Be saved. Be loved.

Introduction

Today’s passage is taken from a part of a conversation that Jesus had with someone named Nicodemus. Jesus was in Jerusalem for Passover. First thing he did was to cleanse the temple by chasing out all the people selling animals that were used for sacrifice (2:13-22). And many believed in Jesus when they saw the signs he was doing (2:23). So, Jesus, who was a nobody in Jerusalem until that time, became famous. Many people would have been very curious. Who is this Jesus? Is he crazy to come and make a mess at the temple? But how can he do all these signs if he is crazy? Is he a prophet? Against this backdrop, came this story in chapter 3 of Nicodemus coming to meet Jesus. Perhaps as a leader in the Jewish community, he came to check on who Jesus was. After telling Nicodemus about the need to be born again and challenging him to believe, Jesus went on to say what we just read today.

John 3:14–15 ESV

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Jesus is God’s solution to the deadly consequences to sins

As Jesus moves into this topic of eternal life, he began with an image from the Old Testament. This referred to a story in Numbers 21:4-9 where the Israelite were complaining about God again for not having anything to eat other than manna. God sent some fiery serpents among them and many people died. When the Israelite repented, God’s solution was not to remove the serpents, but to ask Moses to set a bronze serpent statue on a pole. When a person gets bitten, if he looks at the bronze serpent, he will not die. So, God did not removed the punishment for their sin, He provided an antidote to save them from the deadly effect of the punishment. They still had to suffer the pain, and they can only be saved if they trust in God’s solution and look to the serpent. So, Jesus is saying that He served the same function as the bronze serpent, that when he went to the cross, he became the means by which people can be saved from the deadly consequence of their sins, but they need to trust in God’s solution. And Jesus is greater than the serpent. The bronze serpent only allowed the Israelite to not die from a physical wound. But through Jesus, there is eternal life.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God’s love is proven by His giving of Jesus

In contrast to the story about the serpents, where the solution was given as a response to repentance, here we see that God was not motivated by people’s repentance. God was motivated by the love that he has towards his creation. God so loved that he gave. Love is something that is very hard to quantify. So many times in human relationships we wonder how much do another person loves us. Couples wonder about the love of each other. Children wonder about the love of their parents especially in comparison with other siblings. How can love be measured? How can be a clear indicator of love? How can we know that we are truly loved by God? God’s answer is, he gave his only Son, who is the eternal word, who was in the beginning with God, who was essentially God himself. And God gave out of his own initiative, not as a response to our repentance. God voluntarily loved us. Repentance is now a response to this gift, an acceptance and acknowledgement of the gift that has already been given. As with every relationship, we don’t always feel loved. That doesn’t prove that we are not loved. Feelings are real, but not always founded on truth. No matter what we feel in any relationship, if the other party truly loves us, then we are loved. We just need to learn to recognize it. In our relationship with God, we also may not always feel loved. But the truth is we are already loved with an undeniable proof, that God already gave his only Son. So, if ever you feel downtrodden and doubt the love of God, remember this truth, that God had already proven his love through the cross.

John 3:17–18 ESV

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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The world is already condemned. Jesus is the only way for salvation.

In these verses, there is a strong emphasis on the idea of condemned, which is contrasted to the idea of saved. The desired outcome of sending Jesus is to save us, to reconcile us to him, to adopt us into his family. The reality given in these verses is that the world has already been condemned. The world is already under judgment since Genesis 3. The world, like the Israelite in the serpent story, is already suffering from the deadly consequence of our sins. To this world that is already condemned, God has given his Son. And like the serpent story, only those who trust in God’s solution will be saved. And the way to trust Him is to believe, accept, and acknowledge the gift of salvation through Jesus. So, verse 18 is not saying that if anyone do not believe in Jesus now, they will be judged for their unbelief. It is saying that they are already in judgment, and if they reject the salvation offered to them, they can only remain in their state of condemnation and wait for the deadly consequence of sins to run its course. So, people got it wrong when they think that God is so petty to judge people on whether they believe in Jesus. The truth is people are already condemned. We are already living in a fallen world that is filled with sins and effects of sins. God has offered a lifeline. We need to recognize this reality and choose to hold on to this lifeline. There is no other way.

John 3:19–21 ESV

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 6:29 ESV

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

We need to recognize our need for salvation and simply believe.

Through the symbolic use of light and darkness, Jesus addressed the issue of why would some people not want to be saved. The light usually symbolizes Jesus in the Gospel of John. And I believe it is the same in this instance. In John 9, Jesus declared himself to be the light of the world and proceeded to heal a man born blind. Some of the Pharisees, stumbled by their religious mindset, did not want to believe that Jesus was from God even though there was a huge miracle, for Jesus do not work according to their religious framework. So, the Pharisees who thought they were in good position before God because of all their religious acts, did not recognize that they were in need of God’s grace. But the man born blind believed, because he knew that he was needy and hopeless, and Jesus miraculously healed him. In those days, a common mindset is that sickness and handicap are a result of sins. They were perceived as God’s judgment. So, the man was most likely thought of as a sinner, no matter how much he actually sinned or not, but simply because he was born blind. So, he knew he needed God’s grace. In Jn 6:29, Jesus said that to do the work of God is to believe in him. So, I believe the works of evil and truth here in these verses are not about moral assessment. It does not mean that a person who does well morally will come to Jesus and those who do evil will run away from Jesus. Rather, it is about recognizing that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, that we are in need of God’s grace, and to believe in Jesus. It is to receive the gift of God. It is receiving the love that is freely given rather than trying to earn it by our works. Nothing else is needed. Just receive his salvation, his grace, and his love.

Receive His salvation, His grace, and His love.