is what we read in 1:9-11. The doctrine of the surprising love of God for the world (Jew and gentile) comes against the background that
the whole world is
actually hostile to the God, and
yet the Gospel of John teaches us that the
Gospel (the Good News) is for the whole
world. This raises the age old question,
“If God loves the world, then why does He
not save everyone?” In order to answer this, we need to understand
the various ways in which God loves this world.
Baptist theologian Don Carson wrote
a book on this subject entitled,”The
Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God” [5].
Here he explains that the Bible speaks
of the love of God in at least five ways:
i. The unique love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son
for the Father (Jn. 3:35; 5:20; 14:31).
ii.
God’s providential love for all that He has
made. He cares and provides for all His creation.
iii.
God’s free offer of salvation for all in this fallen world (Jn. 3:16; Ezek. 33:11).
iv.
God’s particular love toward His elect (Deut. 7:7-8; 10:14-15; Mal. 1:2-3; Eph.
1:4-5; 5:25).
v. There is God’s conditional love toward His own
people, based on their obedience (Jn.
14:21; 15:10; Jude 21; Ex. 20:6; Ps. 103:9-11, 13, 17-18).
So, when we read the Bible with respect to the doctrine of
the love of God we need to determine what the text actually says. When we think
of the love of God in John 3:16 we need
to think in terms of point 3 and point 4. Christ is offered to the whole world, and in
that sense that Christ’s death was sufficient for all. God invites, commands
and desires all men to come to Him, and yet it is clear that no one will come
out of their own free will. The parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:12-24 illustrates this point.
Every man makes excuses, because every man’s will is bent on evil
(wait for 3:19 which refers back
to 1:9-11).
And so the love of God goes
further, and He freely chooses from among those who
resist Him and reject Him. And so we may say, according to point 4, that
Jesus died effectively for the elect alone. The doctrine of God’s particular love for the
sheep will be expounded in John 10. So, in summary John
teaches that Christ’s death is sufficient
for this world and many worlds over, but efficient only to the elect.
c. A gracious, generous
love (3:17). We are told that Jesus, in His first coming, came to seek and to save the lost (Lk. 19:10). His primary work right now
is not to condemn (judge) the world. This will happen at his second coming and
this is what Jesus refers to in John
9:39, Jesus says, “For judgment I
came into this world ….”
d. A reassuring love (3:18a) Whoever believes in him is not condemned cf. Rom
8:1 “ There is therefore now no condemnation for those that
are in Christ Jesus. If you have embraced the Lord Jesus, if you love Him
and if your hope is in Him then stand
assured in the love of God.
2. God’s wrath on those
who will not believe.
John not only exposes us to the wonderful love of God. He
also tells us of the awful consequences of rejecting
the gospel offer.
a.
Those who reject the free gospel offer
will “perish” (3:16) This is
an everlasting state –Perishing does not
mean that they will be annihilated or cease to exist. In Matthew 25:46, Jesus
says that some “will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” If eternal life lasts
forever, then so does eternal punishment. Jesus referred to it as the place
where “their worm does not die and the
fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).
If you ask whether the fire is literal or figurative, my reply is that it
doesn’t matter—you don’t want to find out personally! Jesus’ story of the rich
man and Lazarus makes it clear that hell is a place of awful torment (Lk 16:23-24).
b.
Not believing the free gospel
offer means ‘continuing in the state we are already in 3:18b-20. No-one is
neutral before God. By nature we are ‘condemned
already’. By nature we all love darkness rather than the light. Our evil
nature is drawn to darkness. We instinctively hate the light. We will not come
to the light lest the darkness of our hearts be exposed.
THE GOSPEL – WHAT THIS
TEXT TEACHES US
In practical terms, this means that we can tell unbelievers
that God loves them so much that He sent His only Son to die for their sins, if
only they will repent and believe in Christ- with eternal consequences (eternal life). At the same time we should warn them that if
they do not believe in Christ, they are under God’s righteous judgment and
wrath (Jn. 3:18, 36), with eternal
consequences (they will perish). And, since we know that none are willing to
repent and believe in Christ, unless God
grants it (John 6:44, 65; Acts 11:18),
we should be praying as we proclaim the gospel, that God would have mercy in opening blind eyes, deaf ears, converting hearts of
stone.
We must offer the gospel freely to everyone, but at the same
time that we must tell everyone also the bad news. The Good news becomes more meaningful and powerful as we hold before our listeners the facts of the bad news.
Both, verses 16 and 18 make it clear that
the crucial issue on our part is to believe in Jesus. Those who believe
have eternal life; those who do not believe are currently under God’s condemnation
and ultimately will perish.
What does it mean to
believe in Jesus?
Believing in “the name
of the only Son of God” (3:18)
means
·
believing
in all that He is and all that He came to do.
·
believing
in Jesus requires understanding who He is: Son of Man ( promised
Messiah) and Son of God (God the Son). He came from heaven as the Lamb of God, the One to whom all the
sacrifices point. Through His death and resurrection He offers eternal life to
all who will come. Based on that
knowledge (which we get from the Bible), believing in Jesus means to entrust
your eternal destiny to all that He did in dying for your sins on the cross. It
means that you must cease trusting in your own goodness or self-effort as the means
to get
to heaven.
A helpful illustration of believing, of exercising a saving faith
in Jesus is the
story of the famous French tightrope walker, Charles Blondin (born Jean François
Gravelet, 28 February 1824 – 22 February 1897)[6]. He became famous for crossing 340 meters of the Niagara Gorge, 50 metres high, on a tightrope. This he did on 30 June 1859, and a number of
times thereafter, often with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, trundling
a wheelbarrow, carrying a man (his manager, Harry Colcord) on his back, … The
point is this. If Harry Colcord
did not believe and trust Blondin,
he would never have gotten onto his back and walked across the Niagara
fall. Many saw and believed
what Blondin could do, but the fewest would dare to get on his back. In the same way, many say that they believe in
Jesus, but they have not entirely trusted Him, believed in Him for the journey that
lies ahead. Remember that we all have to cross that
final river some time. Dear unconverted friend, will you not take another look at Jesus, and ask the Holy Spirit to have mercy on
you? Ask Him in these words –Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief (Mark
9:24).
God will surely hear you!
[1] The
term ‘ Son of Man’ occurs 88 times in the NT ; Son of Man is as a reference to
the prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14,
[2] Leon
Morris, The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans], p. 228
[3]
Deut. 7:6-8; 10:14-15; Mal. 1:2-3
[4] 1:9,10;
7:7; 14:17; 15:18-19; 16:8, 20, 33; 17:6, 9, 14, 25; 1 John 5:19
[5] Published
by Crossway
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