From Law to Love
John 3:1-18
Introduction
Today our message centers on one of the best known verses of the Bible. G. Campbell Morgan said that "John 3:16 is the most famous verse in the Bible because it encapsulates the heart of 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” - John 3:16-17
N. T. Wright: “But when we say that John ‘talks about’ love, we are only scratching the surface. John’s gospel is a great love story, the great love story of all time. John plants love at the very center of his book.”
In this passage is the first of 39 times the word “Love” is mentioned in John’s Gospel. That love is expressed to someone who deeply needed the message of love because he was so focused on law. Notice who Nicodemus was…
1. Nicodemus (John 3:1-2)
John 3:1-2 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Nicodemus is a Pharisee (the separated ones) - wanting to live a life separate from sin. Pharisees were ultra-committed law keepers, and wanted to make sure everyone else kept the law as well. He was trained to believe that by obeying each technicality of God’s Law, he was attaining God’s approval.
He is a part of the Jewish Ruling Council. The Sanhedrin was the body of seventy elders that controlled Jewish matters in Jerusalem. Swindoll: They “served as Israel’s Parliament / Congress and Supreme Court.”
He was a spiritual and social leader; a teacher of Israel.
Nicodemus came to Jesus by night—We are not told why. Perhaps to escape the criticism of the Sanhedrin? To seek some uninterrupted time together? Clovis Chappell wrote that it is not so important that he came to Jesus at night, but that he came at all.
At the end of John 2, we are told that, “He Himself knew what was in human nature. [He could read men’s hearts.]” (AMPC) When Jesus saw the heart of Nicodemus, he immediately addressed his greatest need.
John 3:3 “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
John 3:3 NET “...unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus is concerned with the law, but Jesus wants him to know something else - LOVE.
2. Love is More Powerful Than Religion!
Greater than the power of religion! If religion and goodness could have ever saved a man, it would have saved Nicodemus! Jesus is saying these words to one of the most morally upright, religious, law-keeping, spotless, no-skeletons in the closet, righteous men in Israel! The law always leaves us in the struggle.
-It reveals to us our imperfection and failure.
-It offers no hope to redeem ourselves.
-It gives us an idea of the life that God wants us to live but cannot empower us to do it.
-It directs our way to live, but doesn’t direct our way to life.
-The law functions like an X-ray: it shows the break but cannot set the bone; only the loving Physician who bears our sickness in his own body can heal
“Entrance to heaven is out of reach, even for the most moral, upstanding, law-keeping person you know.” (Carter) Jesus wants to move Nicodemus, and us, from law to love.
3. God Expresses Love Through New Birth (John 3:4-8)
John 3:4-8 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
In the last chapter, Jesus flipped tables, now “Jesus is flipping Nicodemus’ theology upside down.
Nicodemus thought entering God’s kingdom had everything to do with physical birth. If a person was born a Jew, he would automatically have a spot in God’s kingdom. … But Jesus says the opposite.
No matter who a person is, he is automatically kept out of God’s kingdom by his sin. He would only be let in if he were born again.” (Carter)
Each of us must also be born again of water and spirit. This teaching runs throughout the NT. The waters of baptism allow us to step into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
The Spirit comes to live within us and brings new life.
Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”
Romans 6:3-4 “…all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
3. God Expresses Love through Rescue (John 3:10-14)
Jesus reveals that Nicodemus (and the Pharisees) are unable to see the spiritual things because they are too focused on earthly actions. (10-13) John 3:10-15 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.) Jesus is aware that this is hard for Nicodemus to accept. Jesus also affirms that he has come from heaven and is teaching Nicodemus spiritual truths.
Jesus reminds him of a story he knows well - but one we may not know as well. (14-15)
John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”)
In Numbers 21 is the story of the Israelites who were in danger from a plague of snakes because of their rebellion. God instructed Moses to raise up on a pole a bronze serpent. Anyone who looked at that serpent would be saved. In just such a way the Son of man must be lifted up and all who look to him will be saved. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, he was the ultimate sacrifice to save a sinful world for all who believed. We look to Jesus for the truth about being saved, born again.
