Life or Perish

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

LIFE OR PERISH

John 3:16-21

16 "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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.   19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."   

NIV

We have come to the long-awaited John 3:16 which seems to show up on some sign or poster at most every sporting event. It must mean that every person on the planet knows exactly what that verse says. But we doubt that, for if that did, there would be no need for evangelism as everyone would be a believer. Perhaps one of the reasons people are not inspired to believe because of these words of Jesus is that do not believe Jesus is real. Perhaps they think God is just a figment of our imagination. Maybe they just do not want to believe because deep down in their heart, they know they would have to give up those dark behaviors. But why would someone choose to perish? Again we are faced with this idea of perishing as opposed to having eternal life. It is the position of most denominations that to perish means to live in forever torment in hell. There is enough other scripture to support that position. Nevertheless, however one sees the idea of perishing, it is certainly far less, no extremely less desirable then having eternal life. The other theology which would seem to be in opposition to the fact that God so loved the world, and that whosoever believes. God does not love just a select group of people or an elected few, but he loves the whole world implying he loves all of His creation, all mankind so much that he sent Jesus to die on the cross to take away the sins of all mankind, however, it does depend on someone believing that in order for them not to perish but have eternal life. God did it for all, but each person must accept his act of love and make it their own, or apply his love to their life. This bears out in the rest of what Jesus says. If we believe in him we are not condemned. However, if we do not believe in him we stand condemned and he explains the reason it is because we do not believe in the name of one and only Son, Jesus. It is one thing to say “I believe in God” but does that imply that a person believes in the name of Jesus? Jesus goes on to say the reason some chose perish is that they love darkness. They think their evil deeds can be hidden in the dark and they do not want the light of Jesus exposing their deeds. How foolish to think anyone can hide from the sight of God. Do they think God cannot see into the darkness of their heart? We are living proof he can, for we once lived in that city of darkness and death. The light of Jesus penetrated that darkness within us and we were able to see his light, his love and we made that choice to cast of that darkness, leave it behind and follow his light into a city filled with his light and life. The darkness no longer holds any bond on us, we have been set free from that bondage to sin. That does not mean we are sinless. God forbid, that we would have that kind of prideful attitude. It is just we have no desire to live in darkness, so as we fail, we look to God, and he has forgiven our sin because we believe in the one he sent. Yes, we ask for that forgiveness, which makes us different than those who refuse to come into the light. However, on the other hand, we should be shining our light so we might help them see the light of Jesus. It all comes down to believe and have life, refuse and perish. We will always choose life.