For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life

 

 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

 

- John 3:16–21 

 

Yesterday we read that when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."  Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"  Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?  Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

 

 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  My study Bible says that in order to show the reason the Son must be crucified ("lifted up" -- see yesterday's reading, above), Jesus declares God's great love which is not simply for Israel but for the world.  My study Bible adds that this single verse expresses the whole of the message of John's Gospel, and moreover, of salvation history.  

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."  Christ, the text tells us, came to save and not to condemn.  But, my study Bible comments, human beings have free will.  Therefore, we are capable of rejecting this gift.  In so doing, our very rejection condemns us to live without that salvation Christ's gift offer to us. 

 

 In yesterday's reading and commentary, we discussed extensively the connection between Christ's crucifixion, and the defeat of death itself -- and the defeat of the one by whom death sin came into the world.  Again, to quote St. Paul (from Hebrews 2:14-15):  "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."   As Jesus explained to Nicodemus in yesterday's reading, Christ being "lifted up" (John 3:14-15) is, akin to Moses' lifting up of the shining image of the serpent to defeat the poisonous serpents, a way to defeat death itself.  But here in today's reading, we're given the verse that follows, in which we're taught the beginning and the outcome of such a gift to us:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."   The defeat of death through Christ's suffering and death on the Cross is not only given out of love (God's love and the Son's love), but that powerful love works so that we may share in the very everlasting life of the divine Son and Father.  We are called, out of love, to be with our heavenly Creator, and to share in the life which is eternal, unstoppable, everlasting.  But the gift is in the sharing of both Christ's sacrifice and the eternal life He offers:  it is our faith in both the Son of Man and Son of God, the way of the Cross and the way of everlasting life, that makes this gift available, receivable, realizable.  It is through faith (which in Greek is rooted in the word that means "trust") that we find our way to the salvation we're offered from an abundance of love.  Christ leads us to "the way" so that we may find ourselves in Him and in His life for us, even as we each are invited to take up our own crosses with Him.  That lifting up of the Cross is a way in which death and evil are defeated -- stung through the devil's own wiles, even as a sort of trap sprung back upon the trap-setter -- because Christ's is the power to turn poison back on its source.  But it is also made possible through extraordinary love:  a divine power come into the world which, through God's own sacrifice, invites us to share in even in His divine life.  The theology seems complicated, and invites a way of thinking that is not worldly in order to grasp it.  But the intuition and experience of love guides us to grasp it immediately:  a sacrificial love shows the better way of the stronger man so that we may live truly as His children.  Death, sin and evil  are not defeated through a greater violence or evil, but they are instead defeated through love.  We, too, are invited to be part of the Cross and its working, to take up our own crosses, and to defeat sin and death through living faithful lives.  Jesus takes up the task of teaching Nicodemus about Holy Baptism, and so we come to this image of the fullness of our baptism and its promise, a capacity fulfilled through a life of faith and our own sacrifices of the "old"  through its leading, in order to receive the "new" of Christ's love and life.   Let us follow Him into His light, and see the redeeming power of the Cross that lives through faith, trust, and love -- and to join in what St. Paul called the "good fight."  To prefer darkness is to lose that gift.