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God loves us. That is so very powerful. This passage is the most popular in the Bible. And with good reason. We all long for love. God demonstrated it in that he sacrificed his son for us.

God does not want us to be destroyed. God’s goal for us is live a whole life. God wants us to be complete and achieve his goal for us. God is in a good mood.

God does not accuse us. God does not take out a billboard telling everyone how bad we are. God does not point a finger at us in anger. God will judge us. God is righteous, holy and hates sin. We choose whether to come into the light or stay in darkness.

Our faith in Jesus saves us. It is that plain and simple. Our job is to trust Jesus.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. 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. 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.  [1]

We love to hear the verse about how God loves the world if we believe in Jesus. We sometimes miss the rest of the message about judgement. That part is unpleasant to think about. We prefer not to. The truth is that God loves us and will judge us.

The difference between perishing and living, and between condemnation and salvation, is faith in Jesus the Messiah. Jesus could well have come to this world as a Judge and destroyed every rebellious sinner; but in love, He came to this world as our Saviour, and He died for us on the cross! He became the “uplifted serpent.” The serpent in Moses’ day brought physical life to dying Jews; but Jesus Christ gives eternal life to anyone who trusts Him. He has salvation for a whole world!

So, we consider light and darkness. This is one of the major images used in this good news book.

  • Why will sinners not come into the “light of life”? Because they love the darkness!
  • They want to persist in their evil deeds, and this keeps them from coming to the light; for the closer the sinner gets to the light, the more his sins are exposed.
  • It is not “intellectual problems” that keep people from trusting Jesus; it is the moral and spiritual blindness that keeps them loving the darkness and hating the light.

Nicodemus finally did “come to the light.” He was in the “midnight of confusion”, but eventually he came out into the “sunlight of confession” when he identified with the Messiah at Calvary. He realized that the uplifted Savior was indeed the Son of God.[2]

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 3:16–21). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 297). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

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