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For God So Loved the World
John 3:16-17
Introduction: Surely John 3:16 is one of the most popular and well-known verses in the Bible. And indeed, this verse has beauty, comfort, and joy for every person who mourns for their sins and desires salvation.
But we also must be aware of the danger of reading a Bible verse. This verse is within a context and is not meant to be read alone. As with any Bible verse, without the context serious misunderstandings and misinterpretations will arise.
This context began with 2:23 and the statement that many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. However, 2:24 adds a disclaimer to their belief – Jesus did not believe in them. Jesus knew their belief was superficial and thus we are introduced to one of these “believers” in Nicodemus. Now catch this carefully, Nicodemus believed but was not saved. Immediately we are introduced to John’s repeated discussion of belief that is not the kind of faith or belief that will save a man. [which is an indictment on all those who read 3:16 as if that is the sum total of God’s conditions of salvation.]
Nicodemus may believe that Jesus was a teacher come from God, but he would not see the kingdom of God unless he was born again, born of water and the Spirit. This is the context of John 3:16. Therefore, there is more to “whoever believes in him” than many would like to think.
- Will Not Perish
- To be fair to the text, we cannot talk about God’s love or that he gave his Son or believing in him until we embrace the declaration, “will not perish.” We simply cannot understand the true greatness of His love without first coming to grips with our condition.
- First and foremost “will not perish” reveals our condition before God shows his love in sending his Son. Jesus coming to the earth is a rescue operation. Verse 17 makes that principle quite clear. Jesus doesn’t come to condemn the world because the world has already accomplished their own condemnation by turning to sin.
- Unfortunately, most people read this verse and only look at the words, “God so loved,” and “whoever believes.” God’s love comes out something like this:
- “God loves me because even though I have my faults, He knows that deep down I’m a good person.”
- Or, “God loves everyone and a loving God would not send His creation to hell.”
- Or, “God loves everyone and those who live good decent lives will be saved. It is only the rapists, murderers, and child molesters that won’t go to heaven.”
- Those ideas are all misconceptions of God and misunderstandings of our condition. God so loved the world – thus, it is the world that is perishing. It is not that the bad people are perishing; everyone is perishing. “Good people” are not exempt from perishing. Good people will perish just like everyone else. The verse does not say, “God so loved good people that He sent His only Son…”
- Ask yourself this question: how many people believe that every single person will perish unless they come to Jesus? I think there are even Christians who do not grasp that concept. If they did, they might not be so casual about those around them who do not know they are perishing.
- Grasping the concept of “perishing” is also critical for every Christian. Remember Simon the Pharisee who thought he was so much better than the sinful woman who came into his house? We must understand that without Jesus we are in exactly the same condition as the worst sinner. If we do not, we will act exactly like Simon, neither loving God as we should because we are not impressed with our own forgiveness, and looking down on others who we deem worse sinners than ourselves.
- Let’s be clear on the word perish. The word is most often translated by the words “destroy” or “lose.” Here are three examples:
- Mark 1:24, the demons asked Jesus if He had come to destroy them. This did not mean they were annihilated, but as Peter said, cast in chains of darkness, enduring the blackness of darkness forever.
- Matt. 9:17 also uses the word destroy when Jesus said that putting new wine into old wineskins would ruin or destroy the wine and the wineskins. Again, the wineskins are not annihilated, but no longer useful.
- Matt. 16:25, Jesus said whoever tries to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So to perish means to lose true life, to have “life” destroyed. Jesus came so that would not happen.
- In Mark 9:43-48, when Jesus talked about be cast into “Gehenna,” he was referring to a garbage dump. We do not throw non-existent things into a garbage dump, we throw ruined, useless things into the dump.
