Day 8 - John 3:16-21
12 Jan 2017
Some verses in the Bible are very familiar. If we have grown up knowing the Bible we can probably recite John 3:16 word for word. It is a succinct summary of the gospel.
Familiarity can breed contempt - or at the very least it can mean that we miss the impact of what Jesus says here. The amazing thing that Jesus highlights to Nicodemus, and to us, is the love of God. We expect God to be loving, but it is only when we take seriously who God shows his love that we see the full extent of that love.
Jesus tells us he loved “the world”. That is not simply emphasising how big God’s love is. We are not meant just to think about the billions of people this refers to. This statement is emphasising how gracious his love is. The world has turned her back on her loving creator God. As John told us in his introduction “the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him”. Yet it was for this rebellious world that God gave his Son for. This was all so we do not perish in our sins (a penalty we deserve, given that we have chosen death rather than God, the source of life).
Once we see that context Jesus’ next statement is even more wonderful. It would have been understandable if God had sent his Son to judge the world. Yet he has come first to save, then to judge. The only sensible response is to believe in him! Who would run away from this kind of love?
However, we are not sensible people. Nicodemus needs to know that even having Jesus stand in front of you and say these things is no guarantee that you will respond rightly and believe in him. In fact, it often produces the opposite reaction? Why? Because we don’t just sin, we love sin. We are not just lost, in darkness - we love the darkness. We want to hide from God and are terrified of being known by God. We simply don’t want to know God or for him to rule over our lives.
All of this emphasises Jesus’ first point to Nicodemus. We need our hearts to be changed before we can respond rightly to Jesus. To enter the kingdom of God we need to be “born again”.