Session 8: July 29, 2022
Scripture Reading: John 3:16-36
16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples came into Judean territory, and there he spent time with them and was baptizing. 23 John was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was plentiful there, and people were coming to him and being baptized. 24 (For John had not yet been thrown into prison.)
25 Now a dispute came about between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew concerning ceremonial washing. 26 So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, about whom you testified—see, he is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him!”
27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but rather, ‘I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete. 30 He must become more important while I become less important.”
31 The one who comes from above is superior to all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is superior to all. 32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 The one who has accepted his testimony has confirmed clearly that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he does not give the Spirit sparingly. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things under his authority. 36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him.
I. The Gospel in Three Chapters—A Brief Review
Bible commentaries outline the Gospel of John in different ways. For example, one commentary breaks the Gospel of John into the prologue (1:1-18) and into Jesus’ witness in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee (1:19-6:71). Not wishing to quibble over trifles, I would suggest a slightly different outline. I think that the first three chapters of John function as a concise, yet rich summary of the Gospel.
Chapter 1 explains who Christ is and his qualitative differences with creation:
(1) Jesus as a Person in the Trinity. Jesus is God and Jesus is with God.
(2) Jesus as Creator of All. All things were created by him.
(3) Creation is in Darkness. In Christ is life. He is the light. The light shines in the darkness—that is, the world. And the darkness did not “master” the light.
(4) Jesus as Man. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
(5) Jesus as Expiatory Sacrifice. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!
(6) Jesus the Giver of the Holy Spirit. He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
(7) Jesus as Messiah. “We have found the Messiah!” “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel!”
Chapter 2 explains that the old is passing away and the new is here.
(8) True Purification is in Christ. The jars for ceremonial washing that used to be filled with water are now filled with wine. The best wine has been saved for last.
(9) True Religion is in Christ. The temple has become but a marketplace. Destroy it and it will be rebuilt in Christ in three days.
Chapter 3 explains salvation.
(10) The Way of Salvation. “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
(11) The Price of Salvation. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
(12) The Offer of Salvation. For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
(13) The Condemnation of Sin. The one who does not believe has been condemned already.
II. God So Loved the World
And now we return to today’s text. It begins with the most famous verse in the New Testament, if not the entire Bible. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (I quoted from the King James version because that is the most familiar translation of the verse.)
As Craig Keener points out, “Some could understand English translations (God “so” love the world) as intending, ‘God loved the world so much’; but John’s language is qualitative rather than quantitative. Οὕτως means, ‘This is how God loved the world.’” This is not to take away from God’s great love for us, but it is to point out that God shows his love with action (self-sacrifice) not merely with words.
In the Old Testament, God gave mainly two gifts to Israel: the land and the Torah. Israelites were meant to be kind and generous to foreigners, and foreigners could convert to Judaism. However, the gifts were still, at least in some sense, to the Israelites. Now the gift is explicitly to the world.
God giving up his son is the capstone to the story that begun in Genesis 22, which is the very beginning of Israel. I quote Genesis 22:1-18 below:
Some time after these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham replied. 2 God said, “Take your son—your only son, whom you love, Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you.”
3 Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him, along with his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he started out for the place God had spoken to him about.
4 On the third day Abraham caught sight of the place in the distance. 5 So he said to his servants, “You two stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go up there. We will worship and then return to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. Then he took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?” “What is it, my son?” he replied. “Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 “God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together.
9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand, took the knife, and prepared to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered. 12 “Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.”
13 Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place “The Lord provides.” It is said to this day, “In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made.”
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “I solemnly swear by my own name, decrees the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies. 18 Because you have obeyed me, all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.”
The prophesies are fulfilled! (Or at least they will be once Christ’s sacrifice has happened.) Blessings will come through one of Abraham’s descendants. The Lord provides. In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made. That provision is God’s only son.
III. Already Condemned or Everlasting Life
Just as a reminder, let’s consider John 3:16 once more, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God saves us from what? God saves us “into” what? For example, if I were in prison because I could not pay a fine and someone else paid it, I would be saved from prison and be brought into freedom. If I were a slave and someone paid my redemption price, I would be saved from slavery and similarly be brought into freedom. John 3:16 tells us we are saved from perishing and brought into eternal life. This idea was already present in the Old Testament. Daniel 12:2 says,
Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake—some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence.
John 3:17-18 make clear that we are already condemned. We are not condemned for not believing in Jesus. That only keeps us perishing. Verse 36 reemphasizes the point. God’s wrath “remains” on the unbeliever. This is an important distinction. People are not condemned for their lack of belief. They are condemned for their sins.
But Jesus offers a way into eternal life. What is that?
Whatever eternal life is, it begins now. John 3:16 uses the present active subjunctive, emphasizing that the new life begins at the new birth.
Ok, but what is it? Well . . . it gets a little unclear. Please, don’t misunderstand me, the Bible is very clear on some things about everlasting life. Let’s consider a few verses.
2 Peter 3:13
But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides.
Revelation 21:1-5
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. 2 And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
Isaiah 65:17-19
17 For look, I am ready to create
new heavens and a new earth!
The former ones will not be remembered;
no one will think about them anymore.
18 But be happy and rejoice forevermore
over what I am about to create!
For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy,
and her people to be a source of happiness.
19 Jerusalem will bring me joy,
and my people will bring me happiness.
The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow
will never be heard in her again.
Another aspect of eternal life that is clear is that it is physical. Our bodies may be different, the earth may be different, the heavens may be different, but it is a time and a place where we physically live. Consider the Apostles Creed,
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
Our final destination is not heaven, at least not what popular culture might call heaven. It is the new earth. Consider also the Nicene Creed,
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come.
II. Loving the Darkness
Why do men reject Christ? Because they love the darkness rather than the light.
In light of the passage, consider the following belief of the Methodist Church. In part, the Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church (1808) explain that,
[Original sin] is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.
The light will expose evil deeds. Evil men will not tolerate by that. However, notice that the light’s effect is not restricted to the damned. Light will expose evil deeds. All of them. Those who place their faith in Jesus must humble themselves and accept that. They must trust that forgiveness through Jesus is greater than their exposed evil deeds.
III. Belief and Practice
The words of James (James 2:14-17) come to mind,
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself.
In John 3:18-21, John speaks of faith and deeds interchangeably. The one who believes is not condemned. The one who practices truth comes to the truth. The one who does not believe is already condemned. Everyone who does evil deeds hates the light.
I am not building up to a clever argument denying sola fide (justification by faith alone), but I simply wish to acknowledge that faith and deeds are tied together. He who has faith in Jesus will act differently. Later in the book of John, Jesus will make it even clearer, “The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me.” As a commentator explains, “One does the works of the one whose nature one shares.”
IV. John the Baptist Revisited
The Synoptic Gospels can give the impression that Jesus was John the Baptist’s successor and their ministries did not overlap. John (the apostle) makes it explicitly clear that John the Baptist continued his ministry at least until he was imprisoned.
Three great points can be discerned from John the Baptist’s responses to his followers:
(1) No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. There is no rivalry with God. He provides for us. We cannot take from Him. We rejoice in his provision.
(2) He must become more important while I become less important. Jesus is the main figure of the story—the story of the Bible and the story of creation. We should rejoice when he is exalted.
(3) The one who comes from heaven is superior to all. He testifies about what he has seen and heard. Jesus’ words and works are reliable because of who he is.
[I’m still working on this part.]