Discourse with Nicodemus

Today's Reflections 

 

Discourse with Nicodemus

Jn 3:16-21

¹⁶God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

EVERYONE WHO believes in him… MIGHT have eternal life. John makes it clear here that not to believe in Jesus, not to accept his revelation, means to die. Death here means to cease existing after life on earth, not to exist in another state, not to exist even in hell!

On the other hand, “life” or “eternal life” is “not continued existence, nor mere survival after death, nor even what is currently called ‘quality of life.’ Life is, first and foremost, life with someone, life in relation to the other, in relation to God, to those whom we love, and to those who love us. Eternal life is the preservation of these relationships intact but without the menacing hand of death” (Stanley B. Marrow).

Since God is the God of life and the God of the living and not of the dead, anyone who believes “in the name of the only Son of God,” that is, keeps a relationship with God, will live eternally.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”

(Jn 3:16).