Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: John 3:16 | Date: January 29, 2023 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to John chapter three. And we come at long last to our final message in this series of the doctrine of salvation. John chapter three. I’ll begin reading with verse one.

Now 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 him, “Truly, truly, 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, “Truly, truly, 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 its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I had told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descends from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son—and I will explain this later, but I will retain the traditional reading here—for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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, or the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we’re grateful as we come to this most loved passage in all of the Bible. We pray that you will give us eyes to see why it is among the most loved passages in Scripture. We pray that you’ll give us through it a deeper appreciation for our Lord Jesus and a greater sense of trust in him. We pray in his name, amen.

Well, we come then to the conclusion of our series on the doctrine of salvation. You’ll remember, just by way of brief review, that we have looked at the doctrine of salvation as it’s presented in Scripture under three broad areas.

Redemption planned: and there we saw that God initiated this plan of redemption, chose a people whom he would save in love, predestined to save them, and set out this purpose of grace to be worked out in time. Then we saw, secondly, redemption accomplished: that to accomplish this plan of redemption, God sent his Son to secure the salvation for those people that he had determined to save. And the Son then came, and he came to stand in the place of sinners and to offer himself as a substitute in their place, offered himself as a sacrifice for their sins, satisfying the just demands of God against their sin and therefore propitiating God, satisfying his wrath. His death paid the ransom price that purchased their freedom—freedom from the curse of the law, freedom from their sin—and now they are justified and reconciled to God.

And then it was left finally for the third broad area: redemption applied. Redemption planned, redemption accomplished through Christ, and then redemption applied through the work of the Spirit in the individual believer. And we saw how that worked out in all of the individual experiences that we have that pertain to salvation. Redemption planned, redemption accomplished, and redemption applied.

And today I want to look at a sort of a concluding summary of all of that, and we find it in John 3:16. We’ll be looking primarily at verse 16, but also verses 17 and 18. But verse 16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Martin Luther—one of the things he is famous for saying is that we have in John chapter three and verse 16 a miniature gospel. We have, in a sense, the whole Bible contained here in this verse. In a brief statement, we have a summary of the whole plan of redemption, the executing of that plan, and the application of it in individual experience to those who believe. In fact, this verse was of such value to Martin Luther, the reformer, that he repeated this verse several times over when he was on his deathbed. Of course, he recited it in Latin; that’s the way it was in those days. But it is one of the best-known verses in all the Bible. Charles Spurgeon preached on this passage, on this verse, he said, every year. I don’t know if that was absolutely every year, but that was his claim: that he wanted to preach on this verse every year because we have in it the whole Bible contained in itself.

We find this verse more than any other in the public scene. It is one of the best-known verses, and so even the reference, “John 3:16,” you might see it on billboards, you might see it at baseball games; John 3:16. And we hope that people, when they see the reference, will know the verse behind it.

As well known as the verse is, it is not without some difficulties. One of the questions that we face in verse 16 is: who speaks these words? If you have a red-letter edition of your Bible, like I have, it’s probably printed in red here, indicating that these are the words of Jesus. One of the difficulties for translators when they issue a red-letter version of the Bible is finding, particularly in the Gospel of John and in this passage in particular, where do the words of Jesus end and the words of John begin? Typically, or elsewhere in John’s writings, this term “only begotten” that is in this verse—at least in the original and also in the King James Version—that’s a term that John uses, not Jesus. Also, there are other expressions, like in verse 18, “to believe in his name” or “to believe in the name of Jesus,” and also verse 21, a strange expression, “to do the truth” or “to practice the truth.” Elsewhere, that’s an expression that John uses, not Jesus. And even verse 16 itself—Jesus’ death here appears to be spoken of as a past event. It seems, at least it seems to me and many others, to be John’s reflections on Jesus’ remarks to Nicodemus in the previous verses. Well, we’ll see how that plays out as we go along.

Verse 16 itself, then—more questions—has been variously understood. Arminians, of course, claim that this is their verse. “God so loved the world.” There it is—Arminianism, pure and simple. And Calvinists, of course, want to respond and say, “Not so fast. This is our verse. This is not your verse.” And back and forth it goes. And even among Calvinists, there are some details in the verse where there are differences of interpretation. For our purposes this morning, we’re going to see how this is a fitting summary of our series on the doctrine of salvation.

Redemption planned: “God so loved the world.” That is a functional equivalent of what we have seen in Romans 8, verse 29: “whom he foreknew.” Redemption planned: God so loved the world. Redemption accomplished: that he gave his only Son and sent him to save it. And then redemption applied: that whoever believes in him should have eternal life. Let’s work our way then through the details.

