Read John
3
The Confession of Faith for
Cumberland Presbyterians notes in the very first part of the introduction
that John
3:16 is the gospel in miniature. It
is likely the most memorized verse among Christians.
It was not
first proclaimed from a mountain top but in an evening conversation between
Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was having a hard time getting his head around this whole born
again concept. We shouldn’t be too
critical looking back across the centuries to the other side of the cross.
It is that
cross where we
begin today. Jesus told Nicodemus
that the Son of Man must be lifted up and gave him a comparison to something
that he would have been familiar
with. In the wilderness, God’s
Chosen People had spoken against God and against Moses and God sent snakes.
They were
not just cute garden snakes. These
snakes were biting people and the people were dying. The people confessed their sins and asked
Moses for relief. Moses petitioned
God. God told him to make a snake and
put it atop of a pole.
When the
people who hand been bitten looked upon the snake on the top of the pole, they
lived.
There is a circuitous
rabbit trail to venture down some day about God telling Moses to make this rather
odd image and use it for healing, but for now—at least for then—it was
something that Nicodemus would be able to relate to, for he was surely
experiencing some dissonance over this whole born again thing.
It’s
important to understand that Jesus is making this connection with this point of
the Son of Man being lifted up. We know that to be the crucifixion. Jesus proceeded to statements of increasing
significance, each connected to a previous statement.
John uses
the word for which in Greek
is gar (γάρ). It is a conjunction
as you might expect but it not only ties the current thought with one previous
to it, but makes the full thought one of increasing succession.
So, let’s
build upon this thought of the Son of Man being lifted up and expand that to
how much God loves the world. He loved
it enough to give his one and only Son that those who would believe in him
would have eternal life.
That’s the
verse that we all like and say Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, Amen,
and Cool Beans.
But the
succession of this greater thought continues.
For—this is the word connected the two previous thoughts—For God
did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world
through him.
The person
who does not believe is already condemned.
That person is dead already. Death
is a pre-existing condition. Later on, Jesus would explain that when a person
believed, he passed from
death to life. We think of death as
the end. Jesus explained it as a state
of existence without God.
Now we come
to the third for, which is omitted
from the NIV. This third section is about
evidence. When we studied James, I
called this Forensic
Christianity. There will be evidence
of our faith.
For the one
who has believed and received this gift of life, he will be compelled to live
in the light. He does not desire to
hide his deeds because they are evil, but to display them for they are good and
bring
glory to God.
So, this
whole business about Jesus being lifted up is because of God’s love which we
received instead of condemnation which gives us life through which we can
finally bring glory to God.
So, we give
a word of thanks to Nicodemus who didn’t pick up this whole born again thing
right away and led to a glimpse of what was to come.
Jesus would go to the cross and be lifted up
so that we might be healed from sin and saved from death, even though we
deserved condemnation.
When all
that is said and done, we can live in the light and do the good works that God
planned for us from the beginning.
Amen!
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