This is how God loved the world

Sermon for Midweek of Pentecost

Acts 10:42-48  +  John 3:16-21

You all know John 3:16, God so loved the world… We memorize that verse. We use it often. I’ve used it often in sermons. It was sort of the basis of my justification-by-faith-alone essay. Would you believe I’ve never preached on this text before? It always comes up in the Church Year on the day after Pentecost, and we have never had a service on that day, nor have we used the assigned readings for that day on any other day. Well, this evening we don’t have time for a full treatment of the text, but that’s all right, because it really is quite simple.

Most people who believe in a generic god talk about God’s “love,” by which they basically mean that God is nice, and caring, and never judgmental or condemning, and he’ll let everyone into heaven in the end—which allows them to do whatever they want, whenever they want, always falling back on idea that “God is love.”

But Jesus tells us plainly, simply, directly what God’s love looks like. “God so loved the world.” That phrase doesn’t mean “He loved the world so much.” It means, “He loved the world in such a way that.” In other words, Jesus is about to tell Nicodemus, with whom He’s speaking here in John 3, this is how God loved the world: He gave His only-begotten Son. Now, that’s not the end of that sentence; it’s not the complete answer, but it’s the first part of it. God loved the world—the fallen world, the sinful, corrupt, selfish, me-centered, devil-serving, headed-to-hell, already-condemned world, including you and me (unless you hope to be saved from eternal death in some other way)—in such a way that He gave His only-begotten Son. You know how much is packed into that saying. The Father planned all of human history so that His Son, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, might be given to us sinful men as a man like us, given to our race forever, in order to seek and to save that which was lost. Not only that, but the Father gave His beloved Son to suffer and to die on a cross for us. That is how God loved the world.

But the sentence continues with the purpose of that giving. This is how God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son so that (for the purpose that) whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God the Creator, the one against whom all mankind had rebelled, had placed a judgment of death on our race after Adam and Eve’s sin, because their sinful condition passes down to all their children. But that same God chose, of His own freewill, to sacrifice His beloved Son on the cross so that all the sinners in the world could escape from that death sentence and live eternally with Him, by believing in His beloved, only-begotten Son. Yes, that’s the “condition” for spending eternity with Him. You have to believe in Jesus; you have to want Jesus for a Savior; you have to want to be saved through Him alone.

Of course, we’re so far gone by nature, we couldn’t even believe in Jesus on our own. And so the God who sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved, sends His Holy Spirit into the world, to call sinners by the Gospel, to persuade sinners, to enable sinners to believe in His Son. He wants us to believe. He enables us to believe. But He doesn’t force anyone or compel anyone to believe. He enables us to believe, while still allowing us not to.

For the one who believes in Christ Jesus, the sentence of condemnation and death is removed here and now. He who believes in Him is not condemned. Or as Paul writes to the Romans, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the believer, the guilty verdict is changed to innocent. The brand of “sinner” is changed to “saint.” The sentence of death is changed to life. And the status of enemy of God is changed to child of God.

For the unbeliever, nothing changes. Do you hear that? Nothing changes. He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The unbeliever is already condemned. Condemned on the basis of the sins he has already committed and the sinful, godless condition in which he was born. Condemned, because he refused the path of justification that God provided for him and laid out for him and invited him to. The mind of the unbeliever is so arrogant that they despise justification by faith alone in Christ and then still have the audacity to accuse God of being a big Meany for not saving them in some other way, in the way of their own choosing.

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. This is the condemnation. In other words, this demonstrates God’s righteousness in condemning them. God sent His Son, who is the Light, who is Truth, who is Goodness, who is Love personified, into the world to save the world. And most men preferred darkness, preferred lies, preferred that which is twisted and ugly and evil to that which is righteous and beautiful and good. They preferred the false freedom of the devil to the true freedom of God. Their condemnation is clearly deserved.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. Think of the tax collectors and sinners. While they were determined to live in sin, they avoided and hid from God’s Word and the ministry of it. But God’s Word moved them to acknowledge the truth, to reconsider their sinful choices, and then Jesus invited them to come to Him for forgiveness, and they came, and repented, and believed, and then, as believers, they stopped living in sin and started living according to the truth. Believers are not afraid to have the light of Christ shining on us, because our past sins have been cleansed by Christ and our present life is not one of practicing sin, living in sin, clinging to sin, but of daily contrition and repentance, if we are genuinely believers in Christ.

On the other hand, consider the Pharisees. They were happy to have the people of Israel view their works. But when Jesus came and exposed their hypocrisy and the lack of mercy underlying their works, they hid from Him, and even hated Him. They refused to acknowledge the truth, that they were sinners and that Christ was the Savior sent to save them.

What has changed? People love to pat themselves on the back and think of themselves as good people, but when God’s Word exposes them as sinners, they hide from Christ and remain in the darkness. They’ll talk all about God’s love, until it’s proclaimed to them that God loves them in such a way that He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to suffer and die for their sins so that they might turn away from their sins, and from all their idols and false saviors, and believe in Christ alone for salvation. When that message is proclaimed in the world, then it becomes clear who the ones are who truly know and appreciate the love of God. They are the ones who repent and believe in Jesus. In them—in you who believe! — the Holy Spirit’s work has had its intended effect, and God’s purpose in sending His Son into the world has been fulfilled. In them—in you who believe! — the Holy Spirit continues His work of guiding you away from sin and toward the works that are fitting for saints, because you have been born of God and have come to know that this is how God loved the world, by giving His only-begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Amen.