Jesus said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Nothing is more essential in the teachings of Jesus than His clear revelation that we are lost and need to be saved.
What does Jesus mean when He says we are lost? He means that we are spiritually dead in (our) trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1); blind to the truth of our lostness (2 Cor. 4:4); and are unwilling and unable to save ourselves (Ps. 53:1-3). He means, as He said to Nicodemus, that we are unable to save ourselves by our religiousness — we must be spiritually born again by the power of God. Only God can accomplish spiritual regeneration.
When Jesus says that we are lost, He means that our sins have separated us from God, the Source of all life. He means that our sin has brought us under God’s judgment and has created the reality of death and decay which has infected every aspect of our being. He means that if we die in this state of sinful separation we will live forever in the hellishness of separation from all that God is.
What does Jesus mean when He says we need to be saved? He means that His desire is to redeem us from our sin and thereby reconcile us to God, bring us back into relationship with God.
This salvation purpose began in eternity past when God sovereignly chose to save lost sinners. We are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). We did not choose God. It is God who chose to reveal His grace to fallen humanity and draw us to Himself.
The work of salvation entered an entirely new dimension when the eternal Lord of grace took human form and offered His life as a holy sacrifice for our sin. God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, raised Jesus from the dead and then sent the Holy Spirit into the world. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (Jn. 16:7).
1. The Holy Spirit convicts the sinner, awakens the sinner to the truth that our sin has offended and grieved God, has separated us from Him and has brought His judgment upon us and created the reality death in all of our being. This awakening ministry of the Holy Spirit leads to repentance, a sincere sorrow for our sin, in all who respond to the Spirit.
2. The Holy Spirit convinces, awakens the sinner to the truth that there is a future judgment that will be visited by God on all who stand before Him with any righteousness other than through faith in Christ.
3. The Holy Spirit convinces, awakens the sinner to the truth that though our self-generated righteousness avails nothing with God, there is a righteousness available through faith in Christ. He awakens the sinner to the truth that Christ has made provision for us by entering the realm of human existence as the God / Man who offered Himself as the holy Sacrifice for our sin, taking our sin and divine judgment of our sin upon Himself. The Spirit grants faith to believe that the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, avails for the forgiveness of sinners.
Saving faith is the gift of God to those who turn and believe, as Paul reveals, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). The Apostle Peter reminds us that we have received this gift of faith (2 Ptr 1:1). We did not generate or produce saving faith — we received it, it is the gift of God.
The instrument for bringing a sinner to repentance and the gift of saving faith is the Word of the cross, For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1:18). The Holy Spirit powerfully apples the message of the cross to the heart of the sinner, convicting of sin and convincing of grace. When anyone surrenders to this ministry of the Spirit, no matter how terrible or numerous their sins may be, the God of all grace then powerfully regenerates, rebirths the sinner who was dead in trespass and sins, granting a blessed assurance of forgiveness and the gift of resurrection life.
Just as we did not choose to be born, neither can we regenerate ourselves. It is by the power of God. In His encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus chose the analogy of rebirth — you must be born again / from above — because this accurately reflects the radical change from lost, spiritually dead sinner to a redeemed believer alive forevermore in Christ. And it accurately expresses the only power that can accomplish this — the life giving power of God.
The Apostle Paul said, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17). Spiritual rebirth, regeneration, new creation, is a work of God. Salvation is not the result of trying harder, doing some religious ritual, reforming oneself. The salvation of God, the kingdom rule of God’s grace, opens to those who abandon all self effort and receive God’s gift of salvation, who cease trying to make a place for themselves in the kingdom through their own religious striving.
In our last lesson we examined Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus wherein the Lord explained that salvation is entirely a work of God, that everything on which Nicodemus had based his hope for salvation was in fact useless, availed nothing. But if Nicodemus is unable to save himself through his religious works, if in fact he is spiritually dead and blind and unable to interpret even his own Old Testament Scriptures regarding human depravity and God’s saving grace, what can he do? Jesus is holding him accountable but what can Nicodemus do?
He can listen and believe. Believe is all he can do.
