For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
–John 3.16-21 (NIV)
In the last couple of days we have been looking at some very hard stuff. We’ve been looking at the human condition and our hopeless plight without radical intervention and help. If you’ve read my last couple of posts, it would be easy to think that Scripture focuses on nothing but the dark and ugly. You might even think that guilt is the necessary basis for forming a relationship with God. But that would be a mistaken interpretation. Scripture points out the hopelessness of the human condition, not because God hates us or wants us to go through life feeling guilty all the time, but because God loves us and wants us to open our eyes to the reality of our condition so that we can do our part with his help to end our rebelliousness and begin to really live.
In today’s passage we find one of the best known verses in all of Scripture: John 3.16. John reminds us that God loves us and wants us to have life with him, starting right here and now. But because he loves us, God will never force that on us. As Jim Packer observes, out of apparent love and respect for humans, God allows us to choose whether we want to spend life with him or without him. Talk about respect for human dignity!
This is what makes observing the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, reading Scripture, confession/repentance, and self-denial so important for those of us who love God and want to accept his life-giving offer to us in Jesus. As John points out in the rest of today’s lesson, there is much in us that would prevent us from coming to the light of Jesus because our fallen human nature prefers the darkness so that our deeds will not be exposed. Precisely because we understand the wretched state of our human condition, we focus on putting to death our fallen nature so that we can live in Christ’s light. It is hard work and it spans far beyond the physical season of Lent. Neither can we engage in the Lenten disciplines without the help of the Spirit living in us.
But none of this stops us. By God’s grace we are awakened to the hopelessness of our fallen nature. This, in turn, prepares us to hear the wondrous Good News of Jesus. Just when we are ready to throw our hands up in utter despair, God speaks to us and reminds us that he loves us and has acted decisively on our behalf by becoming human and allowing himself to be nailed to the cross to bear the just punishment for our hostility and rebelliousness toward him. We are reminded that if we choose to believe in Jesus and follow him, we have infinite hope, the hope of New Creation, and our Lenten disciplines allow us to do our part to help the Holy Spirit transform us into the beings God created us to be.
The Gospel is called Good News precisely because it is rooted in historical events (you can’t have news, good or bad, without an actual event occurring) and the very love of God. It reminds us there is healing for our brokenness, forgiveness for our rebellion, and redemption from our slavery to sin. It is accomplished for us by God himself in Jesus Christ and it is offered to everyone freely because God created us for relationship with him, not to destroy us. During this season of Lent, don’t lose sight of the ultimate prize that is yours in Christ as you seek to deny yourself, take up your cross every day, and follow Jesus. Mourn your sins. But don’t forget why you mourn nor lose sight of the wondrous love of God in Christ that claims you and calls you to a higher calling in the Lord Jesus.