The Universal Christ

The Universal Christ

Intro - continue with my farewell addresses.

Text comes on the heels of the most famous verse in the Bible.

It is striking that, given it’s mutual dependence on the verse before it, that these two verses aren’t equally famous! Even more telling, I think, is that the first verse is good and all, but it doesn’t offer the clarification that the second verse offers!

So we will join these two together again today. Especially given that they are, after all, one cohesive thought.

Pray

[john 3:16]

You don’t even need to read it, right? That is why I didn’t put this part on the screen. Everyone say out loud this most famous verse.

[let them do it]

Now the next verse.

[let them try]

Not as easy, right? We weren’t asked to remember that one in bible drill it seems.

Just to get us all on the right track though, let’s start with what we know. By the way, I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who was made to memorize that verse in the King James Version. I will confess to you all, that I have trouble reading or saying it any other way, despite my lack of affection for the KJV. The same goes for the Christmas story - but that comes from Charlie Brown and not bible drill.

And what we know is that this verse tells us that - as long as we believe in Jesus - we will have eternal life. And that’s correct. What we have been taught to value, though, is that OUR eternal life depends not only on that belief - which if we are being honest is a pretty low bar. I mean, I believe in a lot of things that I don’t love or make a part of my life. But we have been taught that it depends not only on belief, but on conforming to the expectations of those that claim that belief.

[condemnation]

And that can be seen even in our reaction to me saying that. Or saying anything else that might strike a person as “not being what I was taught.” We arrange our faith into several buckets. What we were taught - these represent “believing.” What we hope - these represent faith more broadly. And what we disapprove of - the things we condemn.

This isn’t anything new. Humans do that as naturally as breathing. It is all a part of what makes us us. So when we take that single verse as the whole message, it is no surprise that we would then associate belief in Christ with conformity with the message of those who brought us the Bible verse in the first place! After all, they are teaching us!

And make no mistake, in some very real ways I agree with that idea.

But I would offer it a caveat. One that I offer to everyone who ever speaks to me intimately about matters of faith and of deep dives into scripture. If you believe something, and then when you add context and the broader image of Christ, if it doesn’t hold water, it isn’t of God.

And that applies here as well.

This text is vitally important, but church, it is an incomplete thought! Even when you say it out loud, you have to work to make it sound complete. And as soon as you read it plainly, you realize that there is a dependent clause waiting to happen!

John 3:16–17 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. 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.

John 3:16-17

He loved us so much that He came to die and not condemn! That is the message here. Not that He would die and then condemn or that He would die for US to condemn! He died to save the world.

Which world though? I’m glad you asked that.

Too often we think of the “world” here as those that “believe” in Him. World ceases to be all people and becomes a certain group of people. And that seems normal, right? After all, it says you have to believe! So surely there are some that will and some that won’t, and the ones who don’t will be condemned.

Thankfully, there is a word for that. A word for a “world” that isn’t really a world. A chosen people, or a people set aside from others. And that word is Ethnos.

[ethnos]

So naturally, if the implication is that God died for a small portion of the people on the planet that the Gospel authors - in this case John - would use a word that means a portion of people. Perhaps a tribe, or nation. Or even an ethnic group - all of which are connoted in the word ethnos.

In fact, to take it a step further, Matthew, Luke, and Paul all tend to use the word ethnos when referring to Gentiles. You know, you and me.

So surely John, if he meant you and me, or even just a single group of people, he would use ethnos as well.

You know where I am going. He doesn’t. But all too often, we do. At least in our head. We associate ourselves with the gift as with the believing and make an ethnos - or a ethnic group, you know, like Christians - out of the word “world.”

But that isn’t the word used.

[kosmos]

Kosmos. All of creation. That is the word used for “world.” EVERYTHING! The entire cosmos!

But all that is well and good. And accurate, I might add. But to get the true meaning in this case, perhaps we should look at the author’s own use of the word.

John’s usage is pretty clear. And we must be willing to consider it as it is written if we hope to live it out! When John uses the word He generally means the same thing. It is the world - that is all people - but more specifically, as seen at least 10 other times in his Gospel, John means something closer to, “the ungodly multitude.” Or the entire mass of people who are in some ways hostile to God. Not hostile like angry, but like opposed to God. You know, sinners. You and me. To John, it was a reference to the Gentiles.

