God So Loved the World: No Condemnation

The person who has heard this word can stand up and breathe as if for the first time. This is the core of the gospel, the good news, the best of news. When we hear this word, it's like a huge burden has been lifted from our backs. No condemnation. We realize that the trouble between us and God has been ended by God. God could have condemned us, but in Jesus Christ, God says, no condemnation. [00:47:43] (35 seconds)  #NoCondemnation

But again, there's another way. That's for the parent to sit the child down and say how much the parent loves the child, how much the parent believes in the child, and how confident the parent is that the child has been given the resources to live differently. The parent may stress the child's preciousness, the gifts that God has given to the child, the child's trajectory as a betrayal of those good gifts. And then the parent reassures the child that no matter what, the child can never do anything that will stop the parent from loving the child. We are God's children. [00:46:37] (51 seconds)  #ChildOfGod

Sadly, even though Jesus explicitly states here why he has come into the world not to condemn, Jesus has often been presented to the world as God's condemnation of the world. I love John Vanier's phrasing. This journey, our pilgrimage of love begins and deepens as we hear God murmur within our hearts. I love you just as you are. I so love you that I come to heal you and to give you life. Do not be afraid. Open your hearts. It is alright to be yourself. You do not have to be perfect or clever. You are loved just as you are, and you become more conscious that you are loved. [00:41:26] (49 seconds)  #LovedAsYouAre

We discover that to be loved by God, we don't have to clean ourselves up, think right, act right, or feel right first. Things between us and God were set right by God. No condemnation. For the first time, we don't have to put on the masks and try to be somebody we are not. We don't have to act out some fake role that's not us. We just have to be ourselves, namely those who are loved, forgiven by God. No condemnation. [00:48:15] (40 seconds)  #GraceNotPerformance

One way is for you to feel condemned in your wrongdoing. You are threatened. You are caught red handed in your sin. Your error is undeniable. Don't lie about it or there will be consequences. You had better confess you're wrong or you will be punished. But there's another way, and I think that way is truer to this Sunday's gospel. This is when you realize that God is not your enemy. Something happens in your life whereby your eyes are opened. You sense how deep and how pervasive is God's love for you. [00:45:18] (35 seconds)  #GodIsNotYourEnemy

For the first time, we are free to tell the truth about ourselves. We're not the people we wish we were. We have failed to live up to God's expectations for us. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not done right even when we know right. We can be so honest. It's Lent, the season of honesty. We can be dishonest because we've heard these marvelous words, not to condemn, but to save. You see, God is benevolent, not malevolent. No condemnation. [00:48:55] (41 seconds)  #HonestRepentance

God so loved the world that God gave Jesus Christ not to condemn but to rescue and to save the world. Any trouble between us and God has been decisively, lovingly ended by God. God is the one who became present to us in Jesus of Nazareth, the one who in word and deed demonstrated that God is for us, with us, and that God will not stop trying to save us. It is our joy to share with the world the truth that we know about God, a truth embodied and fully revealed to us in Christ. [00:30:06] (37 seconds)  #RescueByGrace

Paul seems to blurt out verse five. He probably should have prefaced it with spoiler alert. He says, by grace, you have been saved through faith. And then returning to this in verse eight, he adds, this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. What though is the antecedent of this and it? In the Greek, it's clearly not just grace, but also faith and saved. The whole process is God's gift. God's love and grace create faith itself. [00:32:29] (41 seconds)  #FaithAsGift

You see, as soon as Paul has said not by works, he continues about the fact that we are created for good works. The works don't save us. It's not a meritocracy. But once you're saved, you don't just go do what you wish. You were made to work zealously for God. And notice notice Paul's mystical wisdom that God thought up our works before even creation itself. What an amazing, startling, radical transformation he speaks of. You, he made alive when you were dead. He speaks of immeasurable grace. [00:33:41] (43 seconds)  #CreatedForGoodWorks

Remember now that the world in John's gospel is a place of darkness into which the light shines, the realm of rejection where his own receive him not. And in fact, in Jesus' farewell discourses later in John, he repeatedly refers to the world in a rather negative sense. But today today, Jesus speaks positively to Nicodemus saying, God so loved the world. The Jesus rejecting world is not rejected by God in Christ. The world is not just a realm of darkness and trouble. Why not? Because the world is loved. [00:36:36] (48 seconds)  #GodLovesTheWorld

