John 3:16-21 (NASB)
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”
Here, in perhaps the most famous verse of the Bible, we read about the truest meaning of the word love. Today is the 4th Sunday of Advent and the word for today is love. Love is a word that gets thrown around a lot. In some ways, it has lost its meaning. I’ve often wished that the English language had different words for love, the same way that the Greek language does. This word for love in this passage is ēgapēsen, and it is a form of the Greek word agape. Dictionary.com states, “Agape is often defined as unconditional, sacrificial love. Agape is the kind of love that is felt by a person willing to do anything for another, including sacrificing themselves, without expecting anything in return. Philosophically, agape has also been defined as the selfless love that a person feels for strangers and humanity as a whole. Agape is the love that allows heroic people to sacrifice themselves to save strangers they have never met” (https://www.dictionary.com/e/greek-words-for-love/).
That definition definitely describes the sacrificial love that motivated God. God didn’t just like the world, or prefer the world, or put up with the world. God loved the world. He looked at the world and He loved it. This word is so significant, not only for what love means, but look at the tense of the word in this first verse. It doesn’t say, ‘loves,’ it says “loved.” Is that important? I think so. If that word was ‘loves,’ then it would read differently. Some people have interpreted this verse to mean that God loves the world so much He will save everybody. They take this verse to mean that when Jesus died on the cross, He purchased salvation for all people at all times and therefore, universally, we are all saved for God loves the world unconditionally and no one will go to hell.
This is in sharp contrast to another segment of people who think that only those who are predestined will be saved. They think God only loves the predestined and sends all those not predestined to hell. This verse also directly contradicts that idea as well.
What is Jesus saying here? He is saying that it was an act of love for God to send His Son to earth. God loved the world in that moment by sending Jesus. He did this so that anyone who would believe in Him could be saved. This means that any person who will believe may be saved. Jesus did not say that God so loved that world, that He gave His only Son, so that only those who are predestined will not perish, but have eternal life. No, He said, “so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”
It is so important to rightly understand this concept. We have a wrong understanding of God and His Word if we take this verse to mean that all people are saved, or if we think it means that only the predestined are saved. Jesus is saying, all people who will believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God’s act of love makes this salvation available to all who would believe.
Some people still don’t understand how a God who is love could #1, send His son to die and #2, exclude any people from heaven. Jesus goes on to answer both of those objections.
Jesus says, “17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. 18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil.”
These three verses following John 3:16 are so important, yet most people haven’t memorized these verses. We stop at verse 16 and think that’s the whole story, but verses 17, 18, 19 explain why verse 16 is so amazing. Jesus says that God did not send Him into the world to judge the world in the sense that He didn’t come into the world to send some people to heaven and some people to hell. He came into the world, was born as a baby, suffered on the cross and died, “so that the world might be saved through Him.” He did this so that the whole world could be saved.
Think of what His death on the cross did. Acts 20:28 says that He purchased our salvation with His own blood. No longer would people need to make animal sacrifices for sin. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice and now, we receive forgiveness of sin through Him. This is how He saved the world. He opened the door for all people to come to Him.
In a lot of the Old Testament, the language is directed to the Israelites. They are God’s chosen people. The covenant that God established with Moses is for the people of Israel. They were to follow God and be His people and through their obedience to Him, He would bless them and they would be an example of God’s goodness to the rest of the world. We see that some people who were not Israelites came to faith in God, but mostly, God is addressing the decedents of Abraham. But in the prophecies about His birth, and right away in the text describing Jesus’ birth, we see that God’s plan all along was to open the door to salvation to all people.
As Isaiah spoke for God, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 43:22). Jesus, the light who would shine into the dark world, He was to be a light for all people. A light that would shine into all the ends of the earth. Jesus is exactly as Simeon prophesied when he held baby Jesus in his arms and said, “for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32).
This “light for revelation to the Gentiles” means that Jesus would be a light for revelation to the whole world. That means that all people who would believe in Jesus can be saved. Jesus didn’t come into the world to judge the world, but to offer the whole world salvation, if they will believe in Him.
Then Jesus continues, “18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” This verse is so important, for Jesus is giving us the answer to those two objections that many people have.
God is not ‘sending’ people to hell. Rather, people are unfit for heaven. The Bible tells us, and simple observation proves to us, that all people have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In other words, all people have sinned and therefore cannot be welcomed into God’s holy presence.
In his book, More than a Carpenter, author Josh McDowell says:
“How can a loving God allow anyone to go to hell?” I often turn the question around and ask, “How can a holy, just, and righteous God allow a sinful person into his presence?” Most people understand God to be a loving God, but they don’t go any further. He is not only a God of love but also a God who is righteous, just, and holy. He cannot tolerate sin in his heaven any more than you would tolerate a filthy, foul-smelling, diseased dog to live in your home. [1]
None of us, by ourselves, are worthy of being in the presence of God. Jesus came to earth and died and rose again in order to make a way for us to be made holy. It’s not that He is sending people to hell, He is rescuing people from hell. That’s not an issue of semantics. That’s a monumental difference. People sin, and God, because He is holy and just, must punish sin. Jesus’ death took that punishment for us. He paid the price we owed. All we must do is repent of our sin and receive the forgiveness He offers us.
