“
John 3:16-21
John 3:19-21 (The Message): This is
the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women
everywhere ran for the darkness. They
went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil,
addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it,
fearing a painful exposure. But anyone
working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be
seen for the God-work it is.
[Prayer]
“God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son. [He] did not send
the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might
be saved through him.”
“And this is why:” reads The Message, “so
that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and
lasting life. God didn’t go to all the
trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the
world how bad it was. He came to help,
to put the world right again.”
God so loved – the
world. Jesus came not to condemn – the world. He came to help put – the world – right again. He
came that – the world – might be
saved through him. Furthermore, he came
that – no one – need be
destroyed. Believing in him – anyone – can have a whole and lasting
life.
God so loved… Jesus came not to condemn… he came to
help put right again, what? The world
and everyone in it. He came that no one
need be destroyed; he came that anyone could have eternal life. He came that any- and everybody might be
saved. He came to condemn no one.
Everyone, anyone, no one: those are extremely
inclusive terms. “The world” is an
exclusive phrase. God so loved the
world… God sent his only Son… that whosoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life. God’s love for us
is all-inclusive. His saving love is
universal, unlimited in scope. We are
all objects of his love. His ultimate
will for us is not destruction.
God loves us all, and his love is such that
Does everyone choose to do so? No.
God does not impose his love upon us.
It is something freely offered.
While some accept it gladly, others run as far away from it as they
possibly can. In Jesus Christ God offers
everybody an opportunity to walk in his healing, cleansing light. The opportunity is there for the taking, but
some folks just don’t want it.
Why? What does
the text say? One, that such folks have
no interest in pleasing God. Two, that
such folks fear an exposure to the light because they know that it’s going to
be painful.
When we step out into the light of Christ we are
stepping onto a stage where there is absolutely nowhere to hide. All our sins are found out. All our dirty little secrets are
divulged. Everything about us that is
ungodly and inhuman is brought to light.
In the light of Christ we are spiritually and emotionally undressed; we
stand naked before the throne of God’s judgment.
That’s scary.
None of us likes having the hard truths about our lives exposed. None of us wants to be confronted with our
moral and ethical failings. None of us –
as if we really have a choice - want God to see us for who and what we really
are. That’s the bad news.
Now, here’s the good.
The throne of judgment is also a throne of grace. Once the light of Christ breaks through the
ugliest parts of who we are, some good things are brought to light. Finally we begin to see ourselves as God sees
us, as he created us to be. Finally
we’re open to the healing, saving, and transforming love of Jesus. From the perspective of the light we can
finally see how dark the world really is.
From that perspective we can finally know exactly what it is that we no
longer want to be.
In the light there is both judgment and grace. In the light we come to understand that God
is never content to act only in judgment.
He so loved the world… that he gave his only Son… for everybody… for
anybody… for you… and for me.
God’s judgment and God’s grace: they are both found
in the light. We love hearing about
grace. We can do without a whole lot of
that judgment stuff. But the irony is
that we bring judgment upon ourselves.
Just as God does not impose his grace on us, he also does not impose his
judgment on us.
Confronted with Jesus, some step into the light,
letting go of any and all pretenses of perfection. Others so confronted – and in one way or
another, we’re all confronted with the truth of Christ – prefer to hide in the
darkness, practicing their wicked ways even as they deny their own
wickedness. They don’t want light. They don’t want healing. They don’t want salvation. They don’t want to obey God and follow Jesus.
Thus they bring judgment upon themselves. Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 19 in terms
of crisis. There is an inevitable crisis
when one is confronted by Jesus. There
is no neutrality here. Either one says
yes to Jesus or one says no. Either one
chooses the light or one chooses the darkness.
There is no middle ground. You’re
either in or you’re out.
By saying no to Jesus and opting out of the kingdom, by
deciding in favor of darkness instead of light, a person brings judgment upon
himself. There in the darkness he takes
the easy way out. Transformation from sinner
to saint is painful. It’s easier to
simply not change, to stay in one’s comfort zone. In that zone no one has to be brought face to
face with the awful truth about oneself.
There is a high price to be paid for that choice. The price is hell, a state of absolute
estrangement from God - a place of utter darkness, where one is totally forsaken
by God. An even higher price is the
eternal separation from all that is good: grace, love, health, wholeness,
truth, beauty, and glory. In the end, the
real punishment of hell isn’t the badness that one receives but the goodness
that one misses.
You may have noticed by now that John 3:16-21 is heavy
on free will, human choice, and the universality of God’s grace. Good old Presbyterian themes like limited atonement,
irresistible grace, and whatnot aren't all that obvious. The classic notion of predestination doesn’t
seem to be one of
The Presbyterian preacher’s temptation is to work
real hard to make the text better fit the historic confessions and creeds of
the church. But that’s not the preacher’s
job. The preacher’s job is to let the
text speak for itself, to let it say what it says, rather than something he
wants it to say.
And what the text says is that’s God’s love is
universal, and that his ultimate will is not the condemnation of anyone but the
salvation of everyone. What the text
says is that some will opt for darkness instead of light. Some will believe in Jesus. Some won’t.
Reality is that some do and some don’t. This reality is encompassed by the greater
reality of God’s sovereignty and omniscience.
God’s Spirit moves when, where, and as he will. Where all of that impacts the individual out
there in eternity is beyond the scope of today’s text. In truth it’s beyond all human comprehension. God does what God does. Ultimately our only legitimate response is to
glorify God and enjoy him forever. So
says the shorter catechism.
But know this: God didn’t have to send his Son. God didn’t have to provide us with
options. God didn’t have to make heaven
available to any of us or deliver any of us from hell.
But God, in all his loving graciousness, did send his
Son Jesus so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting
life. He did become incarnate in the
person of Jesus, humbling himself and becoming obedient unto death – even death
on a cross. Through the process of those
mysteries we call incarnation, atonement, and resurrection God did make
salvation a possibility for those who believe the truth of the Gospel.
Historic Calvinism says that only those whom God
predestined before the foundation of the world will so believe. Neo-orthodoxy, the stuff on which this
preacher cut his theological teeth, and as represented by Twentieth Century
Reformed theologian Karl Barth interprets this predestination in more flexible
and universalistic terms. But at the end
of the day it still comes down not to our choice, but to God’s. He so
loved the world that he chose
to send his only begotten Son. And aren’t
we glad he did? Amen.