Jesus is…the Son of God. Jesus is…the Lamb of God. Jesus is…the Teacher. Jesus is…the Messiah. Jesus is…the Temple. Just in the first 2 chapters of the book of John, this is who Jesus said He is. We don’t have to wonder or speculate or guess about who He is, He told us. So as we walk with Him, and seek to know Him more and become more like Him, knowing who He says He is becomes more and more important.
We’re going to continue this conversation with Jesus about who He is in John 3:13-21. “No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”
I know I, personally, have preached from this passage at least 5 times, each time with a different view and some different focus the Spirit has given us. This passage holds so much, and even though it is so familiar to many of us, this is a passage that truly is alive and active.
Right away here, in verse 15 we see that Jesus is the giver of ETERNAL LIFE. Everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life, and so, belief, faith in Him, guarantees us eternal life.
This is a central belief of ours! For some, it’s one of the reasons why they come to Christ, and for all of us, at some points, it’s one of the things that motivates us to keep walking with the Lord because we have the promise of eternal life with Him when we leave this world.
He gives us eternal life because He forgives our sins, because He paid the price for our sins. That is the only way eternal life can be given to us. John 3:16, which nearly every Christian knows by heart, tells us that the motivator for this act of forgiveness, the motivator for His death and sacrifice that ultimately gives us eternal life, was love. For God so loved the world, right?
Acts 4:12 says, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.” There is no other way to be saved. And since eternal life is a reward only for those who have been forgiven of their sins, only for those who have been saved from the death brought by their sin, and Jesus is the only one who can do that, then He alone can give us eternal life. It cannot happen through anyone or anything else. God’s love, displayed in Jesus, is the only way to gain eternal life.
Now, here’s where I’m tempted to sound like the speaker in an infomercial…but wait…there’s more! Eternal life is great, amazing, wonderful. It’s a gift that we truly don’t deserve.
Let’s look at John 10:10. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.” It’s not just eternal life that Jesus came to bring, it’s abundant life. We have our eternal lives to look forward to, but we also get the blessing of getting to experience His abundant life now.
He came to set us free from our sin so we could live lives of peace, joy, love, lives of compassion, freely giving ourselves to those who might have need. We are free so we can have life the way He wanted us to have life.
2 Corinthians 5:19 helps us understand what abundant life we have been given, “namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
This reconciliation that Paul talks about here is simple. God created us for relationship, with Him and with others. But we can’t do that in our sin and selfishness. When He forgives that, He made a way for us to be in relationship with Him again. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 5:19 that as He’s restored us to being able to be in relationship with Him, we then are given the same command to carry the word of reconciliation, the message of being able to be in relationship with Him, to others. That is part of the abundant life we are meant for. A life of peace, joy, love, selflessness, and showing to others that it is possible to be as we were created to be: in relationship with the Lord.
Jesus is the giver of eternal life, and that eternal life is all-encompassing.
Let’s go back to our main passage, John 3:18-21, “The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”
Here, Jesus calls Himself the LIGHT.
The Light didn’t come to judge the world, He said. His purpose was to save the world. There will be a time when He returns with the purpose of judging the world, but the first time He came, it was to save it. However, He said, those who continue to love the darkness, rather than Him, the Light, have been judged already because they love the darkness.
What does it mean that Jesus is the Light? Well, here He tells us that He exposes the darkness. Darkness is evil, darkness is sin. So, when people come to a knowledge about Jesus and what He desires to do, people have to face the realization that they are sinful people. Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When you hear about what Jesus desires to do, you are faced with this ugly fact about yourself. You are a sinner.
Coming to Jesus means that you either must acknowledge that and let Him expose that as something that needs to be forgiven by Him, or you choose to remain in your sin, your darkness, and refuse to acknowledge what He has exposed.
Choosing your sin, choosing to walk in darkness is what condemns. This is what many will never realize. While Jesus, the Light, exposes our darkness, He doesn’t condemn us for it. He exposes it so we will repent of it and walk with Him and His saving grace. John 12:35 says, “So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; also, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.”
He urged His disciples to walk with Him, to walk in the Light, so they did not return to the darkness of their sin. He made it clear that those who walk in darkness don’t know what the path is, they don’t know what way to walk. Jesus, the Light, walking with Him and walking in His way is the only way to truly discern what life you’re meant to live!
Apart from Him, apart from His direction, mankind will continue to be utterly lost in all sense of the word.
Jesus tells us that those who come to the Light, come to Him, practice the TRUTH. His people do not live in lies. His people do not live in sin. They do what is true, and what practices the truth, and what leads others to truth. In fact, Jesus even goes so far as to say that those who come to Him, the Light, do deeds that God Himself would do. He uses this phrase, “so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”
Walking in the Light means that we see our exposed sin, we let Him forgive our sin and give us eternal life, we believe in Him, but the life of those who walk in the Light doesn’t just stop there. It’s not just, “yay, I’m saved from my sin and have eternal life”, it’s a whole life long journey with Him. He desires to give us abundant life, which means that there’s more walking, more growing that must happen.
It’s very clear throughout the New Testament that we are saved by the grace of God through faith. It’s not earned. We can’t save ourselves. But, the New Testament is also clear that we must have a response to His grace. We must choose Him, and we must choose Him every day. Jesus said here to practice the truth. That involves action. Practicing is something you do to get better at something.
Paul tells us to work out our salvation. When we come to the Light, we are saved, but we must cooperate with the Spirit working in us to create in us a new person. James says that faith must be coupled with works or it is a dead faith. Salvation is the beginning. Abundant life is the goal, and in between, we must practice the truth. We must walk in the Light.
In Romans 13:12, Paul makes this statement, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let’s rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of LIGHT.” This is a choice we must continue to make even after we receive the salvation and eternal life Jesus offers. Rid yourself of deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. This is what the Christian walk looks like: you completely surrender yourself to the Light, to Jesus, and as He exposes the dark corners of our hearts, we work with Him to rid ourselves of those things, and to put on His light.
Jesus is the giver of eternal life, which starts the moment we believe in Him as He works to give us abundant life here and now.
Jesus is the Light, He exposes our darkness so that we may choose to walk in Him and with Him instead of our own sin.
1. John 1:4 tells us that light and life are related. What is the connection between the light and life?
2. Examine your deeds this week. Are they “as having been wrought (made) in God”? (John 3:21) Are there deeds that need to be repented of?
3. What more can you do this week to work with the Spirit to put on the armor of light?