Whereas in the first part of this conversation, Jesus emphasized the sovereignty of God in salvation, He now emphasizes the human response — the necessity of believing. Again Jesus contextualizes the conversation, referring to another Old Testament Scripture with which Nicodemus would be familiar.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life (Jn. 3:14,15).
Jesus is referring to an incident recorded in Numbers 21:5 in which Israel spoke against God and Moses. Their rebellion was so grievous that God, in righteous judgment, sent venomous serpents among the people (Num. 21:6). Moses interceded for the people and God in His mercy granted a remedy: Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live’ (21:8).
Notice that God, in His righteous anger, judged their sin and that judgment was fatal. Yet God in His mercy provided a means of escape for those under judgment. God’s justice and mercy are never in opposition or contradiction. They are in perfect harmony. God judges sin because He is just. God offers mercy to the sinner because He is merciful. Notice that God’s remedy for sin and rebellion involved no works, no prayers or rituals. Only look up.
In this incident we see an exact analogy to the human condition. Humanity has sinned and rebelled against God which has resulted in the judgment of God being poured out on sinful humanity. Judgment is expressed most clearly in these simple words, The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Our sin separated us from God, the Lord of life, and exposed us to the venomous, deadly bite of the serpent, Satan.
God’s remedy for sin and sin’s lethal penalty is a Savior on a cross who became a sin offering. Jesus said, And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself (John 12:32). All who look in faith to the crucified Savior, the holy Lamb of God, are delivered from sin and its fatal penalty. We are not saved by works, rituals, prayers or candles. We are saved from sin’s venomous, deadly bite by looking to, believing in the Savior whom God has sent: Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith (Hebr. 12:2).
Notice that Jesus said to Nicodemus, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up (Jn. 3:14).The word must emphasizes the necessity of the atoning death of Christ. The Apostle Paul states emphatically, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15).
Peter, in his sermon on Pentecost, said, This Man (Jesus), delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross (Acts 2:23).
Jesus came into the world according to the predetermined plan of God to interpret God’s wrath and mercy to lost humanity. His most powerful act of interpretation was His atoning death on the cross, whereby he demonstrates the wrath of God against sin and the mercy of God to repentant, believing sinners. Paul says, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21).
On the cross, Jesus as our Great High Priest offered Himself as the holy Sacrifice for sin, taking the sin of the world upon Himself, into Himself. He became a sin offering. He absorbed into Himself the venom of sin and the eternal wrath of God against sin. He interpreted for us the deadliness of sin’s poison and God’s just response to sin. And on that cross, Jesus interprets to us the mercy of God to lost sinners.
On that cross Jesus was lifted up and because of that cross He was exalted by God. Paul says, Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phlp. 2:8-11).
Jesus is the One who has come down from heaven with saving truth, the One who was lifted up on a cross, the Risen Lord whose resurrection is the Father’s proof of His acceptance of the holy Sacrifice. Jesus, the crucified Lamb and risen Lord is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me Jesus said (John 14:6).
All Nicodemus can do is look up and believe: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life (Jn. 3:14,15). Believes in who? Believes in this crucified, risen Savior.
In the Garden of Eden, the serpent deceived Eve and incited Adam’s rebellion. The result was the venomous bite of the serpent on the first of our family and on all the sons and daughters of those first sinners. God’s remedy is a Savior lifted up on a cross and all who look to Him in faith, believing, are forgiven of sin, reconciled to God and given the gift of eternal life.
What does it mean to believe in Christ? It means we believe He is who the Scriptures testify that He is — Son of God, Lamb of God, risen Lord. It means we abandon all other means of salvation, trusting in Christ’s atoning death. It means we trust Him to do what He says He does — save, cleanse, redeem, forgive, regenerate. It means we surrender to Him every aspect of our being, declaring Him to be Lord of our life and living under His active, present Lordship.
The result of this trusting, believing surrender to Christ is that we are born again into everlasting life. Eternal life is life lived in union with God. It is not measured in units of time, is not an expanse of time, rather, it is a quality of life. It is life lived with God, in God and through God. It is sharing the life of God. Jesus said, This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (Jn. 17:3).
