God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever does not believe, Jesus says, is condemned already (John 3:16-21).
What merits this condemnation? If you are condemned to death by the state, it’s because you have done something to merit it. So, what is the judgment that has brought about the condemnation of those who do not believe?
This is the judgment: the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness.
Humanity stands condemned before God because we loved the darkness. We were comfortable in the darkness. We felt safe in the darkness. There we thought no one could see our sin. There, like Adam and Eve before us, we tried to hide our sin and cover our shame. The last thing we wanted was for our sins to be seen–our sins to be made known–for the light to expose the sin in our hearts.
Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we have sinned against God. If God is in fact a just God who hates injustice and unrighteousness, then we are rightly subject to his punishment.
But like the Israelites in the wilderness, God, in his great love and mercy, has provided a way for us to escape this judgment–to be found innocent, and to walk in the light. By sending his Son, the second person of the trinity, equal in essence, nature, and honor to the Father, God has provided a way out of condemnation. He has provided all the world a way to life abundant and everlasting. He has provided a way to enter the kingdom of God.
What is life like in this kingdom–this kingdom we enter through the second birth, the birth that comes from God when we look up on the Son?
We know God’s love and we walk in God’s light.
In life sometimes we get so busy with the urgent, we get so distracted by everything that we kind of lose this conscious awareness that God loves us.
Recently, I spoke to Teays Valley Christian School students, and basically the theme of my talk was five things I would tell my high school self. None of them were really that complicated. Like I’m so blessed to be able to study in a PhD program and think about theology a lot, but none of the things I’d go back and tell myself are really that complicated.
So much of our spiritual growth happens when really simple things move from our head to our heart. When we say with both our brains and our hearts that Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Scriptures that we already know have so much yet to teach. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
To be a child of God means to know his love for us. He cares about you. Scriptures teach elsewhere that he rejoices over you.
We know God’s love and we walk in God’s light.
John 3:21: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
Whoever does what is true comes to the light. We are called to be people who walk in God’s love and walk in God’s light, people who do what is true. I think this is the same idea that James is getting at when he says we are to be hearers AND doers of God’s word.
God loves not just Israel, but he loves the whole world. He desires all people everywhere to repent of their sin and trust him–to love him, be loved by him, and walk in his light.