Redemption Planned

First of all, redemption planned. Verses 16 and 17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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.”

It has been widely recognized that the framework of the Gospel of John has to do with the saving mission of the Son. You’ll find expressions in the Gospel of John frequently to that effect: that God sent his Son, God gave his Son, that the Son came from the Father to do his will, and so on. The saving mission of the Son—what we’ve called in our series “redemption accomplished”—that the Father sent the Son to accomplish the salvation that he had decreed, has been widely recognized. This is part of the framework of the Gospel of John.

It’s also the theme of this passage in particular in verses one and following. We have Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus regarding his lostness, his blindness—that he can’t see the kingdom of God without the Spirit’s work initiating in him a work necessary to enable him to see and to enter the kingdom of God. And then verses 13 and following, we have Jesus explaining for us how these blessings are secured. And these blessings, he says, are secured by the incarnate Son, who has descended from heaven and through his death—”lifted up”—secures the blessings necessary for salvation.

So verse 13: the incarnation of the Son. “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Verses 14 and 15: we have this “lifted up” imagery, which by the time we get to chapter 12 will be made explicit that this is a veiled reference to Jesus’ death, being lifted up on the cross. We’ve seen how that’s a pun involved in John’s own language—that this “lifted up” is the word of exaltation, and that it means very literally lifted up on the cross. And so there’s that intended pun: that Jesus is glorified, he’s honored in being lifted up on a cross and crucified and dying for his people. And then verse 15, at the end of the verse, we have the saving design of Jesus’ death: “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” And then verses 16 and 17, we have John’s interpretive comment: God gave his Son, and he loved the world so that he gave his Son and sent his Son to save it. God loved the world, and so he gave his Son and sent his Son to save it. It’s something the world could not do for itself, even though the cost was so great; God gave and sent his Son to save the world.

And that is redemption planned. Our salvation finds its initiating cause in the love of God and his eternal purpose. Now John, as you know, has been referred to often as the apostle of love. Love is a common theme in John, both in his gospel and his epistles. It’s a common theme. More common, we find Jesus’ love for the Father, the Father’s love for the Son, the Son’s love for the Father, Jesus’ love for his own people, and even his people’s love for one another. All of these are common love themes in John’s writings.

Here we have something unusual in the technical expressions of it. Here the astonishing truth announced is that of God loving the world. “God so loved the world.” Now, I said it’s an astonishing statement. It’s not so astonishing today, I suppose, to most people. It’s just assumed: of course he loves the world. Why wouldn’t he? We are such lovable creatures. It’s sort of God’s job description to love us. And that’s what God is for. And this is not such an astonishing thing at all—we’ve forgotten today, of course, corresponding truths of God’s righteousness, his majesty, his holiness, his righteousness and justice, his sovereignty. So this is not such a stunning thing, but it’s helpful, I think, to think through this verse to understand the import of what John is saying.

Verse 16 again: “God loved the world.” It’s certainly true in one sense that God loves all of his creatures. We find that stated in the Bible at several points. Psalm 145 tells us that the Lord is good to all, and his compassion—it’s one of the words for love—his compassion is over all his works. We have the famous passage in Matthew chapter five, where Jesus exhorts us to be like our Father in heaven and love our enemies as he does. And there’s one sense in which God loves all of his creatures, and that’s how many people read verse 16 here: God’s love is so great that he loves everyone in the world.

But when you say that, we’ve got to stop and think. I hope you don’t think this is too pedantic; it’s necessary to understand the verse. There’s love, and there’s love. I love my wife. I also love French fries. And you know immediately that that word “love” doesn’t mean the same in both instances. There’s a range of meanings. It’s true with every language; it’s the same. And in fact, we have that in the Bible. We have John, for example, saying in First John chapter three, “What kind of love is this, that we should be called the children of God?” That’s one kind of love. And then we have Jude saying, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” Well, there are other connotations now to love, aren’t there?

And so we have to understand here: what is the love that he is speaking of here when it says God loved the world? And I think first it is important to see that John here is speaking not of a common love of God, of a common compassion for the world—what we might call common grace—but he’s speaking specifically of a saving love. Verses 16 and 17 may be summarized very well by saying: God so loved the world that he sent his Son to save it. This is a saving love of God, not a general love of goodwill.

