The Father’s Love

Good morning. It was my heart’s desire to remind
you of the love of God and what better passage to go to to do
that than John chapter 3, the gospel of John chapter 3. I’m honored to have the privilege
of standing here this morning and I appreciate that. I hope you didn’t come for eloquent
speech. And if you did, I hope you enjoyed
the reading that has been read this far. John chapter 3, verse
16 is the main verse I want to zero in on. But I want to give
you the context leading up to that. And that passage actually
begins in chapter 2. So if you go back three verses
into chapter 2, verse 23, I will pick up reading there. Now when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing
his signs which he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, was not
entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men, and because
he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself
knew what was in man. Now there was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus
by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from
God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do
unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him,
truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can
a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time
into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered,
truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is
spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born
again. The wind blows where it wishes,
and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes
from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of
the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can
these things be? Jesus answered and said to him,
Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify
of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.
If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will
you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into
heaven but he who descended from heaven, the son of man. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes will in him
have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the
Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might
be saved through him. He who believes in him is not
judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, and
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into
the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their
deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates
the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds
will be exposed. But he who practices the truth
comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having
been wrought in God. If you would, go back to verse
23, where I’ll touch on a few verses leading up to our main
verse. Verse 23, when he, Jesus, was
in Jerusalem, many believed in his name. So they observed the
signs that he was doing there, and they were impressed, and
they believed in his name, the word says. But look at verse
24. Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting
himself to them. Why would Jesus not entrust himself
to them when they believed in his name? Look at the rest of
the verse. For he knew all men. He himself
knew what was in man. He knew what kind of belief this
crowd had and he didn’t approve. And I want to talk more about
what that kind of belief was. And we actually are given a specimen
of this crowd. His name was Nicodemus. Look
at verse one. I just wanted to point out that
he was a man of the Pharisees. And before we go further, I’ll
remind you of who the Pharisees were. You’ve all heard of them.
Let me read from Mark 7, just to give a brief summary of this
group of people. Jesus said to them, rightly did
Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people
honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from
me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the
precepts of men, neglecting the commandments of God you hold
to the traditions of men. So they put their own traditions
over the word of God, and that was the very thing that led to
their disputes with Jesus, and even led to them murdering him.
Move on to verse two. This man came to Jesus by night
and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as
a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless
God is with him. Here we see the kind of belief
that this crowd had. They said he was a teacher, just another
prophet, as they viewed him. Didn’t recognize that he was
the Christ, and he was just another prophet to them. But Jesus, instead
of clarifying to Nicodemus that he was, in fact, the Christ,
He just cuts right into the heart of every man, the need for every
man ever born, and he says this, look at verse 3, Jesus answered
and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless one is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. You know, the scriptures,
you will not find in the word of God the term accepting Jesus
into your heart. You hear that a lot today, but
it’s not in the word of God. You must be born again, the word
says. You all know how the story went
after that. Nicodemus couldn’t comprehend what Jesus was saying.
Jesus clarifying that he’s talking about a spiritual birth. But
instead of digging too deep into that, I want to remind you why
we must be born again. If you would, please turn to
Romans 3. It’s here where Paul lays out
the condition of all humanity. Every person ever born, every
child, And it’s a doctrine found in the Old Testament. Let me
pick it up in verse 9. Romans 3 verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Not
at all. For we have already charged that
both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written,
there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God.
All have turned aside. Together they have become useless.
There is none who does good. There is not even one. Here we
have the doctrine of total depravity, the condition of all mankind,
the natural man born into the world. This is bad news. It’s bad news. How did we get
here? Turn a few pages forward to Romans
5. Romans 5 verse 12. Therefore, just as through one
man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men, because all sinned. Jump to verse 16. The gift is not like that which
has come through the one who sinned, for on the one hand,
the judgment arose from one transgression, resulting in condemnation. Verse
18. So then, as through one transgression,
there resulted condemnation to all men. We all became evil. We fell with Adam. We sinned
in him. He was our federal representative.
And that is the reason why we’re all in this dire state where
no one does good. Now, I want to come back to the
Book of Romans, so don’t lose that place. But back to John,
verse 7 for now. Verse 7. Do not be amazed that
I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it
wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where
it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is
born of the Spirit.” That’s a great illustration. Jesus always gave
the best ones. The wind, you know, we just had
a good example this week where they predicted, or two days in
a row, we had a strong wind whip up that was not predicted. The
third day, they predicted there would be wind. There was none.
