GraceTrax

“FOR GOD so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him...” If you don’t understand the verses that follow John 3:16, the invitation to believe upon Christ may appear ludicrous. But the apostle John—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—provides a context for God’s redemption plan—a context that is often left out when references are made to that verse. The context begins in verse 17 and concerns the intention of Christ’s coming. 

What was Christ’s intention? He states it negatively in verse 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.” That verse makes clear what Christ did not come to do—condemn the world. 

God did not send Christ into the world to condemn, but to save. Consider the last half of verse 17, “…in order that the world might be saved through Him.” He came to rescue and redeem, not to destroy. 

Jesus came to redeem us, and He’s returning to culminate that plan of redemption. Does that excite you, Christian? I’m getting more and more eager with every passing year. I think when we pass through the process of sanctification our longing for heaven intensifies. I’m ready to go! We’ve got it made, folks. We need to come to grips with what God has done for us and stop fearing affliction, sickness, persecution, and death. We have no cause for apprehension over those events. 

The most glorious event for you and me will be our dying and passing into eternity. Death is only a threshold for us. Understandably, that sounds odd to the world, doesn’t it? But we know rationally in our minds that death is the best thing that could ever happen to a Christian—dying and going to be with Christ. The truth that informs that glorious reality is found in this text: He came to save. 

Verse 18 continues that theme when it says, “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.”  In other words, a sobering consequence accompanies unbelief. Whoever attaches his faith to Christ as the sole object—it can’t be faith in anything or anyone—will be saved from condemnation. 

No one who believes in Christ will suffer condemnation. All who believe in Christ—in heart, mind, and soul—will be saved. That’s the context for understanding John 3:16. In order to be saved from something, we must understand what we’re being saved from. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to remind people of this in my 39 years of ministry: We will never flee to Christ until we are persuaded that He is our sole means of escape. 

If you entertain the thought of an alternative route of escape, you will trust in your own flesh. Left to ourselves, we all do that outside of the Holy Spirit’s merciful work of conviction. So often God allows us to trust in those human, carnal, helpless means of escape, and then begins to move us into the realm of divine help. In a way, He funnels us away from trusting in our flesh until, finally, we look to Christ alone.  No one will look to Christ for deliverance until everything else has proven futile.  

Because of man’s carnal mind, he always chooses the carnal means of help over the spiritual, even though it will always prove futile. As an unregenerate audience to the gospel, we hear the message over and over, but cannot understand it. Then God’s divine light floods our minds and hearts and we see our true condition--along with His provision in Christ. Then all other carnal alternatives melt away and we see and believe in Christ. However, as long as those other alternatives appear useful, we will never believe in Christ; our flesh will resist and overpower us. 

It works like this: A person realizes his alienation from God, but believes he can simply attend church more regularly in order to get right with God. Perhaps he resolves to read his Bible more consistently, pray more fervently, give to charity, and read more Christian books. He’ll do anything to appease his conscience and convince himself of his right to enter heaven. That’s how the carnal mind thinks about and responds to salvation—and it’s damning! We may look to our church attendance, prayer life, Bible study habits, and even our so-called good deeds, but until we look to Christ alone we’re doomed. All other sources of hope are false. 

I believe one of the main reasons we’re failing in our evangelism efforts today is because we don’t understand the need for setting the context. If you approach someone and say, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” how do you think he’ll respond?  He probably won’t, because you’ve not given him a context. What you’ve told him makes no sense at all. He doesn’t understand his own sin. He doesn’t even know Who God is, or what God is like. That’s why the Bible emphasizes the importance of pressing the law of God upon an unbeliever. Scripture refers to God’s Law as the “schoolmaster,” the “superintendent.” It serves as a tutor, a guide to bring lost men and women to Christ so they may be justified through faith in Him. 

That’s the context of condemnation. Until a lost person senses the conviction of sin that comes from the Law and recognizes the darkness in his own fallen heart, he will never flee to and believe upon Christ. That is the role of the Holy Spirit—to convict, convince, and draw the sinner to Christ. It’s His work. May He do a fresh work in our families, congregations, neighborhoods, and city. Let’s pray to that end!    

THE Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote what has become one of the most well known and celebrated verses in the entire Bible, John 3:16. Take a look at that section, beginning in verse 16 and continuing through verse 21. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His onlySon that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life, for God did not send Him Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. 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.  And this is the judgment; the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed.  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."  