Now next, we have to recognize what John means by this word “world.” And again, I hope you don’t think this is pedantic. Every time we get through this, I hope you’ll see this. What does John mean when he says God loved the world? What are the connotations of the word “world” in John’s writings? And two connotations stand out when you read this word “world” in John’s writings.

Number one: there’s a global outlook. Particularly in the Gospel of John, but also in 1 John as well, there’s a global outlook. What I mean by that is that the Jews understood very well that God loved Israel. That was an old theme that was established centuries before. But that God loved the Gentiles, that was a more difficult thing for the Jews to understand. To the Jews—we find this in the New Testament—the Gentiles, as well as the Samaritans, were “dogs.” And to think that God loved those dogs, that was a difficult, difficult theme to go down.

But we have that as a major area of emphasis in John’s writings. If you want to go back a page, you see it in John chapter one, verse 29, where we find John the Baptist introducing Jesus. He saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Now he’s not saying there—we know by the outcome, the outcome being that men and women are condemned for their sin in the end—we know that John is not saying that the sin of every last man, woman, and child has been expiated, has been removed; but the world in a global sense. Here’s the world’s Savior who has come—not just Jews, not just Israel—but he’s the Savior of the world.

And in fact, that’s the expression that’s used in chapter four, when we have Jesus’ famous discussion with the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. “Why would you have anything to do with us? The Jews don’t have anything to do with Samaritans. Why would you talk to us?” And you remember how Jesus spoke to her about her past and her history and her present circumstances and all that. She runs back, brings people back, and they see Jesus, and they listen to him, and they come to believe on him, and they say, “Now we know that you are the Savior of the world”—not just Israel, but the Savior of the world.

I’ve told you this before: my favorite example of this is in chapter 12, where you have that perfect example of how not to witness. Remember, the Greeks came to Philip and said, “We want to talk to Jesus.” And Philip just doesn’t know what to do with that. Greeks come to Jesus? “Wait, wait, I’ll have to get back to you on that.” And so Philip goes and says to Jesus, “There’s some Greeks out here that want to talk to you.” And you remember Jesus’ response? “If I be lifted up”—there’s that phrase again—”If I be lifted up, I’ll draw all peoples to myself.” And the passage moves on and Jesus says, “I came to save the world.” Not just Israel. There’s this global outlook in John’s writings. I think the same is involved, by the way, in 1 John 2:2: “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Well, all of that works back, of course, to Genesis chapter 12: God’s promise to Abraham that through his seed, all of the families of the world would be blessed. And of course, we see that coming to fruition finally in the book of Revelation, where men and women from every tribe and nation and kindred and tongue sing praises to the Lamb who by his blood has redeemed them out of every nation to himself and made them kings and priests to God. I think the point here then is that God’s saving love is not confined to Israel alone. It is global in scope. And that was a difficult thought for the Jews of Jesus’ and the apostles’ day. In fact, it continued to be a problem in the time of the book of Acts. We’ve seen that in our reading through Acts in our Wednesday night studies. And I think John 3:16 is telling us at least that much: that it is not Israel only, but God loved the world. And verse 17, I think, confirms that—that God’s love has a global saving purpose. He sent his Son to reclaim the world. Men and women from everywhere. As Daniel 7 tells us, that from the kingdoms of all the earth, men and women will worship the Son of Man.

So I said there are two connotations to the word “world” in John’s writings. Number one is this global outlook. Number two, another prominent connotation of the word “world” in John’s writing, and that is the moral and ethical connotations. It has a distinct negative tone to it. In other words, the world in John’s writings is not in reference to its size—how big it is. It has reference to its character—how bad it is, how evil it is. With John, the word “world” is a kind of theological term. It has people in view, of course—people of the whole world, global in scope—but it’s a certain kind of people that are in view. And again, it has negative connotations.

Let me give you just a quick survey of how this word “world,” the connotations of this word, appears in John’s writings. In John chapter one—you want to look back at that? Chapter one, verses 10 and following—it’s the world that did not know Jesus when he came. Their own Creator, in fact; they opposed him when he came. Here in our passage, John three, verse 17, it’s the world that deserves condemnation. In verse 19, it’s the world that loves darkness. When you get to chapter seven, it’s the world that hates Christ. In chapter eight, it’s the world that’s in darkness. In chapter 12, verse 31, the world’s prince is Satan. In chapter 14, the world is ignorant of the things of God. In chapter 15, we have the world as those who hate Christ. In fact, in chapter 15, it’s so graphic: the people of the world are the people who hate Christ and hate his people and rejoice most when they weep. And when they are persecuted, they are happiest. That’s the world. And then we find in chapter 16, the world is those who rejoice at the murder of Jesus. That’s who the world is in John’s writings.

