Is Jesus In Your Room? Part 6
“For God so loved the world,”
John 3:16a
In verse fifteen, we witnessed our Lord turn the world on its head. Nicodemus, who had invested all of his hope in the system, was forced to watch as it came crashing down like a 4-year-old’s sandcastle being destroyed by a tidal wave. “Salvation is for the Jews only,” he must have been thinking as he squirmed in his seat, feeling like an unprepared student about to take the biggest test of his life. He must have been asking himself, “How? Why? Whoever? Really?”
As he reflected on the conversation, Nicodemus might have realized that Jesus had essentially told him that he needed to unlearn everything he thought he knew up to that point. Our Lord had lovingly dropped a truth bomb on him like a million pounds of lead bursting through the sky, leaving him with nowhere to hide. Nicodemus had to put to death everything he held dear and become like a little child, starting from square one all over again. It must have been overwhelming for him to contemplate, “AGAIN?!”
“Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3b
Wait, what? But then, why? Why does salvation extend to whoever believes in Jesus Christ? The answer bursts through the gates like a valiant knight charging in to save his love from the hands of a dreadful giant. Nicodemus, the answer is love.
Love is the reason why salvation is offered to anyone who believes and repents. God’s love for humanity is so immense that He sent His only Son to die on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins. Through Jesus Christ, God has offered us the gift of salvation and eternal life. It is available to anyone who believes and accepts Jesus as their Savior. This message of love and redemption would have been a radical concept for Nicodemus, who had grown up with a very different understanding of salvation. But it is the truth that sets us free and brings us into a deep and transformative relationship with God.
“For God so loved the world,”
John 3:16a
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[a] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
Eph 1:4-5
4 But[a] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
Eph 2:4
the Lord appeared to him[a] from far away.
Jer 31:3
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7
God’s immense, unchanging, immeasurable, unwavering love for his creation! “For God so loved the world!” Say it again. Say it over and over! Amen!
In Him, with love (pun-intended),
mike
P.s
“We love because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:19