What motivated God to provide this remedy for Nicodemus, for us, for all sinners? Jesus continues: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn. 3:16).
God so greatly loved this sin-marred, sin-cursed world of lost, blind, dying rebels; a world unable to save itself through its multiplied false philosophies and false religions, unable to save itself through its good works and prayers and rituals; a world that blasphemes and slanders His name, persecutes His prophets and rejects His truth; a world that rejoices in corruption and despises God’s holiness; a world that despised, ridiculed, beat and killed God’s Son — God so loved this world.
When did God love this world? He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4). While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son (Rom. 5:10).
How much does God love this world: God so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son (Jn. 3:16). Jesus was begotten in the womb of Mary for the sole purpose of saving lost, blaspheming, dead-in sin humanity. Jesus said, Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28).
This is God’s inexpressibly precious demonstration of love — the gift of His Son. The apostles remind us:
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).
In this is love, not that we first loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins (I Jn. 4:10).
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Ptr. 1:3).
What motivates God’s offer of salvation to lost, dead sinners? Why has God done this? What is the motive for God’s inexpressible, unmeasurable, relentless lovingkindness? The motivation for the love of God is hidden in the heart of God. It is enough to know this: God so loved the world that He gave.
God loves the world and offers salvation to the world but this does not mean that all the world will be saved. The statement, Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life, clearly implies that those who do not believe will perish in their self-chosen separation from God. The Son was given to the world — there is only one Savior for all the world. But only those who believe will be regenerated and enjoy everlasting life with God.
Paul reminds us, God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them (2 Cor. 5:19).That does not mean that all the world has been reconciled to God. It means that for all the world, there is only one Reconciler, Christ Jesus. When we place our faith in Christ as our atoning Lamb, we find that our sins are not counted against us because our sins were placed on Christ on the cross.
How can we express the grandeur, the wonder, the greatness of this gift, the Father’s only begotten Son? How do we describe the love that motivated Jesus, who had enjoyed perfect communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit for all eternity, to become a ridiculed, beaten, bleeding sacrifice for sin? How do we comprehend the heart of the Father in sending His Son to be a crucified Lamb?
Notice the Father’s determined purpose in this: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit agreed and decreed that the holy and beloved Son would be a sin offering, that not only the sin of the world would be placed upon Him but the eternal wrath of God against sin would be poured out upon Him. How do we express such an inexpressible gift?
How do we describe the mystery of the love described by Isaiah? But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief (Isa. 53:10). If God is perfect love, and the love between God the Father and God the Son is perfect, infinite and everlasting; and if it pleased the Father to crush His beloved Son for us — lost, rebellious, God-rejecting sinners — how can we comprehend God’s love for us?
Notice the wideness, the largeness of God’s gift: Whoever believes in Him shall not perish (Jn. 3:16). Whoever is a large word. Whoever believes in Christ receives God’s gift of salvation. The word whoever reveals that the doorway to the kingdom of God is wide enough to allow the entrance of the most wicked sinner in history. Whoever believes reveals that the way is narrow and excludes all who do not trust in Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation.
Jesus said, Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture (Jn. 10:7-9).
I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (Jn. 14:6).
God is a God of infinite grace but Jesus is the only door into the access of that grace, the only entrance into the rule of that grace, the kingdom of God. The kingdom is that dimension of life and grace wherein we experience forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God and spiritual regeneration into eternal life with God. This is a wide door, providing entrance to all who believe. This same door is barred to all who will not believe.
The Lord makes a promise in John 3:16 — those who believe in Him will never perish. This promise is repeated throughout the New Testament. Jude says, Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory with great joy (Jude 1:24).
Jesus testifies of this, My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of My hand (Jn 10:27,28).
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you (I Peter 1:3,4).
Those who are awakened out of sinful separation from God, who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to place their faith in Christ, who believe in Him— the holy Lamb for sinners slain and risen Lord — will never perish, will someday be presented holy and blameless before God and will be kept by the power of God through time into eternity.
Such is the grace of God.
Eternal, without beginning or end,
unfathomable, inexpressible.
Study Questions
1. What is the Holy Spirit’s part in salvation?
2. What is the necessary human response?