The same is true in the epistles of John, where he tells us the whole world lies in wickedness. He tells us that we must not love the world. He gives us the characteristics of the world: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. That’s what the world is in John’s outlook.

And so in John’s writing, “world” has a distinctive negative connotation. It refers to fallen humanity in its rebellion against God, its sinful opposition to God. If they could, they would dethrone God from his rule and take over themselves. They’re slaves to Satan, they’re settled in their opposition and their rebellion. It loves its darkness, it loves its sin. They’re under condemnation, and in fact, they are objects of God’s wrath. That’s the world in John’s outlook.

And so John is intending to impress us here with the greatness of God’s love, but he’s not saying here, “Although the world is so large, God loves it all.” That’s how great God’s love is. I think the standard of measurement in that way of thinking of this verse is too small. To measure the infinite love of the infinite God against any finite number of people is just too small a measure. He is not saying here that the world is so big that it takes a great deal of love to love it all. What John is saying is that because the world is so evil, it takes a great kind of love to love it at all. And I think that gets us to the point then: what is so astonishing about John 3:16, what is so astonishing about God’s love, is that he loves even the world.

In December of—I’m going to date myself; I’m officially now a geezer. I just turned 65. In December of 1976, I met a girl. Her name was Kim. She’s now my wife. We met at a dinner table in the cafeteria at the university, the Christian college where we were attending. And I can tell you how I fell in love with her. There were just lots of positive points. The first time we sat at the same table, I saw her and—this is not politically correct, I’m sorry. I don’t know how it became politically incorrect to talk about a woman’s beauty. But I gotta tell you, the first thing that got my attention is I liked what I saw. And I’ll just leave it at that. Next night, went to the dinner table, I made sure she sat with me. That was it. We got to know each other and we talked. She was enjoyable to be with. That was another positive point. I got to know her and she was kind. That was another positive point. She liked my humor. That was another positive point. It wasn’t too long before I could see that she liked me. That’s a positive point; showed that she had great discernment in men.

And you know how it goes. I got to know her a little better. She was fun. She was enjoyable to be with. And it goes a little deeper, and you find that she’s kind. Not too long before you realize: this girl’s a sweetheart. This is not the girl that Proverbs warns me about, you know, you’d rather live in a treehouse. This is not that. Sweetheart—you see something about her character. We’re in a Christian school. For her, that was indicative—it wasn’t all, but for her, it was indicative of her heart to serve the Lord. The rest of her life, things become a little deeper. Pretty soon, it’s clear: well, if I could marry this girl, my life will be a happy one. And by the way, 44 years later, I want to tell you, I called that right. Now, she is a little sassy at times, I have to tell you. I told her today on the way up that she was too sassy. She said, “I’m not too sassy, I’m just the right sassy.” See?

I don’t know your stories, guys, how you fell in love with the girl who’s now your wife, but I’m pretty sure I’m safe in saying that with none of you did it go like this: “Well, the first time I saw her, I had to turn my head. It was so repulsive. It was just so ugly. And she had bad breath. She had bad body odor. She was naggy. She was mean. And we fell in love.” That’s just not the way it works.

Now, how is it you think God loved the world? Now, in fact, we have an ancient doctrine in Christian theology called the impassibility of God. God has no passions. He’s without passions—which in contemporary lingo ends up being said as “he has no emotions,” which kind of gets confusing at times because, of course, God loves, and that has an affectionate element to it. But the doctrine was an important one, and it was intended to preserve the doctrines of God’s immutability, his sovereignty, his independence, his self-existence. God is impassable. That is, he’s not contingent on his creation. So God loves, but he doesn’t fall in love. When I was falling in love with Kim, I could easily have sung with Elvis, “I can’t help falling in love with you.” But God never said that. There’s never a time when God said, “I just can’t help falling in love with this world. They’re so good.” And in fact, John 3:16, with the connotations of the word “world,” takes us much deeper than that. That God loved the world is just a striking thing—not because the world is so big, so large, but because it’s evil, unlovely, and even hateful of him.

And so here we have, in so many words, the affirmation that the holy, righteous, majestic, offended God loved those who were opposed to him and who were his enemies. His justice demands their condemnation. There’s nothing about them that would attract his favor. But his heart is so great that he loves them. Not because of anything about them, but because that’s just the kind of God he is. And this is the greatness of God’s love. He loved—can you believe it?—even the world. And so, in love, God determined to rescue the world from its sin. Redemption planned.

