“For God did not send his Son into the world /to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17 NIV)
The compelling message of John 3:17 is more than a statement of God’s
intention /towards the human race, for in actuality it constitutes a
“proclamation extraordinary!” It is a three-part proclamation /joined
beautifully to John 3:16. We are thus assured that God sent his Son
/into the world; that he did not send him to condemn the world; and that
he sent him in order that the world might be saved.
Because I have been so involved with this passage…, waking up to it,
walking with it, meditating over it, I have a burning question within me
that I must ask. I suspect that it might be called “the unanswered
question.” It is not a question about any interpretation of this
portion of John’s Gospel. It is rather a question /about our human
reactions /to such a moving proclamation /from the living God:
Why is
there a blank kind of indifference
and why is there an incredible apathy
/to such an extraordinary proclamation of God’s best intentions for us?
* apathy; lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.
It is not a sufficient answer to say that unregenerated people are
indifferent to spiritual things.
It needs to be said plainly that there
is also an amazing apathy and dullness /even among professing Christians
in our churches.
This is a gravely significant message /from the heart of God himself,
yet even in the full light of it, people are indifferent.
Upon our eyes
there seems to have fallen a strange dimness. Within our ears there
seems to have fallen a strange dullness.
In our minds there is a
stupor, and in our hearts, I am afraid, there is a great callousness.
It is a wonder, and a terrible responsibility, that we should have this
message /from the heart of God /in our possession and be so little stirred
up about it!
Now, if we had never had this communication from God, I could possibly
understand why we could go on our way… If we had no personal word /from
the Lord, then I could see why we could all come to church and sit in
stoical silence; why we could kneel in prayer and mumble into a deaf ear
// that does not hear; why we could rise in the morning and be more
concerned /about whether the newspaper has arrived than about spiritual
and eternal verities.
* verity; a true principle or belief, especially one of fundamental importance.
If this verse had never been entrusted to us, I might be able to
explain our indifference and apathy. I could say, “It is the
indifference of despair, or the apathy of despair”… If this verse were
not here I would know why we are the way () we are.
If this proclamation
extraordinary had not been made, I might understand [how we can be so
unhappy].
I might understand how humans can walk around /looking down /at
the earth /like the beasts and rarely looking at the sky.
But in the light of the fact //that it was made known 2,000 years ago, I
can only ask: What is the matter with us?
Why is there so little
response? Why does this great stupor lie upon us /as it does?
-A.W. Tozer (excerpted and adapted from Christ the Eternal Son)
Oh, the mercy and the grace of God! Let’s thank him today for his patience and his compassion!
Read John 3:16-21.