John 3:16 and following - Thoughts for the New Year

John 3:16 is perhaps the most well known verse in the Bible, certainly the most beloved of evangelical Christians:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NIV)

But I guess that far fewer people know the following verses, and certainly far fewer sermons are preached on them. So let’s look at the whole passage of John 3:16-21 so that we get a fuller meaning of what God is actually saying:

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:16-21, NIV)

John 3:17, God did not send His Son to condemn the world, is also beloved of many, particularly be those who object to anyone, especially Christians, telling them that something they are doing is wrong, or are of the sin-affirming tendency found in many churches. However, let us look at the whole passage. Immediately after saying that He did not come to condemn the world, it starts to speak of those who are already condemned.  Then in verse 19 it explains the verdict, or the motivations in men’s hearts, saying that people refused to come into the light because their deeds were evil, and the light of Christ would expose those evil deeds for what they were. All this puts a very different complexion on things, and exposes the shallowness with which John 3:16 is often treated,

So where does this leave us in understanding what is actually going on? And what does it mean when it says that Jesus did not come to condemn the world? First, let us look at how “not condemning” is so often interpreted. It is usually taken to mean that it is wrong to say that any lifestyle is wrong, but this is manifestly not the case, and one only needs to look at what Jesus did and said in the gospels to see the error in this way of thinking. Moreover, the whole of the Bible is forever pointing out the difference between good ways of living and bad ways of living, and declaring judgement on people who are choosing the bad ways.

Now let’s look at the positive way of looking at this. Jesus did come to highlight what is wrong with the way we live, and what is wrong with us. Indeed, this is the consistent message of the whole Bible from beginning to end. There is something seriously wrong with you, and something seriously wrong with me. If we deny this then we the gospel has nothing to say to us, and Jesus is of no value to us. Given this situation, of our being seriously flawed, there are two things God could do. God could justifiably pronounce judgment upon us and that would be the end of the matter. We would all perish, we would all go to hell. But God does not want us to perish, but to have eternal life. So instead of pronouncing judgement at this point He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to us so that if we believe in Him then we instead of perishing we would receive eternal life. In order for that to happen we need to acknowledge our need of Him, we need to admit to the wrongness of our lives, the wrongness of us. In short, we need to repent.

So the choice is this. We can continue to hide in the darkness, pretending that we are not evil, pretending that our hearts and deeds are not evil. If we do that, then there is a day of judgement for all of us, and that day will not go well for us.

Or, we can come into the light of Christ. This will indeed expose the darkness that is within us, but it will be exposed by the glorious light of Christ, and that will bring forgiveness, new birth and healing into our lives.

So as this New Year begins, let us stop avoiding the truth, let us get to grips with the real truth of Jesus Christ. And may God grant us the grace to present the real truth to the world, for the world desperately needs it.