Redemption Accomplished

And that brings us then to redemption accomplished. Verse 16: “God so loved the world.” He loved the world in this way—”so loved,” in this way—”God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” He loved the world in this way: that he gave his own Son.

Now, when we read this language of God giving his only begotten Son, we’re introduced just briefly to the leading mystery of the Christian faith, and that’s the mystery of the Trinity. God is one—there is only one God—but God subsists in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. These three are co-equal, they are co-eternal, but they are three distinct persons, and yet one God. And the one essence of deity is shared equally among the three, and yet there are three distinct persons. So they’re one and they’re three. They’re not one and three in the same sense—that would be ridiculous—but they’re one in terms of their essence and their being, three in respect to persons. There’s no analogy for it to make it really work. But there we have the revelation of God in three persons. And that’s alluded to here when we find in the Gospel of John, in which we have such a heavy emphasis on the deity of Jesus, God the Father gave his Son.

This term “only begotten Son” becomes an important one again in this respect in relations of the Trinity. What is the distinction between these three persons? How do we have three distinct persons without three distinct beings? And part of the answer—or the whole answer—is the relation that is sustained between them. The relation between the Father and Son is just that: that of generation and affiliation. And so the ancient church came up with this doctrine of eternal generation, which is an important doctrine for the church to preserve. It sounds like an oxymoron, “eternal generation,” because “generated” sounds like it has a beginning. And so they had to attach the adjective “eternal” generation. He was eternally begotten from God. And this word is used in that connotation, both in the New Testament and in early Greek writers as well.

Now, we won’t get into this, but 60, 70 years ago, some theologian wrote an article trying to explain the meaning of this word “only begotten” in the Bible. And he carried the day with his argument that it doesn’t mean “only begotten”; it means instead “unique” or “only one of a kind.” And so we see that reflected in our modern translations. You don’t see the word “only begotten” in the NIV, the ESV, or I don’t think the NAS either. And so they’ve carried the day with that. And now more recently—and I have enormous, enormous respect for Bible translators, and it’d be presumptuous for me to say otherwise; they obviously know Greek so much better than I do—but here’s one I think where they got it wrong, and they are starting to acknowledge it. Last I heard, some on the translating committee for the ESV have called for reasserting the word “only begotten” in the next edition that comes out. Lots of arguments for that, both in the text in the New Testament and the early Greek writers as well.

But it’s important for recognizing this distinction. He’s from God. He’s the “only begotten” from God. We find that in the New Testament and other images as well. Christ is the image of the Father, and it’s never the other way—the Father is not the image of the Son. The Son is the image of the Father. There’s always the sense of “from” this, where the Son is from the Father. He’s the brightness of the Father’s glory, the effulgence of his glory. There’s that brightness; he’s the Word of the Father coming. It’s never the other way around. And this term “from the Father”—”I’ve come from the Father”—and this “only begotten from the Father,” this language is used to recognize that this relationship between the Father and Son is one of an eternal “fromness.” And we’re into some of the deepest waters theologically in the Bible.

But we have this relationship then of Father and Son. And that becomes—Paul tells us this in Ephesians chapter three—the prototype of all earthly relationships of father and son. Whatever else these titles convey, Father and Son, their love for one another is prominent. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. And the wording here in verse 16 is intended to draw attention to the intensity of that love. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” I think Charles Spurgeon is the only one, certainly the only one I’ve read, who has dared to ask the question: if God the Father gave his Son for the world, then we’re left to ask, who does he love more—his Son or the world for whom he gave his Son? Now, no one would say that he loves the world more than he loves his Son, but the way it’s presented to us makes you think—it raises that question. And that’s John’s point here: to raise the point of the intensity of God’s love, that he gave even his Son for the world.

That in turn points up the second leading mystery of the Christian faith, and that is the incarnation. What we celebrate at Christmas is a birth like no other. It is not just the birth of a baby boy. It’s the birth of one who is both God and man. God become man. And so that now in the person of Jesus, we have one who is all that God is—God the Son come as man—and he’s all that man is. He is the God-man. Himself, God and man. He’s nothing less than God come to the rescue.