So we can’t predict the wind. We cannot see it. We can’t control
it. And that’s the same way with
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, His work in man. Notice I said,
that’s God at work in man. He’s the one who makes us a new
person, the one who makes us born again. I like how one man
put it, that we cannot born ourselves again any more than we could
born ourselves the first time. It’s a supernatural work of God.
It’s a great miracle. Some have said it’s a greater
miracle than that of creation itself. Where God makes something
good and holy out of something corrupt, defiled, and evil is
more marvelous than creation out of nothing, speaking things
into existence. Jump to verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. Jesus
gave Nicodemus, a Jew, a leader of the Jews, this illustration
that every Jew was familiar with, the story of when the Israelites
were in the wilderness, and because of their sin, rebellion, God
sent snakes. You all know the story. Moses
lifted up a brass serpent by God’s command, and all they had
to do was look and be healed. In the same way, he says, I,
the Son of Man, must be lifted up so you can be healed. At this point in this passage,
we come to a long-standing debate on whether the conversation with
Nicodemus stops here or if Jesus continues to speak to Nicodemus
through verse 21. I intended to take no position
here because it makes no difference, really. It’s all the Word of
God, doesn’t make a difference. But as I studied verse 16, I
ended up with a position. The ones that are in agreement
with me say that the change in verb tense from verse 15 to verse
16 shows that Jesus stopped talking to Nicodemus, and now John picks
up and is looking back on this. The verb tense is what caught
my attention, but they make a stronger argument. Jesus doesn’t call
himself begotten. In verse 16, we see the word
begotten, and elsewhere we never see Jesus calling himself the
begotten Son of God. John does that quite often. Third, it’s commonplace for John
to insert commentary into narratives. You can see that through the
Gospel of John, where he’s telling a story, and then he inserts
his own words on that, obviously from God, but it’s different
from the narrative. Fourth, no longer dialogue with
Nicodemus. You don’t see Nicodemus talking
anymore, and therefore some believe that the conversation stopped
at verse 15. Now here’s the argument against
that, saying that Jesus did, in fact, continue speaking to
Nicodemus. They say the change of speaker was not indicated.
Is that really true? Have I not just given you four
indications that the conversation did, in fact, stop? They’re not
big indications, but I say they’re there nonetheless. Secondly,
they say the more Jesus spoke, the more impressed Nicodemus
became, and therefore he didn’t interrupt. Maybe. That’s about
as strong as their argument gets. There’s a third one. If Jesus
stopped here, then he would have left Nicodemus without a gospel
message. That’s not true. If you look at verse 15, He says,
I must be lifted up just as a serpent so that whoever believes in me
will have eternal life. So the gospel message is there.
But it doesn’t make a difference. I just thought I’d point that
out to you. And we’ll just move on to verse 16, which is our
main verse. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. This morning I want to
talk about three things about the love of God as given in this
verse. Number one, the extension of
God’s love, the extension of his love. That is, to whom was
it extended to? The text says that God so loved
the world. This is the one and only God,
the creator of the heavens and the earth. He’s a total of three
persons who are all of the same essence. He’s the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. But here, the word God, as often
in scripture, refers to the Father, that person of the Trinity. He’s
also the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This person,
God the Father, so loved the world. Moving on to the word love. The
unbelieving world has a misunderstanding on this word. They use it in
a sensual way or just in an emotional way. And love is an emotion,
but it’s more than that. It’s much more than that. And
it’s certainly not sensual. That’s lust. True love requires action. It
is an emotion, but it requires action as well. Listen to Jesus’
words in Matthew 5. He says, Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you. Prayer is the action there in
that love. He then follows immediately with
an example of how God the Father loves. the world, really. He causes his son to rise on
the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. We often see this rain as a bad
thing, especially if we were from the Midwest, where we don’t
see how much we need it, but if you’re from here, you understand
we need rain, and rain and sunshine are both good things. God gives
both to all. Paul also writes this about love in 1 Corinthians
13. Love is patient, love is kind,
and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not
arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not
provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does
not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things. As he began out, love is patient,
it’s long-suffering. God is long-suffering with us.
