Absolute Truth for a Relative World
John 3:16
A quick glance at
the music charts or a few hours in front of your television is all you need to
realize that fact that we are a people who are obsessed with love. We sing about it, we read about it, we watch
movies about it. We shed tears over
romantic novels, we purchase candles, perfumes, even hair-loss treatments to
attract the one we love.
We are a culture in
love with being in love. There is a
void in each of us that can only be filled with the knowledge that some other
person accepts, values and cherishes us.
But like the title
of a song that was popular back in the 70’s, the sad reality is that most of us
are “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” The love that we receive is often times imperfect, selfish, and
sometimes isn’t really love at all.
It’s lust, or infatuation, or even oppression, but it’s not love.
Human love, because
it is human, is corrupt. Even
the most loving of persons will occasionally have a moment of inconsiderate
behavior. The most patient and caring
person in the world is going to have those moments of exhaustion and
impatience. And those are the best of us
– the worst of us abuse, oppress and hurt - all in the name of love.
We are in the early
stages of studying the foundations of our faith – what being a Christian really
means. It’s much more than church
membership, or baptism, or communion, confirmation. Being a Christian means so much more. It means that we can have a day by day, moment by moment
relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
As we study the
Absolute Truths of the Bible, we find one overriding theme – that God loves
us. But his love is not like the love
that the world offers. His love is not
offered selfishly. His love is not
conditional. God’s love is, in fact,
the ONLY source of real love that you and I can find.
In light of the
events of two weeks ago, we have seen and heard much about God and his
love. People who haven’t given God a
moments thought in the last 10 years are suddenly turning to Him in their
need. And that is entirely appropriate
and wonderful. But in our world of
relative thought, far to many people presume on the love of God, thinking that
as long as they are sincere, they can follow any path to God, and He will
lovingly welcome them. That little bit
of relative thought is absolutely in contrast to the Word of God.
John
3:16 is probably the most quoted verse in the Bible, if you watch sporting
events on TV, you no doubt have seen people holding up signs with “JOHN 3:16”
emblazoned on them. It is a very well
known and popular verse because it sums up so much of the nature of God – and
it puts in one sentence the message of God to us all.
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. John 3:16 (NIV)
Let’s take this
verse one piece at a time.
“For
God so loved…”
This
verse is not about our efforts to reach God.
This book is not about man’s efforts to please God – it is, however all
about God’s plan to reach us. Left to
our own devices all of us reject Him.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who
can know it?” Jer. 17:9 It is part of our nature to want our own
way, to think we know better, to be demanding and selfish.
But
in the midst of our rebellion, God loves us.
He doesn’t wait until we are good enough to deserve His love. Romans 5:8
says, “But God proves His own love for us in this, that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.” While
we were still sinners – filthy, disgusting, unholy sinners, God loved us.
In
his book, Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery, Dr. Richard Selzer tells
a true story that reflects God’s love for the unlovely.
I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face
postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tiny twinge of facial
nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus
from now on. . . . to remove a tumor in her check, I had to cut the little
nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the
bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me,
private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze
at and tough each other so generously, greedily? The young woman speaks.
"Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks.
"Yes, it will, “ I reply, “because the nerve was cut." She nods and
is silent. But the young man smiles.
"I like it," he says, "It’s kind of cute." All at once I
know who he is. I understand and lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter
with a god-like love. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth and I am so
close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate hers, to show that
their kiss still works.
Isn’t that the message of the cross? Jesus Christ came for marred
humanity. He bent down and embraced the
ones He loves even though they had been twisted by sin.
“…that
He gave…”
God’s
love went far beyond loving the unlovely.
He loved to the point of sacrifice.
His love is a love that gives of Himself.
Over
the past two weeks we have heard of great stories of self-sacrifice on a human
level in New York City. I saw two men
interviewed this week who carried a wheelchair-bound woman down 62 flights of
stairs in Tower 1. They had been
working on the 86th floor when they were told to evacuate. When the reached floor 62, they saw the woman
with some co-workers waiting to be rescued.
They put her in a portable wheelchair, and carried her all the way
down. They had to stop at landings, or
back up to a landing to allow fire fighters to pass. Their efforts certainly cost them precious time as they fled to
safety. When they reached the bottom,
the woman was loaded in an ambulance, the just then the tower collapsed, and
the two men flung themselves under a nearby truck. They did not know if the woman survived or not, and did not know
her name until 4 days later. She made
it alive.
We
have seen a picture of a firefighter from New York who was just a few weeks
from retirement. The photo was shot of
him going toward the burning towers, he has not been seen since. We think of those stories, and the images of
fire, rescue and police personnel running into the buildings that everyone in
their right mind is trying to get out of, and we think of them as heroes – and
rightly so. Going into harms way to
rescue innocent victims of evil. Romans
5:7 says, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good
man someone might possibly dare to die.”
But God gave His only Son to certain death for those who were unworthy
of that sacrifice. God gave His Son, as
it were, for the terrorists, the perpetrators of the sin, as much as for the
victims of the sin. He gave His life
for us while we were the terrorists – the evildoers, the sinners.
“…that
whoever believes in Him should not perish…”
Think for a moment about that word, “perish.”
It kind of takes on a much deeper meaning in these days doesn’t it? We have seen thousands of people “perish”
right before our eyes. The Bible says
that our lives are but a “vapor.” We
have all seen how quickly and unexpectedly our lives can end. We have said many times, and it is simply
axiomatic – none of us knows when our lives will end.
God knows that we are all in danger – but we are in far greater danger than
just death – we are in danger of “perishing.” We’re in danger of spending
eternity separated from Him. The Bible calls it the second death and it is
racing toward all of humanity. For that reason, God sent his Son to die on a
cross, as a sacrifice for our sins. He’s paid our penalty. All he asks in
return is that we believe in him. He asks that we accept his loving
demonstration on the cross so that we might be saved from the second death –
from perishing. God’s love has this
purpose tied to it.
“…but
have everlasting life.”
God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance. While we celebrate and
trust in God’s love, let’s never forget His holiness and His sovereignty. While God has freely given us his Son to
bring eternal life to us all, but He retains the right to set the terms. We receive that everlasting life only
through faith in Jesus Christ.
One
of the great dangers in Bible reading is to take verses out of context. Look at the rest of this chapter. These words of God’s incredible love are
couched in a context of very specific teaching. Jesus says in verse 3, “Unless one is born again, he cannon see
the kingdom of God.” And in verse 5, he
says it again, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of God.”
In
verses 17 & 18, the Absolute Truth is even more clearly stated,
“For God did not send His Son into the wolrd to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God .”
Here,
then is the truth about God and His love for us: God loves you. God is
love. He loves you with a love that is
greater and purer than any love you can ever experience on this earth. His love is so all-encompassing, so vast in
its scope, that He has given of Himself
- His own Son - to keep you from perishing. But that love can only be accessed through faith in that Son,
Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12 says, “There is
salvation in no other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men
by which we must be saved.”
Today
we have seen a young child presented to God in dedication to Him, with parents
pledging to raise her in the teaching and instruction of the Lord. We look forward to a day when little
Isabella will of her own accord trust Jesus as her Savior, and know the love of
God for herself. On this day when her
parents have presented their child to God, you can come and present yourself to
Him as well. If you want to know
without any question, without any doubt that you have eternal life, all you
need do is come to God, embrace that love He has for you, believe on the name
of His Son