In Scripture, we learn that the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—covenanted together in eternity past to design the exquisite plan of salvation. You see the beauty of that covenant in that passage. It’s one of the most beautiful texts in the Word of God and speaks of God’s wonderful deliverance of sinners—offered solely through the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Three main points stand out in the first part of that text. 

First you see what we’ll call “The Father’s Plan” in verse 16. When you survey John 3:16, you cannot help but see the divine motive in the plan of redemption. The motive is this: the love of God. “For God so loved the world.” That is, by the way, the greatest motive of God.  The Bible says plainly that God is love. It also teaches that God at times manifests wrath against sin; but Scripture never says that God is wrath.  In his essential character, He is love personified.  That beautiful attribute—God’s love—motivates His redemptive plan. God loves sinners.   

God’s love does not mirror our own imperfect love. For example, we love our spouse, our children, and our parents.  But those loves are temporal. In contrast, the love of God is eternal. There was never a time in eternity past when God did not possess perfect love for His children, for He is a God of love.  

Intrinsically, love characterizes God, not only love within the Father, but the Son and Holy Spirit as well.  God’s love explains why we’re here today—why we’re assembled here in this place hearing the Word of God, singing the songs of the saints, and enjoying the privilege of being heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Because of His love, we are kings and priests unto God. We enjoy that status because of His abundant love.

Secondly, you see in that passage not only God’s motive but also His action. Love moved God to give the greatest gift of all: His own Son. He didn’t withhold from us His greatest gift, but sent us His only Son. The greatness of God’s sacrifice is magnified by the fact that He is the only Son. God was motivated by love, pressed by love to send His only Son. His Son, Who did not have a place to lay His head; a son who was ridiculed, a Son who was murdered, a Son who suffered a cruel death on a cross—all because of His great love toward sinners. 

What rebels we are, and yet God did that for us—vile, wretched sinners, filled with wickedness and deceit. Because of that truth, when we adopt the attitude of Paul, who said “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death,” we are closer to God than at any other time. When we recognize the greatness of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, motivated by the Father’s love, and express that recognition with humble, heartfelt worship, God is glorified. 

Jesus spoke of that great, motivating love in John 17 when He said to His Father, “You have loved them, even as You have loved Me.” Isn’t it amazing that from all eternity, God set His love upon His own Son, and yet loves us in the same way? That’s a remarkable truth, Christian.  

Thirdly, you see in that passage a sublime, yet simple means of deliverance: faith. Note the simplicity of that truth: “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The one element we must possess in order to attain heaven is faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith, trust, confidence; believing the Gospel; believing specifically in the object of the Gospel, which is Jesus Christ. That’s the means of deliverance. Faith—and faith in Christ alone.  

When we experience seasons of fear, doubt, trials, and tribulations, that truth will elevate our hearts.  When we give thought to the proper object, which is Christ, we’re lifted up and encouraged, because we’re looking toward the proper object. You see, you must not stop at just the concept of faith. You must go further. Faith must have the perfect object and that perfect object is Christ. 

That is the grace and the mercy of God. Again, sublime and yet so very simple. Think about the people in hell, suffering the intolerable wrath of God for this reason. They would not believe. Their judgment and condemnation is irreversibly fixed because they would not believe in the only acceptable object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Many churches are moving away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our day. Therefore we must endeavor more than ever to lift high the Lord Christ Jesus Christ, Who said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men to myself.” That’s our mission, to lift high the risen Savior.   

Many doctrines emerge from the pages of Scripture, but when we disconnect them from Jesus Christ in the pulpit, they are worthless; dead doctrines that serve only to build up egos instead of fueling love and devotion to Christ. God intended for doctrine and theology to bring us to a person: Christ. Christianity without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is satanic.  It makes no difference how theologically minded a person perceives himself to be. Until he possesses a relationship with the person of Christ, he is simply a lost theologian. Many theologians who knew about Christ populate hell. You can read about them in Matthew 7. The knew about Christ, but they didn’t know Christ personally. Knowing Christ is eternal life (John 17:3).     

That’s the sublime, simplistic plan: believing in a person, the person of Christ, the One Who became the God-Man and bridged the great gulf of iniquity between God and man. That vital truth introduces the remainder of the passage—the intention of Christ’s Coming. We’ll take a look at that next time. Don’t miss it!