Our sin is repulsive to him, and he would be justified in
striking us dead, even as young children disobeying our parents.
He would be justified in doing that, and even sending us to
hell. But the word also says that love
is kind. His love is kind. Romans 2, the
kindness of God leads you to repentance. It’s his love that
leads us to repentance. In the epistle of John, he says,
God is love. God is love. The word is denotes
his immutability. He is love. He cannot not love
because he is love. He can’t act against his own
nature. He can’t seize loving. At times, it’s hard for us to
comprehend how God can be all of what he is at the same time,
such as love and wrath, but he is. He doesn’t set one attribute
aside and pull in another one. He’s loving and wrathful at the
same time. He is love, always is, always will be. Looking at
the word world there, It’s translated from cosmos, which is, we get
our word cosmos from, and it’s used in multiple ways in scripture.
I will point out three uses. A, it is used to refer to all
creation. Paul does this in the book of
Romans, Romans 1.20, for since the creation of the world, he’s
talking about everything that was made. That’s how he’s using
the word world. B, the word world is also used
to refer to the domain of darkness. We’re all familiar with that
use of the word. John, in his epistle, says this,
do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father,
but is from the world. He’s talking about the domain
of darkness. There’s a third sense in which it is used that
I see, and that is speaking of mankind in general. People from
every nation, every tribe and tongue, it’s a general term to
describe mankind. It’s found in multiple places,
I’ll give you three. First John, he himself is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the
whole world. He’s talking about people from
every ethnic group. Again, in Mark, and he said to them, go
into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Again,
every ethnic group. John in his gospel says, Jesus
again spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Jesus
is the light of mankind. It’s in this third sense that
we find it used in John 3, 16. God so loved mankind. I want to mention three spheres
in explaining the extension of God’s love. A, his love is not
limited to his beloved Jews. This was something that was hard
for them to accept, that the gospel and God’s plan of salvation
was for the people beyond them. But that’s what the gospel says.
Look at Romans 1, or listen to it, I should say. The gospel
is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. The New Testament only
knows of two kinds of people. That is the Jew. Everybody else
is a Greek. So his love is for all of mankind,
every ethnic group. B, his love is not reserved for
a particular class of people. Listen to Job. God shows no partiality
to princes, nor regards the rich above the poor, for they are
all the work of his hands. God has no needs or wants. Why
should he show partiality? That’s why we do it. We want
something. So we show partiality to those
who are rich or popular or powerful because of something that we
want. But God’s not like us. He has no needs. See, there is
no age requirement for his love either. No age requirement. He has a very special love for
children. They’re general attributes of humility and trust and dependence
and honesty, general attributes of children. They’re honoring
to Him, they’re pleasing to Him. And we see that special love
in Jesus, who in Mark 10, Mark gives us a story. And they were
bringing children to Him so that He might touch them, but the
disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He became
indignant and said to them, Permit the children to come to me. Do
not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God
like a child will not enter it at all. And he took them in his
arms and began blessing them, laying his hands on them. Moving on to point two. which
is the ultimate expression of God’s love. The ultimate expression
of God’s love as found in verse 16 of John. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. How much did God
love mankind? So much that he gave his only
begotten son. What does it mean that he gave?
It’s not limited to this, but it begins with this. We’ve heard
this story multiple times, even in prayer this morning. We’ve
heard this story multiple times just in the past week. Luke gives
the account of an angel speaking to a young Jewish woman who says
this. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in
your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He
will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And
the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom
will have no end.” Later, this angel speaking to shepherds in
the field says this, “‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring
you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For
today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.'” You all know that story. where he says he gave his only
begotten son, he’s saying far more than that. This is included,
but it’s far more than that. And not understanding that, that
concept, not necessarily this verse, but that concept leads
one to think that Jesus only came into the world to show us
how to live, and that’s it. That kind of thinking only leads
to destruction. Yes, he did show us how to live,
but much more than that. Much more, and we want to get
into that. Look at verse 16 again. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. We’re saved by faith alone. It’s more than him just showing
us how to live. So what is the primary meaning of gave his only
begotten son? The word gave implies a need.
