This post was adapted from a sermon I preached at the Niagara Gospel Rescue Mission's chapel service. They are bringing the gospel and vital aid to those in need in the greater Niagara Falls region. I commend them for your prayers and generosity. Should you want to pray, partner with them, or give, follow the link: https://niagaragospelmission.org/.
QUESTION: How could something like the love of God bring division?
The question posed in the title is something that even Grammarly doesn't approve of (see the picture below. Albeit, Grammarly thought I was trying to spell divine, many would probably express disapproval at the idea of God's love bringing division. Their theology checker, like my spell checker, put a red line under that question. Let me encourage you to ignore that red line at least long enough to consider the answer.
ANSWER: God’s love for the world brings division to the world because it tells us about two types of people: those who are perishing in contrast to those who have eternal life (vs.16); those who are not condemned in contrast to those who stand condemned already (vs. 17-18); those who hate the light and love the darkness in contrast to those who love the light (vs. 19-21).
THE TEXT: John 3:16–21 (ESV) 16 “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.”
Well, I have a confession. I'm not too creative, but that hasn't slowed down my opinions. I'm the kind of guy that creatives don't want to invite to the meeting to discuss the title of the next sermon series. The sermon series going through Matthew 5-7 should be titled "The Sermon on the Mount" not the "Upside Down Kingdom," "Flipped," or "Kingdom Ethics." Any series through the book of Daniel should be titled, "Daniel." Fight me on it.
So when John, my friend and Director of Development for the Mission, asked me what the title of this message would be and I told him, I’m not very good at that kind of thing. My first proposal was "John 3:16-21." That’s the text, that’s the title. Done. But I gave it some thought and came back to him with a title, "A Verse that Divides." I told you I'm not good at this kind of thing.
Regardless, I think he smoothed that out for me in a way that gets to the point of the text, "Two Types." The text divides. There are two types of people: those on a road to eternal damnation because of their rebellion against God and those on a road to eternal salvation by the gracious gift of God.
I would argue to you that a text like John 3:16, when read in isolation, can be dulled of its dividing purpose. First, many don't make it past the first half of the verse, "For God so loved the world," to even consider the implications of what's at stake in the second half: life and death, perishing and eternal life. Second, many don't understand John 3:16 in the broader context of chapter three.
Look at the first word of verse 16, "For." The word “for” is a conjunction. It is a word used to show connection, express cause, give an explanation, or provide inference. So when you’re reading your Bible and you come across "for" at the opening of a sentence you need to ask yourself, what person, place, event, thought, etc. is this verse explaining, relating cause, inferring, or connecting?
When we follow these questions back in the chapter, we learn who is speaking and who is being spoken to. As a general rule, knowing both who is speaking and who is being spoken to is vital to understanding meaning.
Who is speaking and to whom? If you have a Bible that presents the words in red when Jesus is speaking, it is obvious to you, but it shouldn’t go without saying that Jesus is the one speaking these words. And now we have to ask who is being spoken to. Verse 1 of chapter 3 tells us that Jesus is speaking to a man named Nicodemus. We also learn that this isn’t some open-air sermon. This is a private conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Now Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Pharisees were a sect of Judaism. They were a very strict and devout group of Jews that prided themselves on knowledge and obedience to the law of Moses, what we’ll often refer to as the Old Testament. He belonged to the Sanhedrin, which was a council in charge of Jewish affairs during the occupation of Rome in 1st century Israel.
What is this word “for” in John 3:16 connecting or explaining? When Jesus says “For God so loved the world,” Jesus is explaining what he’s said to Nicodemus earlier in the conversation namely that he must be born again, chapter three, verse 3. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And how can one be born again? Jesus says in verses 14-15, the verses immediately prior to John 3:16, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (a foreshadowing of how Jesus would die on the cross. Any time you see the Son of Man lifted up it is in reference to the type of death he would die on the cross for sinners) that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Sound familiar? Do you see the parallel here between verse 15 and the end of verse 16? Whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
There’s a second parallel or connection to be seen. Verse 14, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” and the first half of verse 16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” And what we need to do is see how we understand God’s love and the gift of his son is directly tied to the context of verses 14 and 15. For God so loved the world that he gave.
What do his love and gift look like? Nicodemus being a Pharisee and ruler on the Jewish council would have been very familiar with the account of the serpent being lifted up on staff by Moses. The story comes from the book of Numbers chapter 21:4-9. The people of Israel were grumbling against God, so God sent poisonous snakes into the camp. Many were dying from the bites. The people cried out for mercy, so God told Moses to fashion a bronze serpent on a pole. Anyone who looked at the serpent on the pole would be healed and live.
If you look at the side of any ambulance, you’ll see this symbol still used today as a symbol of hope and healing.
But why would a snake ever be a symbol of hope and healing? This is very intentional I believe by God for the later connection that Jesus, and his cross, would have to this symbol. God’s instruction to Moses to use a bronze serpent as the means of healing and hope was a foreshadowing of God reversing the curse of sin. When Satan came into the garden to tempt Adam and Eve, how did he do it? In the form of a serpent. When God came and punished Satan and Adam. He cursed the ground instead of Adam. He deflected his wrath away from Adam and cursed the ground. Not so with Satan. He cursed Satan and said cursed is the serpent. The serpent is a symbol of the curse. And yet God says to Moses use the serpent as a sign of hope and healing. If they look at the serpent, they will be healed. It is a foreshadowing of the curse of death being reversed. But in order for the curse of sin to be ultimately reversed you see Jesus had to become a curse for us. Galatians 3:13 says that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'."
