Come to the Light
For the Lord’s Day:  the 15^th of August 2004

John 3: 16-21

Introduction:  While the sixteenth verse here is the most favored verse, in all of the Bible - to any number of evangelicals.  Sadly, the precise purpose and understanding of its context in the chapter, book and the whole of Scriptures is misunderstood and distorted.  Now, I am not going to work myself up to any diatribe about the Arminian fascinations with Pelagianism, semi or even full blown!  I almost exploded at a recent showing of the latest King Arthur medium that glorified that heresy at the expense of the original Celtic Church’s life and faith early on in the history of Britain.

Commentator Raymond Brown looks at this discourse in the third chapter of John and would assure us from his perspective that here: it is “the role of God the Father that becomes prominent.”  Calvin too admonishes in the same vein:  “Christ opens up the first cause, and, as it were, the source of our salvation, and he does so, that no doubt may remain; for our minds cannot find calm repose, until we arrive at the unmerited love of God.”  He goes on in a calm refrain respecting the fact that “the whole matter of our salvation must not be sought any where else than in Christ, so we must see whence Christ came to us, and why he was offered to be our Savior.”

He observes that the passage before us carefully declares: first that “faith in Christ brings life to all.”  And secondly this can happen only because the “Heavenly Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish.”  The Apostle Paul provides foundational observations in this area of soteriology (or story of salvation).  In Ephesians 1: 3-6 we read: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”

In short – the traditional and orthodox meaning of verse sixteen is simply this: 

1. God the Father loves the human race
2. He gives the sacrifice of His only Son as a means for salvation.

We have only to go back to the patriarch Abraham to see the type and shadow of the heavenly Father’s purpose being described in this verse.  Remember when Abraham was commanded to take his only son up to the mountains and there sacrifice him?  Since God the Father had already promised Abraham that it would be through his descendants that all the world would be blessed and thereby would the saving graces be made available for countless descendants, therefore Abraham’s willingness, however heart-wringing: pointed towards the greater sacrifice of his greater own Son:  Jesus Christ.

Development:  A second point that should be made is the entire context of verse sixteen in its relationship with verses fourteen and fifteen that come just before and also the seventeenth which explains the context. In the specific sense that fifteen and sixteen are part of the same argument, we should note the similarity of the emphases at the end of each statement:

Here the three verses (14-16) again in the context of a parallel argument:

¹⁴   “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
                 so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
¹⁵             that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
¹⁶    For God so loved the world,
                that he gave his only Son,
                that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

There are two propositions there, the lifting up and the giving of the only Son.  And the closing thought to each verse is the reason why Christ should be lifted up and given for those whom the Father loves with an everlasting love.  The second proposition is more specific in the benefits intended, that those who believe may not die but have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  The symbolic totality of the two verses is both a fulfillment of a Mosaic raising up of a saving symbol as well as the prophetic outpouring of our Father God’s greater love for the Lamb to come, who would be slain for the well being of God’s people represented by Isaac.

Verse seventeen goes on to explain the greater purpose in bringing many sons and daughters into a new creation – a promised eternity in a new heaven and a new earth.

¹⁷   “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.”

The world was already condemned in and through the fallen actions of the first Adam, and it would be the cause and purpose of the sacrifice of the second Adam to restore the original paradise lost.  So in these three short verses – the ancient symbols and types of Christ’s coming and purposed have been referenced and finalized in the new administration and sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Calvin would remind us pointedly, that “the words of Christ mean nothing else, when he declares the cause to be in the love of God.”

It would seem logical to me that the only worldly action on the part of any humans, that could possibly be construed from verses fourteen through seventeen would be that someone had had to do something to have brought about the condemnation mentioned in verse seventeen!  Calvin affirms this understanding when he charges us: “it is very evident that Christ spoke in this manner, in order to draw away men from the contemplation of themselves to look at the mercy of God alone.  Nor does he say that God was moved to deliver us, because he perceived in us something that was worthy of so excellent a blessing, but ascribes the glory of our deliverance entirely to his love.”

A third point that must be made from out text, today - and this comes from the particular verb that John uses to express the charitable love of God:  “Agape”.  In the Greek there are four words for love and this is the one that emphasizes the fact that God’s love here is for the unlovely – His gracious love defined in “Agape” is one that is undeserved, it is given entirely through mercy and charity.  Think of it this way, when you give gifts of true charity, it is not because you love the poor and downtrodden – but because you are thankful for the greater charity that has been given to you in and through the “Agape” of God the Father.

Our fourth point that is evident in this text is suggested by commentator Raymond Brown.  “Beginning with seventeen we enter into the Johannine theological domain of realized eschatology.  The very presence of Jesus in the world is a judgment in the sense that it provokes men to judge themselves by deciding either for Jesus or against him.”