And if we look at the rest of the verse, we see the implication
is a need to keep from perishing. But where was the world lacking?
I pointed out to you earlier the depravity of mankind in Romans
3, where all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God. But didn’t Jesus come to a Jewish
people who had a sacrificial system that took care of sin?
Look at Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. beginning in verse one. For the
law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and
not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices
which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those
who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have
ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been
cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin? But
in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year,
for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sins. Therefore, when he comes into
the world, he says, sacrifice an offering you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me. In whole burned offerings
and sacrifices for sin, you have taken no pleasure. Keep your
place there in Hebrews. I’m gonna come back to that a
few more times, but let me comment on what was just said. And this
is where I began to study the word gave and took that position
that the conversation with Nicodemus stopped at verse 15 is because
gave is talking about offering up his son too. And that’s something
that would have had to be looked back on. Jesus never predicted
his death in the past tense. You may think of Isaiah 53, but
as John MacArthur says, that is the Jews speaking that. It’s in the past tense because
the Jews are gonna look back one day when God redeems them
as a nation and say, we received him not, not the exact words,
but that concept. So we see here in Hebrews that
the sacrifices of the Old Testament did not take away sin, didn’t
pay for it at all. It was only a shadow of that
which is to come, which was to come. Why? Because the soul that sins shall
die, for the wages of sin is death. Human sin demands human
death. Someone had to die. And God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believes would not perish but have everlasting life. What love
is this? It’s a marvelous thing. It’s
a sacrificial love. As I read earlier, love does
not seek its own. God the Father did not seek his
own in this particular sense in that he gave up his only son. But he offered him up for people
who hated him. John also tells us that by this,
the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his
only begotten son into the world so that we might live through
him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus
was sent to appease the wrath of almighty God that we justly
deserved and would have justly destroyed us had he not taken
it upon himself. That was why he was sent. But
the question remained, while he was on the earth, will he
go through with it? Remember his words in the garden,
as he’s praying to his beloved father. My father, if it is possible,
let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you
will. Look at verse seven in Hebrews 10. Then I said, behold, I have come,
in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your
will, O God. After saying above, sacrifices
and offerings and whole burned offerings and sacrifices for
sin you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them,
which are offered according to the law. Then he said, behold,
I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order
to establish the second. Jesus, being love, did not seek
his own either. He had the freedom to flee from
the cross, but he didn’t. He gave up his own will, submitted
himself to the will of the Father, and went to the cross. Some have
called this cosmic child abuse, this crucifixion. And they might
have an argument, except for this fact, that Jesus gave up
his will, he had the freedom to flee, but he didn’t. Before
I go to my third point, I want to look at one more word. the
word begotten. Depending on what translation
you have, it only says one and only. I think the word begotten
is very, I mean, it’s there in the Greek, a Greek word that
means only born, only born. So what do we do with the word
born? Because in my study, I learned
that this is not talking about the incarnation, but rather an
eternal relationship that Christ had with his Father. Begotten
is a title, it is a title of affection, but it’s a title,
I want to go further into what it means, but it’s an eternal
title, not talking about the incarnation. He was not a created being, and
we see that in the beginning of this gospel, in the opening
verse. He says, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him
nothing came into being that has come into being. Ten verses
later, and the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we
saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.
He was God in the flesh, So what does this begotten word mean,
that he was born? Yes, he was the one and only,
he was one of a kind, but what do we do with the word born when
it’s not referring to the incarnation? Because he’s eternally born of
the Father. I like Tertullian, a late second
century church father, who was the first one to use the word
Trinity. He gave an illustration that I really like. It’s of a
fountain, river, and stream. This is an illustration of the
Godhead, where God the Father is the fountain, and the Son
is the river, the Holy Spirit being the stream. The Spirit
and the Son come from the Father. Eternally, that was the condition,
that they come from the Father. That had always been. Tertullian writes this, every
original source is a parent and everything which issues from
the origin is an offspring. The fountain and the river are
also two forms but indivisible. Everything which proceeds from
something else must needs be second to that from which it
proceeds without being on that account separated. So they’re of the same essence,
yet they’re different persons, and He’s eternally from the Father,
even before His incarnation. The Son is begotten of the Father. He’s of the same essence. Having
pointed out to you the extension of God’s love, and the ultimate
expression of God’s love, we come to point three, which is
the effect of God’s love. The effect of God’s love. Look
at John 3, 16 again. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. This is an external call
to all humanity. Whoever will believe, come. Doesn’t
matter, rich, young, poor, old, homeless, kings, queens, come,
everyone. Listen to Jesus. He said, come
to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. Elsewhere, as he’s walking through
Judea, he said, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe the gospel, that external call. Let the one
who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the
water of life without cost. It’s an offer to all humanity.
