Suppose someone asked you, “What is the most important—most central—aspect of the Christian faith?”
What would your answer be? Where would you start?
Would you tell them you go to church? If you did, perhaps they would remind you that lots of people gather in groups, both religious and non-religious. So why is church any different?
Perhaps then you would tell them that when you go to church, you worship God and you pray.
And perhaps they would remind you that many other religions also worship God and pray.
By then, hopefully, you would have remembered that as a Christian, your faith centers around Jesus Christ. So perhaps you would then tell them that Jesus is central to our faith.
But of course, they would want to know what difference that makes. After all, other religions also have central figures.
Perhaps you might tell them we also believe that the Bible is the word of God to us. But then of course, other religions also have their sacred texts.
Your friend might be getting impatient by this time, wondering why you were having so much trouble identifying the central aspect of your faith. And then, perhaps you might remember John 3:16, that verse that almost every Christian knows by memory: “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.”
This verse is so well loved because it reminds us that our Christian faith centers around God’s amazing love, expressed through Jesus Christ his Son, who died for us and promises us eternal life in heaven.
Sometimes those of us who have been Christians for quite a while have the problem of knowing too much. Not that I would ever encourage you to stop learning about your faith. But there is a lot to know. The Bible is a big book with lots to learn about. We study it, and that is good. In fact, people have been studying the Bible for many, many years. Scholars have written books and more books about the Bible and what it means. Today, Christian books just keep rolling off the presses, faster than any of us can possibly read them all. The problem is that there is so much knowledge that it can be incredibly overwhelming.
In fact, I think that overwhelming wealth of knowledge can actually push many of us toward silence, when it comes to sharing our faith. We know so much that we don’t know where to begin.
One of the most famous Christian theologians of the twentieth century was Karl Barth. His thirteen-volume work, the Church Dogmatics was widely regarded as one of the most important theological works of all time. Someone once asked Barth if he could summarize what he had said in all these writings. Barth thought for a moment and then said: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
You see, we expect a great scholar to tell us something new; something very deep; something that will stretch our minds and perhaps be just a bit beyond our comprehension.
But the words Barth used are the simple words to the song that children all around the world learn to sing: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Long ago, Jesus had a conversation with another scholar. But this scholar, for all his studying, just didn’t get it. He had studied the scriptures—those texts that now make up our Old Testament. He knew about God, but he did not know God.
So he came to Jesus, and Jesus told him that he needed to be born again. This story is much loved by Christians, because it tells the simple story of the gospel—the good news about God’s love.
John 3:
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the
4 "How can anyone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the
9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10 "You are
16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus begins by telling Nicodemus that the rebirth he speaks of is not a physical birth, but a spiritual birth. Jesus is reminding Nicodemus that there is more to life than meets the eye. We see the physical world—our bodies are physical, and we operate primarily on a physical level. But Jesus reminds us here that there is more. He tells Nicodemus, "… no one can see the
Jesus is saying, “Listen, Nicodemus, and all who will read this after, there is something more going on, and if you want to know about it; if you want to see it, you are going to have to have spiritual eyes. And if you are going to have spiritual eyes, you need to be reborn—not physically, but spiritually.”
That, in a nutshell, is what Jesus came to tell us. You must be born again. Not physically, but spiritually.
Our sinful nature keeps us from having eyes to see God. That’s why we need to be forgiven. And Jesus died so that we might be forgiven.
In verse 14 of the passage I just read, it says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."
This is a reference to the time when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. God had miraculously freed them from slavery in
God became angry with the people, and he sent snakes among them. Finally, the people repented because they realized they had been wrong to complain. Then Moses prayed on their behalf, and God gave Moses these instructions. He told Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. (Numbers 21:4-9)
In a way, this little story of the Israelites is a snapshot of God’s relationship with humanity. God created humanity in this beautiful world, and he gave us instructions as to how we should live. But we were never satisfied with life the way God gave it to us, and we fell into sin. From the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate onward, we wanted to do things our way. And the snake of sin turned on us and bit us. So finally, God sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to take on human flesh and to become the one who would save us.
Jesus came to save us from the stranglehold of death that sin puts on us. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up—that means Jesus must be lifted up on the cross—so that everyone who believes might be freed from sin and have eternal life in him.
And that beloved verse, John 3:16, tells us why God did this. It was because of his love for us. We are God’s precious creation, and he is grieved when we get ourselves mired in the sin that destroys us. That is why Jesus came, and that is why Jesus died. It was for our sin, so that we might live.
“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.” Not only does God save us from our sins, but he promises us the gift of eternal life with him in heaven. Isn’t that a wonderful promise? Do you believe it? Does it bring you hope and joy and peace?
Sometimes people think God just wants to judge us and make us feel bad about ourselves. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I really like what verse 17, the last verse in our passage, says: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
His purpose is not—never has been—to condemn us. He just wants to save us.
I’m sure you all have heard students complain to their teachers that the teacher is going to flunk them. And the teacher wisely replies, “No, I’m not going to flunk you—but you may flunk yourself.” Life, whether it is a Math class or life itself, comes with requirements. We have to make choices. And Jesus knows that we all make a lot of wrong choices.
Isaiah’s prophecy says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
Think of a parent whose precious child has disobeyed, and consequently gotten into serious trouble. The child may be thinking about his or her disobedience. But the parent is thinking only of saving that child. Imagine that your little one ran away from you, and tripped and fell into the deep end of a pool. Would you, even for a second, want to see that child drown because he or she had disobeyed? Of course not! You would just want to get that child out of that deep water as quickly as possible.
We have such a tendency towards self guilt. I have heard that sometimes little children who are lost, or even caught in a fire, will not call out for help because they think they have done something wrong. How many times we adults are the same way when it comes to God? We look at ourselves and see only our own sin—our own disobedience—and the condemnation comes, not from God, but from ourselves. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn us for our sins; he came to save us from drowning in our sin.
When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, he took all of our sins upon him. This is beyond our understanding, but it is true. He did it for one reason alone: because he loves us.
God’s love for us is beyond our comprehension. The good news—the gospel—is that God’s not mad at us! He just wants to save us!
Even if you are a Christian and have walked with the Lord for many years, you may need to remind yourself once in a while that God is not mad at you. He’s not like a great policeman in the sky, watching to make sure you do everything right. We sometimes think that, don’t we? God just wants us to understand and to receive his great love. He calls us to repent, not because he is mad that we are sinners, but because he sees the damage we are doing to ourselves.
When we come to him and repent, we make a decision to turn around and go God’s way. Like that little tot who ran and fell into the deep end of the pool, we get ourselves into all sorts of trouble when we run away from God and try to do what we want instead of following his way for us.
God loves us and his plan for our lives is the best one we could ever imagine. That’s why Jesus came and that’s why he died. Not many people are willing to demonstrate their love by dying for another person, but that is what Jesus did for each one of us.
Prayer:
Lord, we confess that we are often just like strong-willed toddlers—running away and suddenly finding ourselves in trouble. Help us, in this moment, to stop and see ourselves. Help us to see where we are falling into self-destruction. Remind us, once again, of your magnificent love for us. The message is so simple, and yet we are so prone to forgetting. Thank you for your boundless love for us. Thank you that we can know, to the bottom of our hearts, how great your love is for us. Help us to respond to your love with love for you. Amen
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