Choose Light

How often have you heard someone say, “it’s not fair for God to punish otherwise good people who don’t believe in Jesus?" It’s like saying, “It’s not fair that I can’t see the Statue of Liberty without going to New York.” That’s where it is! And yet God has not only given us maps and signposts and traveler's guides, he’s also given us free tickets. What’s not fair?

And yet there are still people who complain that God is unjust - or at least that Christians are narrow-minded and intolerant - to maintain that we can’t get to God without Jesus.

This passage in John explains the whole drama of salvation in six short verses. It shows us that far from being unjust, God has gone completely overboard to bring his people home. It also makes it completely clear that our ultimate fate is in our own hands.

The passage begins by correcting our misunderstandings about God.

Far from being unfair, or unkind, or a fierce angry God who is just waiting for us to mess up so that he can squash us like ants, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” [v. 16] That’s probably the best known verse in the entire New Testament.

But, of course, it begs the question, not “why did he do it?” but “why did he have to do it?” Well, God has been giving his people the same choice from the beginning of the world. He gave Adam and Eve the choice between obedience and life, and disobedience and death. Guess which one they chose?

He gave the Israelites the choice between obedience and life, and disobedience and death, not once but many times. We just read one from Deuteronomy: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving YHWH your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days." [Dt 30:19-20] That was just before they entered the Promised Land. Joshua gave the people the same choice before he died, after their wars of conquest,

"'...Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve YHWH.' Then the people answered ... 'we also will serve YHWH, for he is our God.'” But Joshua said to the people, 'You cannot serve YHWH, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God... If you forsake YHWH and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and... consume you....' And the people said to Joshua... 'No, but YHWH our God we will serve, and him we will obey.'” [Josh 24:15-24]

But did they keep their promises? No, they did not.

By the time Jesus arrived on the scene, the pattern of rebellion, repentance, forgiveness and restoration was beginning to look like a revolving door. Before the book of Judges - the one that comes right after Joshua - is half over, the Israelites had abandoned God five times, and been rescued five times, before God pulls the plug on them. Listen to round six:

“So the Israelites cried to YHWH saying, 'We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have worshiped the Baals.' And YHWH said to the Israelites, 'Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.'” [Jud 10:14]

Well, they begged and pleaded and wept and promised and God saved them again - and again. And then when they begged to be like all the other nations, he gave them a king - warning them what that would mean in terms of taxation and conscription - and the kings, with a few exceptions, led their people into further disobedience.

Conquest and exile didn’t turn the trick, either. When the people came back to rebuild the temple, they fell into the same old patterns.

When Jesus came, they still wanted the same old same old: - they wanted God to save them from the Romans, and give them a king, and protect them from their enemies, and make them rich and prosperous and happy. But Jesus didn’t do it.

Instead, he opened their eyes to what their real problem was. The real problem wasn’t poverty, or enemies, or unjust social systems, or any of the other things people like to point to as a source of their discomforts. It was them.