How does this impact how we understand John 3:16? Verses 14 and 15 instruct us on the nature of God’s love and gift. God "gave" his son with the knowledge that he would become a curse for us. I have two sons. I would die for either of them in a second. I’m their Father. My love runs deep. I would never want to send them to die. Even more than that, I would never want to send them to die for something they did not do for people who did not deserve them. And yet that is exactly the kind of love and the kind of gift we see here but to a degree much more wonderful than I could ever describe with human illustrations of sacrifice and love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son."
He gave to who? He gave the Son to people who had already been bitten. He gave to people who needed healing. Who goes to the doctor? The sick. When the people of Israel looked to the serpent on the pole, who needed to see it? The sick, the dying, those in need The giving of the Son is for people bitten by the serpent, condemned to death and their only hope is to look to him who took the curse of the serpent's bite on himself. Just as any of the people of Israel who looked at the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses would not die. So too, the last half of verse 16 says, “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The context of verses 14 and 15 helps us understand the verses that follow verse 16 as well. If God gave to people like those who were in the wilderness, what else do we know about them? Why were the serpents there in the first place? God sent the serpents because of their sin, their grumbling, and their ungratefulness. Verses 17 and 18 state, "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. 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."
You see Jesus came to those dead in their sin. He came to those already bit by the serpent. The apostle Paul, when writing to the church in Rome said it this way, God demonstrates his love to us in this way while we were still sinners Christ died for us. The love of God is completely undeserved. Not only does God give his best gift in sending his Son. He gives to those who don’t deserve it. He gives to those who stand condemned already because, as verse 19 states, "And this is the judgment (or "this is the condemnation" [NKJV]): the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."
The condemnation or judgment is self-incurred. The condemnation is deserved because we rejected the light for the darkness. What is that light? We plainly can see that the light that has come is Jesus. John develops this theme from the very first chapter. John 1:1-5, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
A few verses down John 1:9-12, "The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." Jesus is the light.
Who are the “people” in verse 19 who loved the darkness rather than the light of Christ? There is a particular meaning. Jesus came to his own, the Jewish people. Jesus came as a Jew. And the Jewish people did reject him. But there is also a broader meaning here in light of verse 16. Salvation is not offered only to the Jew, but to the whole world, to "whosoever believes." We are those "people" who loved the darkness rather than the light. Every person who has ever lived. All have rebelled against God’s law. All have sinned. We have loved our own interests. We have loved the world and the things of this world, and in doing so have rejected the light of the world. We rejected the light for darkness, for wicked deeds. We have rejected Jesus.
Jesus explains here that we do what we most love. We follow what we most love. We worship what we most love. We vote for, talk about, think about, and live in light of what we most love. In Matthew’s Gospel, we see Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount, where your treasure is, there you’re heart will be also. Whatever you treasure, whatever you desire the most, there you’re heart, your love will be. In the same sermon, he explains that you can’t serve two masters you’ll hate one or love the other. As he tells Nicodemus in verse 20, "For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." We do what we most want.
When Jesus says that the wicked do not want their works to be exposed, that doesn’t mean that people don’t sin openly or only conceal their sin. What it means is those who sin don’t want the light of God’s presence, the word of God to confront their sin. They don't want the light to shine on the darkness revealing it to truly be darkness. Turn on the news you’ll see people sinning openly not hiding their sin because the world has said right is wrong and wrong is right. But when the law of God comes and shines its light, then you’ll see the fight. You’ll see the offense of the gospel. Remember I said John 3:16 is a dividing verse if taken in its context. People who love the dark do not want to see the light. And whether you are a believer or unbeliever this can be the tendency to run to hide in the dark to seek out only those voices that affirm your sin and not confront it with the love of Christ. Remember 1 John 2:15-17 was written to believers. "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
CONCLUSION
The selected text ends with this in verse 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." We who believe in Christ and come to the light do not come to the light because we are smarter, more deserving, and have somehow earned our way.
In these verses, 16-21, we see the substance of the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone. While the word justified is not used here remember the legal language that is in this text of judgment and condemnation. Anyone who comes to the light comes in order that it might be seen “that his works have been carried out in God.” That’s faith. Belief in the new life that Jesus offers, a life of no more condemnation, a life of salvation, and a hope for eternal life with God is not earned--it is given. God gave to those who stood condemned already. For God so loved the world (those who were once condemned already), that he gave his only Son (the greatest gift) that whosoever (the least deserving) would believe in him, should not perish (not receive what they deserved) but have eternal life.
Do you realize that you’ve been bitten already by the serpent? Do you see yourself as a sinner? If yes, then look to the cross.
Are you a believer, but you still carry some shame for the sin that you’ve done?
Look to the cross.
Look to the cross. Look to the light, in faith, and live.
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