Why don’t people believe?John 3:16-21
“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. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
When I was a medical student at The London Hospital, I had a good friend who was interested in finding answers to life’s questions. One evening we had a long discussion, going over the evidence that Jesus is God’s Messiah who entered this world to be our Saviour. At the end I asked him if he would like to commit himself to Jesus Christ. He replied,
“No. It is not that the evidence isn’t convincing but, frankly, I don’t want to believe as it will mean changing the way I live.”
He was very honest. This passage helps us understand what Nick had misunderstood and why he had chosen to reject Jesus. John 3:16 is one of the most famous verses in the Bible but few understand why it was so shocking to Nicodemus and to many religious people today.
GOD SO LOVED
Aristotle, the Greek philosopher defined god as the ‘uncaused’. His God was an immensely powerful creator. The Bible does not want people to regard God in such a limited way. He is majestically powerful but wants to be known as a loving heavenly Father. At the beginning of Genesis God has a close relationship with the people he created, Adam and Eve. Throughout the Bible, there is a repeated emphasis is on the close relationship he wants with all people.
Notice how this passage starts,
“God so loved . . .” John 3:16
A young woman aged about thirty had been on the edge of Christian activities for many years. One day she met a Christian minister who had known her years before. After talking for a while he asked her straight out,
“Please tell me, are you committed to the Lord Jesus now?”
The lady hesitated, looked down and said simply,
“No.”
“May I enquire why not?” the minister asked.
“I’m frightened.”
The minister then came up with a brilliant question,
“What is it about the Lord Jesus, from what you know of his character, that makes you frightened?”
If she had grasped the meaning of John 3:16 she couldn’t be frightened. Her heavenly Father wants the very best for her. He would never ask her to do anything that was not for her long term good. At heart this young lady did not believe that God loved her. She was following Aristotle’s idea of God. She was not following the teaching of the Bible, where God has revealed himself as a God of love.
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD
One of John’s habits is to repeat key words for emphasis. Thus the word ‘world’ is repeated:
v. 16 - ‘God so loved the world’
v. 17 - Jesus was sent ‘not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
v. 19 - ‘light has come into the world’
Another key word is ‘light’.
v. 19 – ‘light has come into the world but men loved darkness instead of light.’
v. 20 - ‘evil doers hate the lightand will not come into the light.”
A third key word is ‘believe’.
v. 15 – ‘that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.’
v. 16 – ‘whoever believesin him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
v. 18 – ‘whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed . . .
Surely this repeated use of words is deliberate. Jesus taught that the world is in darkness, it cannot see the way it should go. The light comes through Jesus Christ, he is the way. But we must each respond personally to Jesus by believing or submitting to him. Christian belief is not just accepting a doctrine or theory, even Satan accepts those as true. The response God asks for is a personal relationship with Jesus, the Lord of the universe.
This verse would be a great shock to Nicodemus. He considered that the ‘world’ was opposed to God. He believed that when the Messiah came there would be a terrible judgment when God’s people would be saved and the world outside would be condemned. So verse 17 would come as a bombshell,
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17
In the ancient world there were many false gods and idols. These idols were graphic symbols representing man’s innermost selfish desires. In the west we have largely got rid of the symbolic symbols but the selfish internal idols are just as strong. We still worship power, sex and wealth.
Yet the message that the Bible brings is that God so loved the entire world, those who were rebels against him, that he sent his one and only Son so that the relationship with all people could be restored.
ONE AND ONLY SON
Nicodemus would undoubtedly have believed in “one God, maker of heaven and earth”. God does not tolerate any rival or a divided heart. This is why he is called a ‘jealous’ God. He will not share his world with any other ideology, power or religion. Later Nicodemus did come to understand that he had been standing in front of that God who had entered this world in the flesh. This is why our heavenly Father sent Jesus into his world – to reclaim it.
“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.” John 3:17
Today there are those following differing religions and philosophies who say that Jesus is just one of many ways to God. Jesus will have none of such treacherous talk. He is not ‘a god’ but ‘the God’. Jesus said,
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
The apostles taught the same message. When Peter and John were arrested and hauled before the Sanhedrin, the same Ruling Council court that had condemned Jesus, they bravely exclaimed,
“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
THE MEANING OF SALVATION
Jesus and his apostles divide the inhabitants of earth into just two groups, ‘the saved’ and ‘the unsaved’. God has always separated the light from the dark since the earliest days of existence (Genesis 1:4). People are either sheep or goats (Matthew 25:32), foolish or wise virgins (Matthew 25:2), wise or foolish builders (Matthew 7:24), wheat or tares (Matthew 13:25), those who walk in the light or those who walk in darkness (John 3:20-21). Either we belong to God’s kingdom and we have our names written in the Lamb’s book of life or we do not.