- Now notice the contrast to “perish”: “but have eternal life.” Again, there is far more to that phrase than we have typically considered. Now that we understand “perish” as “ruin” and no longer of any use, we can better appreciate the word “life.” Life is not existence in contrast to non-existence. Life is usefulness, abundance, joy, completeness – as Jesus meant with the word, “Blessed are…”
- John 10:10 “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
- We have not usually considered that every desire that God has placed in us is impossible to completely fulfill while we are in the flesh. But each one of our present desires will be enjoyed eternally in its fulness. After all, why would God give us these desires and then watch us always find brevity and disappointment because of flaws of this earth life?
- God So Loved…
- CSB translates these words, “God loved the world in this way…” In other words, Jesus is describing both the greatness of God’s love and the means by which he showed his love.
- Eph. 2:4 states, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” Paul’s description of being “rich in mercy” indicates that saving us while we were dead in our trespasses was not a necessity on God’s part. God created a universe that demands justice, and we are deserving of justice.
- Next, consider the phrase, “God so loved the world.” God’s love extends to the world. In other words, there isn’t anyone who is left out of this love. We are so different from God in that we would not choose to save everyone. We see this in ourselves in the way we prejudge people and do not offer the gospel to them. But the Savior was crucified for the world and no one is left out of his atonement offering.
- Please also notice that God giving his only Son was and is the only remedy. There was no other solution (Isaiah 59:15-16 “Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.”
- Further, this simple verse screams the message that God cannot be blamed for us perishing! No, God chose to save at great cost to himself. We therefore choose to either take advantage of that salvation or decline it.
- We should also know that these stakes are high, and therefore it is necessary that we make sure that we do what is necessary to have life and not perish. (2 Peter 1:10).
- One more conclusion: what is the meaning and purpose of life? Jesus summarized in Matthew 16:25, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” That’s it! When we have breathed our last, there isn’t one thing that will matter to us other than “did I lose my life for his sake!”
- That’s not the way we think, is it? No, we look around and dream of all the things we would like to have and all the experiences we want to enjoy. That’s not wrong of itself, assuming we see each of those things as gifts to be given by God if he so desires. Other than that, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.”
- Whoever Believes
- As we said at the beginning, the idea of believing in Him has been redefined and not placed within the context of what is being taught by Jesus in this text. Belief here is not an acknowledgement that Jesus came from God; Nicodemus did that and Jesus said he wouldn’t enter the kingdom. This is a trust in Jesus that results in a life transformation. It is born again, born from above.
- Therefore, the very nature of the context precludes a faith that simply accepts Jesus as our Savior. No, both Deut. 30 and Ezek. 36 are referenced in this context portraying belief as loving God with all our hearts and being careful to obey all that He has commanded.
- Some would argue, “This verse doesn’t say anything about baptism!”
- You are right! And it is a good thing because if it did, people would just get dunked and never be transformed into the image of God. Their trust would remain in themselves without dependency on God.
- Instead, John used an all-inclusive term: believe/trust. Trust is complete dependence on him which includes both our trust in his promises and our complete obedience to his commands. It can be nothing less.
- When someone tries to argue that baptism is not mentioned here, it is a poor argument on many fronts:
- Repentance, confession of Christ and every other command given in the Bible, including love your neighbor as yourself, is not mentioned here. Belief is all inclusive.
- The context of born again or born of water and the Spirit implies the necessity of being cleansed by God according to Ezekiel 36:26 and Peter’s words in Acts 2:38.
- Finally, for someone to argue that trusting in Jesus does not include baptism is to violate the very command Jesus is giving when he says, “whoever believes.” To refuse to be baptized or deny that baptism (and all other commands such as confessing with the mouth and repenting) is necessary for salvation, is to say “I believe” but I will not do what he says. Impossible!
Conclusion: Everyone of us and everyone in the world is challenged by this well-known verse. The ball is in our court. God has done everything possible to save us. But he won’t make us come to him. You must make a choice. And I would add, if think that making that choice is somehow going to just “land on you” one day so that you get an uncontrollable urge to serve Christ, you are quite mistaken. Every urge the flesh is to serve self and resist God. If you are going to make a decision it must be made even when your feelings are elsewhere. To delay is to remain in the state of perishing!
Berry Kercheville