God’s Message to All People
How we desperately need to understand God’s message to us today. Theology is the name given to the science or understanding of God. In all our old universities theology used to be the most senior of all studies and all university courses would start with this subject. Theology used to be called the Queen of Sciences as it was considered that every discipline was dependent on this. This is no longer practised and today the study of God is widely regarded as being irrelevant.
But it is only God who can give essential elements to our lives, he gives a purpose for life, he gives the reason why all should behave with integrity. However for us to understand God, he has to reveal himself in a form we can comprehend.
The following very famous verse summarises the Christian message.
“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.” John 3:16
This verse teaches that we can be put right with God but only because God has made this possible. This summary is accepted, at least in theory, by all mainline churches. However, in practice, very few who call themselves Christians believe what this verse says today. This may seem to be a shocking statement but an investigation of what the verse says confirms that this is generally true.
1. All men are perishing
This verse states that people are perishing. This is a recurrent theme in the teaching of Jesus and of his apostles. The Bible teaches that naturally we all want to live independently of God, that there is no-one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:11). In the sermon on the Mount Jesus said,
“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
Our verse in John makes it clear that God does not want people to perish. He went to extreme lengths so that we could avoid this wretched state. Why else would he send his Son into this world if he didn't have a deep love for the lost? To perish is a strong word, it means much more than suffering severe financial loss, it means much more than physical suffering - it means to lose one's soul eternally. This message cannot be eradicated from the New Testament. The writer C.S. Lewis, who had been an atheist, said,
“Don't blame Paul, don't blame the early apostles, the origin of the teaching about hell comes from the lips of Jesus Christ and nobody else.”
The speaker at a family service produced a giant Bryant and May match box. Their matchboxes have an ark printed on them and the ark is labelled ‘Security’. Both Bryant and May were Christians. The speaker told his hearers what the New Testament says about Noah and his ark.
“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear build an ark to save his family.” Hebrews 11:7
Holy fear! Even my computer could not recognise this concept. It wrote ‘Holy beer’. How do we bring back a holy fear of God into our society? How do we bring it back into our churches? Noah was widely thought to be an idiot to spend 100 years building the ark at God’s command. Yet he did it to save himself and his family. He believed God when told that there was a judgement coming and acted accordingly.
Do people believe that this verse is true and that there is still a hell ahead where many will perish?
2. Jesus is God’s one and only Son, the one Saviour of the world
The uniqueness of Jesus is a persistent theme in the whole Bible. There is no one else like him. His teaching was unique. He stressed that God looks at the heart and not at our outward actions. Most people today think that ‘worship’ involves going to a church, a temple or some other religious venue. But in the New Testament worship is moved from the temple or synagogue to people's hearts. The way we live shows the God we worship. True worship occurs seven days a week and my thinking shows what God means to me; ‘worthship' is ‘worship’, it reflects what I most value.
Since Victorian times many have said that there may be one God but there are many roads to him. Jesus was utterly opposed to such a view.
From the beginning of his gospel, John has stressed this point.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
“No-one has ever seen God, but God is the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.” John 1:18
Nearly all religions recognise that Jesus was an exceptional man. They usually say he was a prophet. The New Testament rejects this completely. It repeatedly states that he is God’s ‘one and only son’ and because of this he alone can save us. Jesus himself said,
“I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father is well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7
Does our society accept that Jesus is the one and only way to God? - never! Do all our churches still teach this vital truth - unfortunately no!
3. God loves the world
Before Christ, the Jews did not believe that God loved the world. They thought that when the Messiah came he would lead his people to victory and would judge the nations. This was a prominent feature of Judaism. Yet Jesus clearly opposed this view. The next verse empathises that God has come to save us, not to condemn.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17
There is however a further twist to this. In John’s gospel, the ‘world’ is always ‘worldly’ and in rebellion against God. Later Jesus said to his disciples,
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” John 15:18
The world God loves is not a charming, attractive world, it is one that has already decided to turn its back on God. This outright rebellion against God is in stark contrast to the character of the God of the Bible. When he revealed himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, he described his nature. It is a very good description of Jesus!
“And he (God) passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.” Exodus 34:6
The God of the Bible is not a weak, sentimental God, but one who is very slow to react against our rebellion. He longs for us to return to him and he allows us time to do so, but there is a limit to his patience.
The striking fact is that most do not want to enter God’s kingdom. We are like ants that live in the dark under a stone in the garden. If the stone is lifted those ants hate the light and scurry about for a couple of minutes, then there are few, if any, to be seen. The next few verses state that people are just like this when the light of the gospel is presented to them. We shy away from it because it reveals that we are all worldly, sinful people and we don’t want, what we really are, to be seen.
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, But men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” John 3:19-20
Hope is only for true believers
The Bible’s analysis of our plight may seem dismal but there is hope and this hope is in God's Son, the Lord Jesus.
I had a patient with terminal cancer who committed her life to Christ. I went to visit her in the hospice and wanted to remind her that her salvation depended not on her actions but on what the Lord Jesus had done for her. To make the point, I wrote her name on a piece of paper and said,
“This paper with your name on it represents you. Let this Bible represent the Lord Jesus. You have now committed yourself to him so, to represent this, let us put you inside the pages of Scripture, that is ‘in Him’. Now when God looks at you, he no longer sees your sin, but the holy righteousness of the Lord Jesus. You are secure because you are now in him. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus has gone ahead of you to heaven to prepare a place there for you. Because you are in him, your future is assured.”
To reinforce this we then read the following passage,
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
Our hope lies in what God has done for us, but we must respond as our verse emphasises,
“. . . that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
The word ‘believe’ has changed its meaning in English. It is derived from the Old English word ‘leiben’ which meant ‘to love’. ‘Leiben’ still means ‘to love’ in German. Prior to the nineteenth century ‘to believe’ meant to be committed to a person and to follow them. Today it tends to mean just the acceptance of an idea. Biblical belief is very much a commitment, a commitment to God and his Son. It is this commitment, or faith, that opens the door to salvation. Biblical ‘belief’ is analogous to marriage, indeed the church is repeatedly described as being the ‘bride of Christ’. The Bible stresses that without a turning from living for ourselves to living as Jesus our Saviour wants, we have no part in him, we do not have eternal life. This is what repentance means, a complete permanent ‘rethink’ of the direction of our life. We have to make a decision to turn and live a new life with Jesus in control. John calls this change ‘living by the truth’.
“But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:21
So the gospel divides us into two groups, the forgiven and those who refuse to be forgiven, the saved and the unsaved.
Our verse, John 3:16, makes it abundantly clear who is a Christian. Those who are in Christ are eternally secure because Christ has taken the penalty for our sin. A business man heard a talk on this passage and said to the minister on leaving,
“I'm glad I came to church today. I know now that I'm not a believer.”
In contrast, an obituary was published in the Times about a twenty four year old man,
“A dearly loved nephew, cousin and friend but especially a beautiful child of God and follower of Jesus; in his arms he is safe.”
This passage reminds us of the great privilege we have if we are in Christ. In contrast there will be a great price to pay for those who insist in living without Christ.
