God the Father loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. There’s a promise in John 3:16: “Whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish, but will have eternal life.” Why not choose eternal life instead of eternal hell?
Or John 3:17— why not remember that the Father didn’t send Jesus into the world so that he could be angry with us?
The Father sent his Son into the world so that we could be saved through his Son, so we could be given peace with God, happiness, joy, heaven.
It’s so simple: if you believe in Jesus, you will not be condemned. Nicodemus and all of us, we all deserve to be condemned. We all deserve hell.
It’s like that snake story we looked at last Sunday evening. The snake bites us, and we all die. The devil led us to betray God, and we all deserved to die as a result of that rebellion. But there is a way: the snake was thrust through and lifted up for the people, and Jesus is thrust through and is lifted up before us. He said, “I’ll take the punishment instead of you. I will die so you do not have to die. I will be condemned so you do not have to be condemned.”
What will you do with this light that’s come into the world? What we tend to do is love darkness instead of light, to say, “I don’t want Jesus, I’ll stick to my evil deeds.” We do evil, we hate the light. We all sin; therefore, we all instinctively, naturally hate Jesus. We don’t want to come into the light. We don’t want to come near Jesus because it’ll show us—it’ll show everyone, it’ll show God—how bad we are. We’ll all get done for the frauds that we are. My embarrassing sins will be revealed, and I’ll be so ashamed.
And yet, it’s the best thing to do. I can admit now, “I’m a sinner. I’ve sinned. I’ve done the most awful things. I’ve done those ugly, embarrassing things you wouldn’t want to know me. You don’t want to know me. I’m so bad, I’m so sinful.” And yet, I can say that with confidence, and realise that I won’t be condemned by God. Even if I’m condemned by people, I won’t be condemned by God, because I’m coming near to Jesus, who is the light.
What I have done has been done in the sight of God, and it is seen plainly. But I believe in the promise that God loves me, he’s given His one and only Son so that if I believe in His Son—which I do—Jesus is my hope. I will not perish, I will not be condemned, I will not go to hell. I will be given eternal life.
I need to remember that Jesus, the light of the world, has come into the world not to punish me as I deserve to be punished for my ugly, rebellious, disgusting sins, but actually so that I might be saved.
Everyone else who trusts in Jesus might be saved through Him. If I believe, I am not condemned.
But if I do not believe, I stand condemned already because I’ve not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Will you reject Jesus, or will you accept Him? See Him lifted up, dying on the cross instead of His people? Will you be one of his people? Will you reject Him? That is the question this evening.
