John 3:16-21 -- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. 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 works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 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.”
Something really hit me about John 3:16, the fact that as Christians we often treat this verse as it exists in its own reality. Now, don't get me wrong, it is absolutely one of the most beautiful and powerful places we see a summed-up version of God's love, Jesus' purpose, and where we fit in. John 3:16 should be memorized and absolutely something we share with others. However, we can't extract it from the rest of what Jesus says here.
This may be silly of me, but if you had asked, "Who is Jesus talking to in John 3:16?", prior to this journey through John, I wouldn't have known without opening my bible to check. I mean obviously His words are recorded here for us all, but prior to now, I never fully realized this is a continuation of Jesus talking to Nicodemus. You remember that guy, his name means 'Conqueror', he's a high up religious Pharisee, part of the ruling Sanhedrin. Yeah that's the guy.
Jesus is talking to someone who is highly educated, highly religious, and firmly planted in those life-long religious beliefs. He is talking to someone who believes he's all good, ready to go, all boxes checked. Jesus steps in and says, it's not about lineages, knowledge, religious rituals, and cleaning up the outside. This is about new life, about being born again, born of the Spirit, born from above and no matter how hard you work, no matter how much you learn, no matter how dedicated you become to religious rituals, the only way to access this new birth is to look upon the Son of God, Jesus, and to believe and trust in Him. Not in the miracles, the hype or idea of Jesus, but in Jesus Himself.
Then of course Jesus keeps going on as we see through verse twenty-one adding more to the already profound imagery He'd just given Nicodemus of Moses and the bronze snake. Then drawing a direct line from there (in Old Testament) to Himself (in New Testament). There is so much packed in here, but for now our journey in chapter three has been focused on how Jesus acts and speaks to Nicodemus.
Here are the final three things for today that really jumped out as I finished praying over and reading these verses again.
First, we've watched and listened in chapter three verses one through twenty-one the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. As this section closes out, we don't see whether Nicodemus finally understood or if he believes in Jesus or not. So, if we act as Jesus did, then we will lovingly confront others and speak the whole truth regardless of the outcome.
Second, what we walked through in these verses was a "CONVERSATION" between Nicodemus and Jesus. It wasn't one sided. It wasn't some ritual. It was Nicodemus coming to Jesus, apart from the crowds, after the miracles, one on one, to talk with Him. So many times, we neglect, get too busy, too distracted, too caught up in the crowds or ourselves to just sit down with Him. One on one, to just talk. To simply sit with Him, pray and read the Word, just talk to Him, and to hear Him speak!
Lastly, something that jumped out as interesting is the whole interaction in chapter three starts with "Night" and the last few verses end discussing "Light". As smart as Nicodemus was, I'm sure it wouldn't have been lost on him, as they sit there at night, how Jesus closes by discussing coming to the light.
Christian, do you see the lengths our Savior goes to for Nicodemus? Do you see Him loving him enough to just simply speak the whole truth, regardless of what the outcome would be? We're called to act and walk as Jesus acted and walked. So, we better make sure we really let it sink in how Jesus loved, walked, talked, and confronted people.
I so hope you will be the Berean and jump into your Bible and see these things for yourself. There is SO much packed into these verses and yet this journey through touched on something different than the countless times I've gone through this same book before.
If you need prayer, to talk, or someone to listen please reach out. You are loved. You are prayed over. You are not alone.
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