So let’s reinsert that to make things easier to understand.

For God so loved those who were hostile to Him and who opposed Him, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not sent His Son into the collection of people who stood opposed to Him or were hostile to Him to condemn them but that through Him those who were hostile,and oppose Him - the ungodly multitude - that they might be saved through Him!

Hit different doesn’t it?

[living in the past]

But it really shouldn’t. God is always in the business of new beginnings and new opportunities. Even if we don’t see it.

And that, church, is the heart of this text. Too often we live in the past. In what has been done, or even the path we are on BECAUSE of our past. But all that looking back isn’t God’s doing or call. I mean just ask Lot’s wife! Don’t look back! Whatever you do, here is this new chance! Just keep moving forward with your life!

One look ends it all.

This lesson can’t be lost here. Not that we lose our life when we look back - after all, figurative language allows for a broader application. But that God wants us to know that there is NEVER a need to look back!

And for us, today, that means something very important. Listen, the offering has been made! God so loved has already happened! So living in that past isn’t enough! We are called to move beyond the past, beyond that moment and into the next one! Even the language of our text implies that!

3:17

God didn’t do that thing for us to do nothing! Condemn here is active, and ongoing! It wasn’t just for that moment! So if He doesn’t continually condemn, NEITHER SHOULD WE!

Sometimes we get stuck there, in the past, saying that He loved so we don’t have to do anything more. But when we do that there is an underlying message of condemnation that must be adjusted!

Our faith isn’t for us alone! And we must move on from loving and into acceptance of others and of the very image of God in all people if we hope to live out Christ’s life in us!

What you do with this offering of love and life matters far more than we imagine! Our history, the history of the world around us, our circumstances - all mean nothing to our destiny and our purpose! To get stuck there, looking only at the past or only at what could have been, or once was from our limited point of view, completely dishonors and disregards all that is and ALL THAT WILL BE when we stop looking at the world and life from our point of view and see it from a different perspective. A directly biblical and scriptural perspective!

The perspective of Christ. Not just the one who gave His life for you, and me, and for the whole world! No, not just that facet of Him. But the God in flesh who came to earth not to condemn it! Not to remind it of all the mistakes that are made. Not to talk about how good it was back in the day! Not to lament how much things change and how it would be so much better if He could just get His way! NOT ANY OF THAT! He came to save the world! They kosmos! The ungodly multitude opposed to Him! All those with whom we disagree! To move us from childish division and side choosing and toward the truth that He knows and wants us to know!

[one in Christ]

We are all the same.

And lest you think I mean just all Christians are the same - I mean nothing of the sort. We are all the same because we were all created in the image and likeness of God! All people! And just as our text offers, all creation - not just all those made in His image - ALL CREATION IS NOT CONDEMNED BUT SAVED!

So how are we so quick to condemn? So quick to say that others are so wrong and we are so right? So quick to get angry without sensing our own shortcomings? So willing to hate another being that God so willingly died for? It almost seems, at times, like Christ doesn’t live in us after all, doesn’t it?

Who are we to say who believes, what believes entails, or at what point in life belief is necessary - even the very quality of belief! Yet every day we find ourselves organizing people into groups of believers/non-believers - at least belief as we know it.

But even that is the past. Even that is a moment we can move beyond, one for which we have been forgiven. But at the same time, it is one we must learn from and then move on from - simply because God loves us enough to give us the freedom to do just that.

To apologize, and to try again.

[kids]

Church, so much of our faith journey is so easily seen in children. When they make mistakes, they get up and try again. They mess up again. They try again. All the while we try to tell them how to get there - BUT HEAR THIS CLEARLY CHURCH - THEY MESS UP, AND MESS UP AND KEEP MESSING UP, JUST LIKE WE DID, BECAUSE THEY ARE GIVEN A SAFE PLACE TO MESS UP AND THE EXPECTANT HOPE THAT THEY CAN AND WILL GET IT RIGHT!

And they get it right because of the room and love you give them to get there. In short, because you don’t condemn them for failure, they will eventually succeed.

One more time, because I want you to either write it down or commit it to memory and keep it forever. Children succeed because someone - be it you, a teacher, a mentor, a friend - Children succeed because someone refuses to condemn them for failure. Someone cheers them on and gives them room to try.

And when it comes to faith and life out in the world, church, that is our job.

