John 3:9-21: a reflection

9Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things? 11Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness. 12If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. 14As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God. 19This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. 20For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. 21But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

In the middle of Jesus' night conversation with Nicodemus comes the verse that may be the most quoted in all the Bible: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And the next verse guards its meaning: God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Notice the shape of God's love here. It is love that gives, God so loved that he gave, and what he gave was his only Son, the costliest gift imaginable. And it is love with a purpose that is not condemnation but salvation: he sent his Son not to condemn but to save. We can carry an image of God as primarily out to condemn us, watching to catch us out. Jesus says the opposite: the Son came because God loved the world and wanted to save it, not to condemn it.

That is the heart of the gospel, and it is meant for you personally. God so loved the world, and you are in that world; his love reaches to you, and it moved him to give his Son so that you, believing, might not perish but have eternal life. He did not send Christ to condemn you but to save you. Whatever image of a condemning God you may carry, let this verse correct it. God's disposition toward you, shown at the cross, is love that gives and longs to save. Believe in the Son, and receive the life that love holds out to you.

Lord, you so loved the world that you gave your only Son, and you sent him not to condemn but to save. When I carry an image of you as out to condemn me, correct it with this truth: your love gives, and it longs to save. Thank you that your love reaches even to me. Help me believe in your Son and receive the eternal life your love holds out.