If only all people would accept this gift of salvation! If only all people would repent and come to faith in Jesus. But not all people want to be saved. Some people do not want to repent and find forgiveness. They don’t want to walk in the light; they want to stay in darkness. Some people do not mind if the filthy, foul-smelling, diseased dog lives in their home. They embrace it.
Jesus says in verse 19, “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil.” Using the metaphor Josh McDowell uses, these people aren’t worried about trying to get rid of or even clean up and heal this diseased dog. They let it sleep in their beds and eat from their dishes. They want to stay with the fleas. They could give this metaphorical dog to Jesus and He could heal them. He could wash them and make them clean. Jesus says they don’t want to do this because they love the darkness. They don’t want to go to Jesus.
What more can God do? He is not condemning people to darkness, some people want to be there. They want sin more than they want salvation. God, in His great love for all people, did all that He can. He gave us His only Son, who came to this earth, became one of us, suffered and died on the cross for us, all so we can live forever with Him.
Verse 20 continues, “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.” Despite all that God has done for us, some people don’t want to come into the Light and discover that they need forgiving. They are happy to be with their sin, under cover of darkness. I think they’ve become so used to living the way they do they don’t even realize the sin around them.
Have you ever taken a black-light flashlight and gone around your house with it? Living in the desert, we get scorpions in our house and under a black-light they glow. Pretty regularly, we go around the house and search for scorpions. I consider my family a very clean family. With lots of pets and three kids, we vacuum every single day. Yet, that flashlight shows just how dirty everything actually is still. It’s really gross. It reveals all the over-looked spots that the vacuum misses. It shows the areas that didn’t get scrubbed. All the dark, hard to reach spots become illuminated. It’s really helpful. The dirt gets exposed.
When we “come into the Light” our deeds get exposed. This is something that we don’t need to fear. This is something we should rejoice in. It means that those areas can then be forgiven and cleaned. Sin is like a toxic mold that needs to be rooted out. If it is left alone, it will keep growing and growing, infecting everything around it.
When Jesus came to earth, He became for us the Light that uncovers our sin, and He also became the cure for our sin. He took all that sin upon Himself and nailed it to the cross. This is love of the most profound kind. God didn’t have to do any of this for us. But He chose to do this for us. This Light has come into the world to bring us out of darkness. If we will just walk in the Light, we will find hope, peace, joy and love. This Christmas time when we celebrate Jesus’ birthday here on earth, we are celebrating this Light who was given for us to bring us out of the darkness into the wonderful presence of God. As the ESV translation states in John 3:17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Again, I want to emphasize, the world is already condemned, but Jesus made a way out of that condemnation and gives us absolution. By offering us forgiveness of sins, He pardons our sin and pronounces us holy.
Once holy, we now are free to follow Jesus and obey His word. Which leads us to the last verse of this passage which says, “21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.” For those of us who are following the Lord, we don’t have to hide or be afraid of the light. In fact, we want the light to shine on us, so the deeds we are doing will shine for God’s glory.
Just like the shepherds from last week’s sermon discovered, when the Light of God shines on us, we are filled with joy. We should welcome God’s light and rejoice in it.
These past few weeks, we’ve been looking a lot at this metaphor of Jesus being the Light. It is as John 8:12 says, “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’”
This is why so much of the world celebrates Christmas. We are celebrating the Light who came into the world. We are celebrating the arrival of the Son of God. Christmas is the celebration of the moment when God fulfilled His promise to send us a Savior. This is why we hang up lights, decorate trees and light candles. We are proclaiming the arrival of Jesus, the Light of the world.
By giving us Jesus, God has brought peace and mercy to the earth by reconciling God and sinful humankind. This is the greatest gift that God could give us. This is love. Jesus said in John 15:3, “Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.” This is exactly what Jesus did. When we speak of Christmas, we must also speak of what this baby, whose birthday we celebrate, did for us. If we don’t, then I’m afraid Christmas loses its meaning.
The lyrics to the Christmas carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, perfectly capture this truth:
Hark, the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With angelic host proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark! The herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!
Indeed, let us proclaim: glory to the newborn King! Glory to God! Let us shine the light of this message of love to the whole world: the Savior has come to reconcile us to God. And He brings peace, hope, joy and love to all who would believe in Him. This is the greatest message of love the world has ever known!
Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for sending us Your Son to earth, to live among us, to suffer and die for us, so that all who believe in Jesus can spend eternity with You. Please help us, by Your Holy Spirit, to share this message of love with the whole world. We love You and praise Your name, amen.
[1] McDowell, Josh. More than a Carpenter. Tyndale House, Wheaton, Illinois, 2009, p.152.
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