EXPLORE IT! - John 3:16-21

In John 3, Jesus says that God has sent his only son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save it. 

He has come to rescue us from living in darkness and to bring us into the light. Jesus didn’t come so that he could hold your sins against you. No! He came to give you hope and freedom!

He says that the Light has come into the world, but that people have loved darkness more than light because the darkness obscures their evil deeds. 

John’s Gospel opens with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” 

John 3 continues on this theme of Jesus being the light of the world. Jesus has just told Nicodemus, one of the religious leaders who was meeting with him secretly for fear of the other leaders, that the reason God sent him into the world was so that his death would bring new life to all the world. He has just told him that he is going to be lifted up on a symbol of death, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert – in order that he may experience new life, rebirth, resurrection. Later on, in chapter 8, Jesus says to the other religious leaders, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

This goes back to what he tells Nicodemus in chapter 3, that “those who live by the truth will step into the light.” 

Later, after Jesus openly meets with some Greeks, he says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 

John says that he said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. This also hearkens back to the language he uses in chapter 3 during the secret conversation with Nicodemus – the language of being lifted up in death, just like Moses lifted up the snake, the symbol of death, in the desert.

But the crowd didn’t believe what Jesus was telling them, and he said to them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” 

And later he adds: “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness!” 

John also says that there were actually many religious leaders who believed in Jesus, but they didn’t admit it because the Pharisees had threatened to throw the followers of Jesus out of the synagogue.

That’s exactly what Nicodemus was afraid of – he was afraid of losing his position because of his faith. But Jesus says that we must step into the light, for we are no longer living in darkness. We have spent too much time in the past, living in secret and shameful ways. We must now live in open freedom and truth – in the light of Jesus.