Come To The Light

Come to the Light

John 3:17-21, NLT

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.

Setting the Scene

In the verses after John 3:16, Jesus corrects several misunderstandings that might rise from the gospel summary he has just given. The world’s judgment is a done deal, dating back to the fall of humanity in Genesis. Jesus came to provide salvation from the judgment already in place.

John does not record how the conversation with Nicodemus ended. Nicodemus may have told Jesus he had just heard a lot he needed to think about. Perhaps he rushed back to locate a scroll and read again Numbers 21:4-9, the vivid account of the agony caused by the snakes and God’s instructions to Moses to cast a bronze snake and hang it on a pole. Nicodemus surely had to reflect on Jesus’ multiple claims of his unique relationship as the Son of God the Father. Jesus’ description of three discernible parties (God as Father, Son, and Spirit) in the spiritual rebirth process would not have been easy to consider. In Nicodemus’s circles, Jesus’ claims seemed not only different but blasphemous.

Yet we know the Spirit flowed into Nicodemus’s life and changed him. He became one of the reborn ones. John 7:50-51 describes his participation in an intense discussion about Jesus in the Sanhedrin. When someone made the argument that not a single Pharisee believed in Jesus, Nicodemus spoke up, at great danger to himself. Other circumstances forced Nicodemus gradually to take a public stand with Jesus. After the Crucifixion, while Jesus’ disciples hid in fear, Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea to ask for Jesus’ body to bury it (John 19:38-42). Nicodemus’s actions revealed him to be not only a believer, but also a champion of the gospel message.

Getting Personal

How do you experience the tension between the desire for light and the love of darkness in your own life?

What has been your developmental journey of faith since the point when you were born again?

Nicodemus is an easy target to hit with accusations of cowardice or shyness in proclaiming his faith. But given the almost limitless freedoms we have to express and declare our faith, how bold are we being in our times and culture?

Talking to God

Bring your own feelings of cowardice or courage to the Lord as you ask him to help you grow into a champion of the gospel message.