Do you have a problem with a person’s opinions or beliefs? Great. So do I. For those who don’t agree with homosexuality, transgenderism, racial equality, equal rights, true religious liberty - not just the freedom for Christians to worship, but the freedom of ALL OTHERS, ALL OF GODS CREATION to worship how they feel appropriate. And so many more that I have neither the time or ability to list. If you don’t like those things, get over it.

Because behind those things are people. Creations of God. Beings that God speaks to, and guides and directs, just like us. And our inability to accept that we are not in control, and more specifically, our desire to control others by condemning what they believe and experience so that we can teach them what is the truth stands directly in the way of God’s reaching into their lives - not to mention our own!

Think about it this way. What happens to a child when you dominate them? When you yell and beat them into conformity with your expectations?

You know it never ends well. But when you give them room to try and to fail. And you pick them up. When you NEVER condemn them, but rather lovingly support them toward a radical acceptance of what God created them to be, you will forever change their lives.

So too it is with the world.

God doesn’t condemn, and neither can we. We must love beyond the boundaries of our sectarianism. We must accept beyond the limits of our preconceived notions of life’s parameters. We must welcome so radically, that all people feel the truth of God’s sacrifice in us! And they feel it so acutely, that it inspires them to move toward God! To become what He wants them to be, even when we don’t or can’t understand it!

To so love the world - the Cosmos - that we would sacrifice our expectations so that God could be found by all people! So that there would truly be no condemnation offered from those who follow Christ, but rather a radical acceptance of the truth He offers!

Christ is for everyone! He is universal! He is in every face! Every circumstance! Every life that walks and breathes in all of His creation! NO MATTER WHAT - ALL BEINGS SHARE THE SAME DIVINE SPARK AND SPIRIT OF GOD, SO FOR US TO CONDEMN ANYONE SAYS INFINITELY MORE ABOUT THE ABSENCE OF GOD IN US THAN IT DOES THEM!

In fact, it is that very attitude that proves that we have abandoned God in us, to make a God OF us.

But again, history is just that. History. Those moments can be gone if we are willing. I know that I might seem crazy to some of you, if not a bit heretical. But this isn’t a heretical idea, nor is it crazy. This is an idea founded on the idea of Christ Himself. Every person He healed. Every miraculous act offered. The child who was brought back to life. Lazarus brought from the grave. The woman at the well. Mary Magdalene. Judas. Thomas. Even Peter. And far more examples that you know so well. Which of them deserved the gifts or the forgiveness? Which, in their failures, conformed to the image of Christ that we demand of the world? Which did everything EXACTLY right for the remainder of their lives?

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

None.

In fact, I would wager that we wouldn’t even associate publicly with any of them even today - at least if our public persona is to be believed.

But Jesus loved them all. He condemned none of them. He gave them room to be who they were while loving them to what they could be with Him. They were all the same to Him. And for us to act any different misses the point entirely.

Jesus is the point! Christ lives in all people. Not just in our people. And we must repent of those thoughts and those tendencies so that we can move forward in life with Christ.

How do we do that? First we give ourselves room to make mistakes. Don’t strive for perfection, but struggle with persistence. Notice those tendencies to not accept all people and remind yourself that you don’t have to be in control. Find peace in knowing that you see God in each person you meet, regardless of how they live or what they think. But that can only happen, church, when we become CONTENT in all that we have. When we stop worrying about keeping up with others. When we stop letting those voices that tell us to be afraid of those who think or act differently than us. When we get to the point where we are well and truly grateful for our situation and our surroundings, then and only then will we begin to see Christ in everyone.

That is what is so Universal about Christ. He waits in the heart of every single human. He waits there for someone to come along and not condemn them, but to love them just as they are right where they are.

Church, Christ didn’t come to condemn them - or you. He came to save you. To save them. To offer a way out of the hate and the division and the bitterness and the jealousy and the fear. To cast all that aside so that His image could be seen in you, and in all people. He came to restore the cosmos to the universal image of Himself.

So stop looking for an Ethnos to belong to. Stop praising your heritage or your social desires. Stop lifting up the image of self and lift up the image of Christ in you. Do that and you will find that His image will shine from you and seek out that same image in others. Bringing hope and peace to our world, and joining Christ in the work He has set aside for each of us.

May we all join Him in that from this day forward.