And yet when John says here that God gave his Son to save the world, there’s more in view than just his incarnation. Obviously, he has in view here the cross. We have that in this context. In verses 14 and 15, we have this “lifting up” imagery, which by the time we get to chapter 12 tells us certainly that is a reference to Jesus lifted up on a cross to save the world. Verse 17: the implication here is that of substitution. He didn’t come to condemn the world, but to save it. The world deserved condemnation. He came to save it. How could he save it? By taking their condemnation to himself.

And then verse 16: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” And many people throughout centuries have noticed here in John 3:16 an allusion to Genesis chapter 22. And you remember that incident, a high point of Genesis chapter 22, when God tells Abraham to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice. And you remember, he takes his son, he puts him on the altar, and what’s going to happen? Where’s the lamb? And you remember what Abraham says: “God will provide himself a lamb.” And then at the last moment, God intervenes through an angel, and Isaac is spared, a lamb is provided, and that’s the high point of the passage. Abraham gave his son to God. And the difference here is that God gave his Son for the world. And God provided in Jesus then the sacrifice that was foreshadowed in Genesis 22.

And so we have here verses 16 and 17. God so loved this rebel world that he determined to rescue it from his own wrath. And to rescue it, he sent—can you believe it?—his own Son. And he sent his Son, not only incarnate, but to take the place of sinners and bear God’s wrath against sin so that they would be saved. Standing in the place of sinners the world over, Jesus takes their sin, satisfies the wrath of God against them, and purchases their freedom. Redemption accomplished by the Son.

Redemption Applied

And then we have, finally, redemption applied: “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The context here that John wants us to see is this conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus concerning the new birth. In verses three and following, Jesus insists with Nicodemus—Nicodemus is quite puzzled about it—Jesus insists that this life that he is talking about comes only through the supernatural workings of the Spirit of God. Verses 13 and following: it is secured by his saving death. But now, verses 14 and following, how is this life received?

Notice how it’s emphasized here. Verse 14: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may 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 eternal life.” Verse 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 begotten Son of God.” Verse 36, at the end of the chapter: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

It’s difficult to miss faith as the instrumental means of receiving Christ. The Spirit of God has come. He’s opened our eyes to see our lostness, our need of rescue. And with a renewed soul, we turn and helplessly cast ourselves on Jesus, who alone can help. We’ve seen this in our earlier studies: that faith is the only suitable means of approach to God, because faith is simply a casting of ourselves on Christ, a resting on him. Faith is explicitly a confession: “I can’t, but he can.” And we rest in him.

And you’ll see the analogy for faith in verses 14 and 15: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” If you’ve been to Sunday school at all, or you’ve been in church very long at all, you recognize the allusion here to Numbers chapter 21. You remember rebellious Israel. God had sent judgment into the camp, and all these snakes come into the camp, begin to bite people, and they’re dying off because of these snake wounds. And they finally plead to Moses for help. And Moses intercedes with God, and God says, “Erect a brass serpent on a pole and put a brass serpent up on the top. And you tell the congregation of Israel, if they will look—if they’ll look to that serpent, that snake—they’ll be healed.”

I like to imagine how that worked out in Numbers 21. Can you imagine word going up? “Moses is going to build a pole in the middle of camp, and he’s going to put a snake on top of brass. And God has told him that if we look to that snake, we can be healed from our snake wounds.” Say what? And I imagine they’ve tried every remedy that’s been passed down from everyone’s grandma by this point for snake wounds, you know, boiled cactus root or whatever it was. None of it worked. “But if I look to that snake, I’ll be healed?” “Yeah, just look.” “That’s right. Just look.” And so people look, and they’re healed.

Now, it’s not their act of looking that saved them. It’s because that was God’s appointed means of deliverance. “Because as you look to my appointed means of deliverance, you’ll be saved.” And Jesus now is saying, “All of that was prospective of me. Lifted up on a cross, you look to me and you’ll be saved. You recognize that you can’t. Recognize that in my death, I do the work that saves, and God will help you.” God says to you: “You’re a sinner. You deserve my wrath. You’re under condemnation already. I have sent my Son, an all-accomplished Savior. He’s done all the work that saves. If you will look to him, I will have you.”

And so the gospel always comes with that challenge. Don’t try. Stop trying to impress God. You can’t. It’s too late; you’ve already failed. But the good news is you don’t have to, because there is one who has, and he has offered himself in place of sinners, and you have God’s promise on it: “Whoever believes in him has eternal life.” Come to me by means of my Son, and you may be saved.

And so God has purposed a purpose in love, a plan of redemption for sinners. He has sent his Son to accomplish it. And he says, “Come to him, and I will have you.” Amen. Let’s pray.