4. God Expresses the Greatest Level of Love (3:16-18)
John 3:16-18 “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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
God So Loved (3:16). He gave up his one and only Son. He could not love more. His love embraces every man, woman, child.
God’s Love desires to save us from condemnation due to sin. “Perish” means “to be destroyed, to be utterly lost.”
Trusting in the Son of God saves the believer from the penalty of sin. This is a promise!
God is focused on saving, not condemning - but when we will not turn to Jesus, there is no other hope. (18)
John 3:16 is appealing b/c answers the questions of our hearts. Could God Really Love Someone Like Me? For God so loved the world - Unconditionally - Beyond our mistakes / faults / rebellions?.
Will God Ever Stop Loving Me? That he gave his one and only Son - The cross is a sacrifice all for the unworthy.
Look what a price He paid to save us, what Jesus endured to save us.
How Can I Get Close to God? that whoever believes in him ...When we believe in him, follow him, we enter into new life.
Can I Ever Have Peace of Mind and Heart? shall not perish but have eternal life. Grief, guilt, uncertainty, fear of death, fear of God - Our final answers in Jesus: entrance into eternal life.
5. How Can We Respond?
Receive the love you cannot earn. God offers His love to all - will you believe it? Will you receive what He wants to offer to you? He paid a great price in order to rescue you from yourself.
Surrender to the Spirit’s new birth. Move from “trying harder” to “yielding deeper”. Surrender begins with belief and continues with repentance, seeking to leave behind the life that has not offered
Trust the lifted-up Son. Look to him for salvation. Be born from above in water and spirit.
Conclusion
1. In John’s Gospel, Nicodemus goes back into the shadows. In John 7, we get an inkling that maybe he has come to believe in Jesus as he weakly defends him. In John 19 Nicodemus has left the shadows and stepped into the light when he joins with Joseph of Arimathea to bury the body of Jesus. Nicodemus brings 75 lbs of myrrh and aloes to anoint the body of Jesus for burial.
When Nicodemus comes to him, Jesus could have taught him many great lessons - but the one he expressed was the amazing love of God that would rescue Nicodemus from his efforts to save himself to receiving new birth from above - a transformational rescue.
A.W. Tozer: “I can no more do justice to this awesome and wonder-filled topic than a child can grasp a star. Still, by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it.”
We believe religion and goodness cannot save us; We believe in being born again; We believe Jesus is the source of all truth; We believe the foundation of the gospel is God’s love.
“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.”
Like Nicodemus, step from shadows: believe, be born anew, and live loved. John 3:16
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Questions For Discussion
1. In what ways is Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus different than most of his encounters with the Pharisees? What do we know about Nicodemus?
2. In your own words, how is law like an X-ray (it shows the problem but can’t heal it)? Where have you felt that in your own spiritual life?
3. Jesus’ reply to Nicodemus in verse 3 seems to have nothing to do with Nicodemus’ statement in verse 2. Why do you think Jesus brings up the subject of new birth?
4. What aspects of a person’s life demonstrate that he or she has been transformed by the new birth? To what extent does this happen all at once, and to what extent does it take time?
5. How is God’s Spirit like ordinary wind (3:8)?
6. Why do you think Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven - the Son of Man” (3:13)?
7. The story of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:4-8 is an unusual story. Nicodemus would have been familiar with this account. What are the parallels John is making between what happened to the Israelites and what is happening through Jesus?
8. What do you take “the Son of Man must be lifted up” to mean? (See also John 12:32).
9. Jesus said, “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). How would you define/characterize “believes”?
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Resources
Carter, Matt and Josh Wredberg. Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in John. Holman, 2017.
Chappell, Clovis G. More Sermons on Biblical Characters, Harper & Brothers, 1923.
Swindoll, Charles R. Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary: John. Tyndale, 2014.
Pharisee Note:
https://somuchbible.com/word-studies/annotated-scripture/john-31-21/
Sanhedrin Note:
The Navigators. (2010). LifeChange: John (K. Lee-Thorp, Ed.; pp. 49–50). NavPress.
Wright, N. T. Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World. Harper One, 2020.
