The Joy of Salvation

 

Text: John 3:13-17

Focus: salvation

Function: to see God’s healing for the whole world.

¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Good morning to the beloved children of God.

I love talking about God’s salvation for us.

And I also love talking about God’s love.

I think one of the most memorable sermons I heard was the preacher standing up and saying; “ You all know John 3:16, but let us start this message by saying together the first 4 words.”

Let us do that together, in unison: For God So Loved…

And then, as I often do, he built the whole sermon on the concept that everything about salvation springs from the fact that God loves us.

I love the way our passage ends in Verse 17 with an emphasis on the fact that God is not the God of judgment but of mercy.

Everything springs from the fact that God loves us. In 1 John 4:8 we read the words about God that say: “God is Love.” If God is love, then indeed everything springs from God’s love.

Verse 17 points out that God’s purpose in sending the Savior into the world was that we might be saved. Salvation is healing. It is restoration. It is God making us whole and redeeming the purpose and strength of our lives through the Holy Spirit.

Think about what you hear in your mind when you hear the word “saved.” I used to hear that I no longer needed to fear the punishment of hell because I was saved from the wrath of God.

But that idea of wrath is just not present in the passage. The idea of restoration and redemption are prevalent in the passage.

I think my confusion came from a misunderstanding of the way John the author uses the word aionios .

Throughout his writings John uses the word to speak of life with Jesus being a life that is without limits as the word implies.

It is a different word used that the word for abundant life, but I believe the meaning is still the same. Jesus came to heal and restore us to a better way of life.

This passage is in context of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee of important standing. Jesus has just got done telling him that in order to be one of God’s followers, one must be born from above by the Spirit of God.

One must seek the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We call it being born again.

I suppose it happens many ways and differently for different believers.

For me, it was as I mentioned when I was four and I asked Jesus to come into my heart.

I didn’t know that he was already there. But it was a simple act of faith. It was an act of trust. I placed my trust Jesus.

So the passage say that this healing and restoration that God has for the world comes to us when we place our trust in Jesus.

For me, I take that to mean that I will follow the teachings of Jesus in my life and reject the worldly values of greed and selfishness that are contrary to living successfully in a community.

Through Jesus, God brought a different kind of Kingdom to the earth.

It was characterized by the baptismal vows that stated no difference between classes, races and genders, all are equal in God’s eyes.

When they were baptized that proclaimed to the world that God loves everyone and they were committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity, equity and inclusion are indeed Christian values and they were the values that transformed the society and brought about the healing that God wanted.

When the community of believers laid down their selfishness and adopted this new way of living, the Jesus way of caring for everyone else as well as they care for themselves, they proclaimed a message that resonated with people who were tired of striving against their neighbor to survive and instead joined a community that shared resources and cared for the least of these.

I am convinced that the healing to society comes when individuals rest by faith in the promise of God to provide for them. We live by faith and when we live by faith, we become generous people because we admit that it is God who has given us the power to be blessed and a blessing to others.

All of this is living by faith in the power of love for others so that we can obey Jesus. Jesus said that if we love him, I believe if we are grateful to him for his sacrifice for humanity, then we will do what he told us to do.

We live in a consumerist driven economy. In order for that economy to survive, we are bombarded with advertisement telling us that we are incomplete without their product or idea.
That same world we live in tells us it is okay to be greedy. It tells us more will make us happy.

And none of that works in bringing true happiness. Happiness comes to us from God and one of the ways is from the community that God has given us to support us.

Later on, in the John 17:20-23 we read Jesus’ prayer about extending the love of God to us in a powerful way. ²⁰“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, ²³I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Do you see? He prays that we may also be one with God as he is one with God. That is wonderful!

The joy of salvation is restoration to God and to others. It is God healing us by recreating us from the inside out, by the Spirit faithfully leading us to love others.