I wish it had been joined with what Jesus says right after this verse in John three seventeen. Right. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. I also wish there'd been more emphasis on the for God so loved. Why did God send the son? Love. It's as if Jesus, saying all of this to Nicodemus in their nocturnal conversation, really means to stress love. Jesus mentions the love of God twice, reiterating, for God so loved not to condemn. [00:40:47] (40 seconds)  #LoveIsTheReason

I remember a woman I met. I heard her saying something in church many years ago. This was in a church meeting and again in Shreveport. She was saying, I spent the first thirty five years of my life thinking that God was mad at me. It was not until I was approaching midlife that I found a church where I was told about grace. I was 35 years old before I realized I'd gotten some lousy information about God. [00:42:32] (35 seconds)  #GraceChangedMyStory

I spend a huge amount of time listening to some very troublesome stories of how people have been wounded by the church and Christians in the past. I hear a lot of stories of trauma. A major part of my ministry is therefore telling people that Jesus does not feel the same way about them that many Christians do. Maybe some of you today can relate to these stories. Jesus comes to us calling us to new life. Jesus' ways are not the ways of the world. Make no mistake about it. Jesus has plenty to say against many of the ways that we do live our lives. [00:43:43] (43 seconds)  #JesusHealsNotHurts

Having that knowledge, being secure in relationship with God, you are thereby free to tell the truth about yourself. You are honestly confessing your sin, not fearing threats, but out of love. Surely, you parents know this. I'm sure that children do too. When a parent is deeply concerned about the direction a child is taking in life, one way of handling it is to set the child down and to condemn in the strongest possible words the child's behavior. Perhaps through this harsh talk, the parent can intimidate the child to such a degree that the child will change his or her ways. [00:45:53] (44 seconds)  #CorrectionWithCare

Perhaps we enjoy getting our toes stepped on because we have believed the lie that that must be what religion is all about. That's a lie. We believe the lie that religion is like some kind of bad tasting medicine. Like with mouthwash, we figure the worse it tastes, the more good it must be doing us. Many see repentance as simply feeling bad about ourselves. And the worse then the worse we feel about ourselves, the more religious we must be. [00:50:24] (31 seconds)  #NotPenanceButGrace

You see, we get confused into thinking that feelings are all there is to religion. Now feelings are not bad or evil, but all too often, they are impulsive and shallow, or temporary feelings become a substitute for true conversion and spirituality. Conversion, the changing and the turning around, which is at the heart of true repentance. And true repentance, true humility is what is needed. We need that to experience the miracle of grace. The challenge, the truth of it is being loved by God, loved so much that it hurts. [00:51:31] (45 seconds)  #GraceThatTransforms

Jesus speaks of a whole new life, and it's not merely an emotional experience as being born again. It is God's work. And our verses explain how God pulled off regenerating us. In this passage, we move from mysterious and wonderful signs performed by Jesus to definite words spoken directly by Jesus. And yet the meaning of the words will not always be self evident. Even knowledgeable Nicodemus will be confused by much that Jesus has to say to him. [00:35:57] (40 seconds)  #MysteryOfNewLife

Under cover of night, this prominent pharisee, a ruler of the Jews who comes to visit the teacher of Israel, that's Nicodemus. He's a prominent, knowledgeable, powerful person who has come to Jesus as an inquirer. Now he's not alone in his curiosity. All throughout John's gospel, there's a lot of folks who become rather befuddled by Jesus, wondering, well, who is this guy? Nicodemus' puzzlement over being born again is in itself fascinating. It can't be lopped off from our precise reading for today. So he was speaking of this with Jesus before our reading started. [00:35:14] (43 seconds)  #SeekersWelcome

I think that as a child, one of the very, very first verses I memorized was John three sixteen. The way I memorized this verse was was this. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now at about six years old, probably first grade, I had no idea of what only begotten son meant. And I was not all that clear on whosoever believed in him. What was that supposed to mean? However, that verse has stuck with me throughout my life. [00:38:33] (43 seconds)  #John316Memories

Looking back, I'm glad that I was made to memorize that verse of scripture and others. I I think that memorization of scripture is a good thing, especially when done in conjunction with actually finding age appropriate ways to apply the lessons of scripture for our children. And I think that John three sixteen is indeed one of the greatest verses in all of scripture. However, I do wish that rather than presenting this verse to me as a warning, you better believe in Jesus or there could be hell to pay. [00:40:06] (38 seconds)  #GraceNotFear