Bible Studies

AFRAID OF WHAT?

by Luella Campbell
12/25/13
Not For Sale
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AFRAID OF WHAT?

"'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.

"'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. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.'" John 3:16-19 (NIV).

Strange that Jesus almost sounds as though He were a preacher preaching a sermon instead of the Son of God speaking about Himself -- the simplest, most well-known and well-loved, yet profoundest words in the Bible!

These words are so simple that a child can understand them. "God loved the world so much that He gave His Son..."

Why did God give His Son? The world was in darkness. What is darkness? We've already spoken about John's use of "darkness". Adam's choice to go it alone instead of submitting to God's authority and doing life God's way, brought the whole world into disrepair, messed up and falling apart. God had other plans for His creation, plans for everything, including people, to work together in perfect harmony with Him but instead, darkness...

The result was condemnation. God passed sentence on His creation; not just people but everything; the natural world and even the heavens come under the hammer -- guilty, condemned and sentenced to death. We see the sad result everywhere.

But God had a solution -- Jesus. He sent His Son to fix everything that was broken. How did He do that? He showed us what the Father is like and what a true son is like and then threw down the gauntlet to the devil, 'Do your worst and I'll take it. I'll release my creation from the curse of their choice. Let's see what darkness can do.'

Darkness did its worst but Jesus bounced back. There was no darkness in Him and darkness could not hold him captive. The Prince of Darkness did his worst through the darkness in people but it was not strong enough to snuff out the Light. When Jesus walked out of the tomb, darkness was overcome and He could offer pardon and peace to anyone who comes to Him.

No condemnation! That's what Paul said. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1 (NIV). They came to the Light, believed in the Light and shed their guilt, shame and fear -- forever. God's verdict is now, "Not guilty; cased dismissed." Every case the devil brings to Him for judgment is thrown out of court. There is no case because the debt has already been paid.

But there is a peculiar twist to the tale -- there are people who actually refuse to accept the verdict -- not guilty -- and prefer to carry on with the trial and accept a guilty verdict and the sentence that goes with it. Why? How can they be so perverse?

There is only one reason. They love their filthy, twisted, selfish, perverse lives so much that they would rather go to jail than come clean and be set free. It's okay to enjoy your sin while you can and get away with it but you have to live with the consequences afterwards. That's one of the problems. People deliberately ignore the "afterwards" bit.

Come on now, let's be real. What keeps people in darkness? "Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed." John 3:20 (NIV). There it is! The oldest reason in the Book. Adam hid from God because he was afraid. People hide from God because they are afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid of being found out. And when they are found out, they will be punished, so they think.

But wait a minute. Didn't we say that Jesus has already been punished? No condemnation? So what's the problem? They either don't know or they don't believe. "God so loved the world..." a love so big and so unfathomable that it sounds too good to be true. But it is true.

Listen to this one: "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love."1 John 4:18 (NLT).

But there is also hope. "'But whoever lives by the truth comes to the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.'" John 3:21, 22 (NIV