This good news of salvation is for anyone who is able to accept
it. Will you? You know, all our deeds are as
filthy rags. We cannot save ourselves. You
must be born again. We must be born again. And God
has commanded all men everywhere to repent. and believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and turn
to him and trust your whole self to him. God is holy and he must
punish sin. He must punish all sin. So will
you on that day of God’s wrath make excuses for your sin or
will you run to Christ now before it’s too late? He’s faithful
and therefore trustworthy. The scripture says that whoever
believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between
Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of
all, abounding in riches for all who call upon him. For whoever
will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Call on him
down. Let today be the day of salvation.
If you have not repented and put your trust in him, I beg
you to do it now. You need not tarry. Call upon
him now in the quietness of your heart, right where you sit. Come,
come to Christ. You caught that I said that he
must punish all sin. How then can you be saved? Well,
God gave his only begotten son. He gave his only begotten son.
He offered him up as a sacrifice to pay for every last one of
our sins. But you must believe this before
it’s applied to you. Look at Hebrews 10.10 again. Hebrews 10.10. By this will,
we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering
and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice
for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting
from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for
his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time
those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies
to us, for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws
upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them. He then
says, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember
no more. Now where there is forgiveness
of these things, there is no longer an offering for sin. I
gave you bad news earlier, but here’s the good news. Here’s
the good news. Our sins and our lawless deeds
he will remember no more when we trust in Christ. All our sins
will be washed away. Past, present, future. If you
are placed in Christ, you are safe. This is the effect that
God’s ultimate expression of love had. I read the first part of this earlier.
I’ll pick it up and continue. But God demonstrated his own
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than having now been
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God
through him. By his death, we’ve been justified.
A record of sin has been cleared away. You have his word on it. It’s impossible for God to lie. Peter gives us this same hope. He says, he himself bore our
sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness. For by his wounds you were healed. By his wounds you were healed.
If you still have your place in Romans 5, I want to pick it
up there again to show you the effect of God’s
love as given there. Romans 5 verse 15, but the free
gift is not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of
the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the
gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to the
many. Verse 17, for if by the transgression
of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who
receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So then, as
through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all
men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted
justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s
disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the
obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. Verse
21, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through
righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Eternal life is a gift from God. We cannot earn it. It is by His
grace that we are saved. And it’s only given to those
who have faith in Christ, put their trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who have been born again. Look at the last half of John
3, 16. Whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal life. The statement presupposes that
all who do not believe will perish. I really mean will be destroyed. Disposition of the unbelieving,
of the unbeliever is more clearly stated in verse 18. He who believes
in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been
judged already because he has not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. Has been judged already. Not
that he’s here on earth and walking in judgment and it’s as bad as
it’s going to get for him, but rather that the verdict has already
been made and it’s only waiting to be implemented. The good news
is that those who are in Christ who have been born again, who
repent and put their trust in Christ, There’s no condemnation
for those, Romans 8 says. No condemnation at all. All who
have been born again know this. You shall not perish, but have
eternal life. You will be spared of that place that’s prepared
for the devil and his angels, where Jesus says the worm does
not die and the flame is not quenched. No, you shall have
eternal life. You see how great a love the
Father has bestowed on us? Join me in prayer to him. Father, thank you for sending
your only begotten Son, for giving up that which was most precious
to you when you had no obligation to do so, You could have left
us in our dire state, but you did not. You sent someone to
die in our place, who lived a perfect life for us, who grants us faith,
grants us the new birth. has been raised again and is
now seated at your right hand and still intercedes for us.
And we will reign with him. We’re so grateful for your work
of salvation, for your love to us. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus, for the love
that you have shown us and continue to do so. We thank you, Holy
Spirit. Amen.