The promise of eternal life in a new world, which is repeated in fifteen, sixteen and seventeen leads us to the obvious conclusion that once Christ is ours and we are his – in that saving transaction, our lives have taken on a new and permanent spiritual flavor that transcends time and space.  Think of it this way, when American parents give birth to a child overseas – it is immediately by international law a citizen of our country.  It may be years before they see their own country.  I am reminded by one great American statesman who was considered for the presidency, however – because of his father’s diplomatic stature, as well as his own foreign adventures, he had not lived in America the necessary fourteen years to be allowed a run for the office.  Yet still, he was a citizen – even if he could not rule rightfully.  As adopted children of our great God and King, citizenship is already ours through God’s mercy and grace.  Certainly, only Christ the Son alone is certified for the everlasting reign because His home has always been in heaven.  We are adopted strangers from an earthy realm, but because He has declared us sons and daughters we have become citizens of the Kingdom of the Spirit, or the City of God – however we would phrase the everlasting kingdom.

And in the context of Raymond Brown’s analysis, once Christ came to earth, was crucified, raised and ascended – the new spiritual realm was as certain as God’s word and promise.

Application:  This brings us to the last few verses of our text: eighteen through twenty-one.  It is here in these four verses that the same principle is repeated time after time.  Listen carefully:

¹⁸     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.

¹⁹      And this is the judgment:

The light has come into the world,   
                and people loved the darkness rather than the light
                because their deeds were evil.
²⁰     For everyone who does wicked things
                hates the light and does not come to the light,
                lest his deeds should be exposed.
²¹     But whoever does what is true comes to the light,
                so that it may be clearly seen
                that his deeds have been carried out in God.

Verse eighteen should be considered the theme verse of today’s section because it lays out the principle that fallen men are lost in original sin, because they have lived apart from any and every relationship with the Creator God who has determined that any saving eternal relationship must be measured in a specific focus in and on Christ alone. John is also careful to share the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, listed in the remaining three clauses of verses nineteen through twenty-one.

In verse nineteen, Jesus declares that in His presence – the light of God has shone into the utter darkness of a worldly earth and that in reaction to that divine presence, people cringe in terror and flee the lightness of His being and would prefer the darkness of sin and perdition.  Verse twenty repeats the same sad story of all of those irrevocably lost in sin and wickedness.  And the reason – simply because they do not believe in sin!  Just as the dominant secular religious forces in this country have redefined every deviant behavior as an acceptable variant – we as a society are at a loss to define any sin what-so-ever.  These, Jesus would have us realize – are not the children of God.

No indeed, it is only those who are born again into the greater spiritual kingdom of our Christ and Lord who cringe not from the light, but being enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit – they open their lives for the spotlight of the word and thereby prove that God has performed a new birthing process, not only in attitude but also within the reality of God’s redemptive will and purpose.

The worldly always object.  It is a proven fact of research that atheists are “born” because they want by nature to violate God’s righteous and just laws.  So, the very point of their purpose in rejecting the God of creation is to serve their own interests.  If there is no God, they are thinking, then there is no sin and any perverted inclinations they might have are thus by default:  just as “righteous” as any other humans desires and actions!  Calvin notes:  “unbelief is a testimony of a bad conscience; and hence it is evident that it is their own wickedness which hinders unbelievers from approaching to Christ.”

Now, let us make one final point this morning, which we may logically draw out from the utter wickedness and failures of the lost and reprobate.  Is it any better for those who seem to be within the kingdom, to advocate the success of their own innate godliness as a reason for being saved?  It does not matter, if this thinking is based on works-righteousness or a flawed understanding of the fallen nature of mankind.  In both cases – the philosophical attitude remains opposed to the Gospel understanding of the new birth in Christ.  If Christ in and through the power and work of God and the Holy Spirit – is not the original and final cause in the birthing process: then thereby the worldly principles are upheld and the light of grace and mercy masked so as not to offend the worldling who would rather have salvation on their own terms instead of counting on the providence and love of God!  No matter how the church lifts up the light of Christ, there are all too many who love the darkness and who will twist and turn the gospel to suit their own perverted philosophy.

May we all here assembled count it all grace that God in His infinite wisdom saw fit to love the unlovely and by the gracious charity of His love – call us to the light and cause us to realize our sin and rebellion.  In that new birthing process, we are saved for all time and Christ becomes ours even as we become His adoptive children.  “Amazing Grace – how sweet the sound,” Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 Brown, Raymond E.  The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John.
Calvin, John:  Commentary on the Gospel of John.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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