When we make moral assessments of other people around us we often do so in terms of ‘greys’. The really nasty characters, like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Sadaam Hussein are usually considered very dark grey. In contrast Mother Theresa and her like are very light grey. If we are honest we will usually put ourselves a little above the average, whilst those closest to us we place just a little lower than us. God does not see people in this way. He sees us either as black, unforgiven and outside his kingdom or white because our sins have been forgiven and we have Christ’s righteousness covering us. This undeserved status is a gift because we follow Jesus.
TWO ROADS
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that there are just two roads, each with their own destination.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
The major road is wide and has an impressive gate or archway at its beginning. Crowds are walking along this road, busy talking with others and getting on with their own business. No-one seems to take any notice of the signpost which says ‘To Destruction’ or ‘To Hell’. The people all have large rucksacks on their backs representing the sin that they are responsible for, that is their wilful independence from God. This sin is the root cause of all the selfish sins we all commit in thought, word and deed.
Branching off at the side there is a narrow road with a less impressive gate or arch to mark its beginning. The signpost here says ‘To Life’. One person in the bustling crowd on the broad way starts to think,
“Where am I going, what is the purpose of my life? Is there no way back from my independence and sin?”
He begins to go back towards the gate on the narrow way. You can imagine friends questioning and even jeering at him.
“Are you getting religion?”
He comes to the narrow gate but finds he cannot squeeze through because of the sin on his back. Then he hears someone standing nearby say to him, “I can take that off you”. The relief is great as the rucksack is lifted and the responsibility for his sin is removed. The person, who of course is Jesus, takes the load and lays it on his cross. The man can now squeeze through the narrow gate that has the name ‘Repentance’ written on it and starts to travel along the narrow road. But he is not alone; Jesus, the friend who took his sin off him, is travelling along beside him. It is not an easy path but the journey is immensely satisfying.
To be saved is to enter a new personal relationship with God as my Father through my submission to Christ. It has been well said that Christianity consists of personal pronouns. Many religious people can say ‘Jesus is Lord’. Those in God’s kingdom can say, ‘Jesus is my Lord’. Christian belief is a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. He alone is able to pay for my sin which he achieved by dying as my substitute on that cross. We all need to be saved, even the good, moral Nicodemus’ of this world because our default position is that of a rebel against God.
“ . . . whoever does not believe stands condemned already . . .” John 3:18
We all know, if we are honest with ourselves, that we have not lived as God wants, we have told lies, cheated, thought and behaved immorally, coveted and stolen other’s belongings or reputations. We are all carrying rucksacks containing the consequences of our rebellion. The great news of the Bible is that God is a loving, compassionate God who longs to forgive everyone who returns to him. This change of allegiance is called repentance. Jesus is clear that if we remain inwardly independent of God, even though we are outwardly religious, we will be rejected by God. We must all make a personal decision about the place the Lord Jesus will have in my life.
“. . . but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:18
Many people try to hide behind their religion, believing that their religion will save them. When writing this article I read Jeremiah chapter seven in my morning Bible Reading. It is frightening. God’s people thought then that their religious beliefs and practices were enough to save them. Jeremiah strongly warns about the idiocy of such thinking. People were hiding behind a formal religion, and thought that this gave them protection.
“Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD . . . but look, you are trusting deceptive words that are worthless. . . I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen . . . I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be you God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that all may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention. . . “ Jeremiah 7:4,8,13,23
WHAT STOPS PEOPLE BECOMING CHRISTIANS?
The evidence that God has supernaturally stepped into this world in the form of Jesus is very convincing indeed. However it is rarely the reliability of Christ’s claims that is the real stumbling block. There are moral problems to believing.
“Men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil.” John 3:19
It is so hard for us to accept this but the Bible repeatedly says that we are all rebels against God.
“There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one seeks God. All have turned away . . .” Romans 3:10-12 quoting the Old Testament
“All have sinned and fall short of the kingdom of God.” Romans 3:23
It is an interesting fact that people prefer to keep the company of those who have similar faults to themselves. Thieves prefer the company of other thieves. Prostitutes keep company with other prostitutes. Lazy people prefer the company of other sluggards. There may be several reasons for this but one undoubtedly is that we feel less bad when others around us are doing the same wrong things. We prefer to do wrong things out of the gaze of people we respect, in the dark.
John’s next sentence is even stronger.
“Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” John 3:20
How often do people looking at a dubious programme on the internet or television rapidly change programme when their parents or partner is approaching. We are ashamed inwardly and want to keep what we really are like in the dark.
A short while ago I lifted a paving stone in out garden. Underneath it was a beautiful ants’ nest with small channels, many eggs and hundreds of ants. As soon as the stone was lifted the ants scurried away from the light, taking their eggs with them. Within three minutes they had all disappeared into dark holes. They hated the light. Similarly we don’t want people to see what we are really like.
When we come into God’s light our wrong behaviour has to change. We are now openly walking God’s way. We now know that God is always caring for us as a loving parent. It is for our good that we become like Jesus.
When I first became a Christian I was indirectly influenced by the ‘East African Revival’. One of the great themes of this revival was the view that true Christian conversion must be accompanied by an honest confession and turning away from sin. When someone was convicted about their rebellion against God, they believed that they could be both forgiven and changed because of what Jesus had done for them. As they were coming ‘into the light’, they would openly confess their past sin and make restitution to any they had harmed. There were many stories from East Africa of new believers returning what they had stolen and confessing of racial, verbal and sexual sins. Marriages were repaired as people returned to the Lord.
What does it mean when it says that men naturally ‘hate God’? Most people seldom tirade openly against God. Yet surely it is true that we do treat him in ways that we most hate to be treated ourselves.
We ignore him and cut him dead, when he most wants to have a close family relationship with us. Petulant children often try to hurt their parents in similar ways. It is most hurtful to have someone we know walk straight past us at a party and deliberately refuse to even say hello. Yet we refuse to include God in our conversations and actions.
We use God in blatantly selfish ways. I once gave a lift to a young man who had been an infantry man in the Falklands war. He had been involved in the frightening battle for Mount Tumbledown, outside Port Stanley. He described how bullets were flying all around his colleagues and himself. His friend was instantly killed next to him when a bullet hit his head. He told me that everyone prayed ardently at this time.
‘Do you pray now?’ I asked.
“No, as I no longer have a need!”
Many students, even professing atheists, have prayed before they go in for exams they feel unprepared for, only to forget God soon afterwards.
3. We judge God. We talk about God as if he is at fault. We put God in the dock instead of ourselves. The Christian writer and apologist C.S.Lewis wrote,
“The greatest barrier I have met in trying to persuade people about the Christian faith is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin. The ancient man approached God or even the gods as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. Man is the judge. God is in the dock. Man is quite a kindly judge. If God should have a reasonable defence for being the God who permits war, poverty and disease, man is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.
My problem is that I am not willing to change. I want to continue as I am, free to live independently of God, free to sin and to be judgmental of him.
Note the amazing contrast between man’s selfish approach and that of God.
“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. . .”
He loves, not with self interest, but with self giving. Yet we still prefer to remain in darkness.
THE REMEDY
“Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light . . .” John 3:21
What does this mean?
1. Jesus is the truth
Jesus repeatedly says,
“I tell you the truth . . .” John 3:11
Later he will say,
“I am the truth . . .” John 14:6
This is saying much more than that he existed. He claimed to be God’s Messiah who fulfilled all the 330 Messianic prophesies in the Old Testament. He repeatedly said that he would rise from the dead after being crucified. The apostles bore witness that this did happen by dedicating the rest of their lives to telling the world about Jesus and his resurrection. Jesus’ teaching does have that ‘ring of truth’ about it. It resonates with those instincts we all have about purpose, honesty, integrity and love. We acknowledge that there are higher standards than the law of the country by the way we judge others when they have wronged us.
We come into the light when we acknowledge that Jesus is the truth of God and that he entered this world to save all who will bend their knee before Him.
2. The truth about myself
To enter into God’s light, into His kingdom, I must see myself as God sees me. It is painful to acknowledge how much we have lived in the dark. If we have not recognised what we are really like, we will never see our need for a Saviour. It is only when we see our need that we will see the wonder and truth in Jesus.
On one occasion Jesus was invited to dinner in the house of Simon the Pharisee. A woman ‘who had lived a sinful life’ then entered the room, poured some expensive ointment over Jesus’ feet and then wiped her tears off his feet with her hair. Simon was critical. Judas Iscariot was critical – “what a waste of money” he pronounced. But Jesus answered them,
“I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven . . . but he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7:47
If our hearts are cold towards Jesus, could it be because we still see ourselves as quite nice people?
If anyone is saying,
“I can’t believe”,
Jesus asks,
“Can’t believe or won’t believe?”
BVP
