John 3:16-21
1. The nature of…
1.A. The love of God is…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
1.B. The love of God is…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
“He can expect nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He himself has gone through the whole of human experience – from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death…he was born in poverty and…suffered infinite pain – all for us – and thought it well worth his while.” (Dorothy Sayers)
1.C. The love of God is…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
“Not one single adverb or adjective is placed before the word ‘entrusting,’ such as ‘deeply’ or ‘sincerely’ or ‘completely.’ Every such adverb turns faith into a good work the believer does. But the good work of salvation, in fact, is done by the loving and giving Father, the gifted son, and the transforming Spirit alone. We entrust ourselves to this triune Worker; we ‘do’ nothing but trust another who has done everything.” (D.A. Carson)
2. The nature of…
“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.” (John 3:17-18)
“I get the impression from this verse that we must be careful not to overstress human sinfulness or damnability and so to turn the good news into bad news. It is true that the ministry of the law, convicting us of our sin, is most often needed in order to make us ready for the ministry of the gospel, which promises us the free forgiveness of our sins…But perhaps, as with the Samaritan woman, the gospel is sometimes more powerful in wooing us from our sin than the Law is in frightening us from it. This seems to be the force of our present text. Nevertheless, Jesus is warning Nicodemus throughout and warning everyone who listens. It would be unloving to be unwarning” (D.A. Carson)
3. The Nature of…
“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. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)
“[The life of faith] is infinite humiliation and grace, and then a striving born of gratitude – this is Christianity.” (Søren Kierkegaard)
“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.” (John 3:21)