“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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."
John 3:16-17, ESV
For God SO loved the world…
Father God’s love is seen on every page, in every encounter, in every action of Jesus throughout the entire book of John. He is Father God’s love made flesh. In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well. He shouldn’t have spoken to her.
She was a woman.
A Samaritan.
A Sinner.
But He did.
And because of it, an entire village believed.
To "condemn" is to "destroy, put asunder, and separate." Isaiah 59:2 says that our sin built barriers between us and God. Our SIN separated us.
Jesus didn't come to do that.
He came to bring us close.
He came to save - to "rescue" us from "danger and destruction" and to "deliver us from the penalty of sin."
“For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23).”
And we are told only that we must "believe in Him" and that "eternal life" will be ours (John 3:16)!
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In John 3: 1-15, Nicodemus comes to see Jesus.
Nicodemus, John tells us, is a Pharisee and leader of the Jews.
He shouldn't have come to see Him.
He shouldn't have been curious.
And yet he did...and yet he was.
"Little wonder," David Lose writes. "Jesus has caused quite a stir. His actions in the Temple would have been unheard of, yet his signs and wonders, as Nicodemus confesses, testify that he has come from God. And so, Nicodemus comes to question Jesus, to learn more of him, and to make a decision about him."
All throughout the book of John, we see people like Nicodemus, people of all stations and stature, coming to this same point – this moment of decision. From a Samaritan Woman to a Nobleman, a beggar to a Ruler, a leper to a disciple…all have to decide, “Do I believe?”
And their answer to this question defines the rest of their story.
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In John 3:36, Jesus says, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life..." John carries this theme throughout the entirety of the book, bringing his readers to this question again and again, "DO I BELIEVE?"
To "believe" is to be persuaded, to have confidence in, to trust, and to acknowledge as truth.
What are you persuaded of?
What are you confident in?
What do you claim as truth?
Jesus says, "Whosoever believes, is persuaded of, claims as truth, and is confident in Me will NOT perish..."
What "decision" have you "made about Him?"
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