“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” These beautiful and consoling words of the Lord Jesus, recorded by Saint John in his Gospel at chapter three verse sixteen, are among the most beloved words in Holy Scripture and are the cause of our joy on this Laetare Sunday when we rejoice in the nearness of our salvation.
Even in these days of widespread unbelief, it is not uncommon here in the Christ-haunted South to see the tag “John 3:16” scribbled in unexpected places as a reminder to all of the inestimable gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
But here is the question which should immediately follow that confession of faith: If God does love the world, then why did he permit the world to become such a disaster that it needed saving in the first place? Why would an omnipotent, omniscient, and loving God allow the catastrophe which human history has been? Why would he permit us to harm ourselves and, worse, to harm others rather than simply remove from our hearts the wicked and selfish desires that lead us astray in so many ways?
And now we come to the heart of what it means to be a human person. To be created in the image and likeness of God means that we are all endowed with reason and will, with the capacity to know, to think, to choose, and to love. And without these faculties of intellect and will, we would not be persons as the other animals on this planet are not persons; instead, we would be automatons.
So, man’s Fall from God’s grace came as the result of the misuse of human freedom, and God could have prevented that Fall only by restricting or removing our freedom. But in that case we would have been his slaves, not his children.
Instead, the eternal plan of salvation provided both for our freedom and for the fact of its misuse and then offered the remedy for that catastrophe by restoring our freedom through an offer that must be freely accepted by grace through faith, hope, and love: the offer to acknowledge and embrace the gift of sharing in divine life forever by trusting in the divine Word: the eternal Word, God the Son, who became the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus, whom we come to know in the written Word, the Holy Scriptures.
The plan for eternal life was revealed finally and fully in and by Jesus Christ, but God prepared us for that gift during the two millennia between the call of Abraham and the coming of the Messiah. And today we read one portion of that long story from the Second Book of Chronicles:
“In those days, the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. Early and often did the Lord, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets.” (2 Chronicles 36:14-16)
So, the Lord sent many messengers to his rebellious children, but the messengers were rejected just as Christ was rejected when he came. And Christ is still rejected both when his Gospel is not received with faith and when believers turn to grave sin, something which remains possible for all disciples. The corruption of human nature in the Fall from grace turns us in on ourselves and away from others, and so the Gospel concluded last Sunday with Saint John telling us that Jesus “did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.”
Our inclination to selfishness is visible from the very beginning of human life, even in babies, whose first words are usually not mama and papa but mine and no. And as we mature, our disordered self-love becomes stronger and more destructive unless it is tempered by discipline and directed by true principles of ethical behavior. But even a well-disciplined and fully integrated adult is still a fallen sinner in need of redemption by Christ Jesus.
Narcissism, entitlement, self-absorption, rationalization of selfishness, the tendency to use other persons as objects, and all the deadly sins make us strangers to God, to others, and to our own true selves. And until we are liberated from that slavery to our false selves, we can never fully know why we exist or what our true purpose is. And that, in turn, leads to perplexity and unhappiness of many kinds. And more that than, we are all going to die, even the wisest and best of us, and so we all need a savior to redeem us from the grave.
When the Gospel was first proclaimed in the years just after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the light of divine truth exploded into this darksome world as a beacon of hope and joy. As we read today in the second lesson, Saint Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
“God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ - by grace you have been saved - raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)
That’s all one breathless sentence because Paul’s words came spilling out of his pen with urgent intensity like water from a fire hose. In the Gospel there is so much to say, and given that eternity is at stake, it is crucial for us to understand all that God has revealed for our salvation. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)
So, by the gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ we have received an offer of unbounded glory. The question for each of us is this: Do I accept this gift on the Lord’s terms, or do I quibble with the Lord or run away from his gift in the name of my false autonomy? Making that decision every day is at the heart of the moral life, and by our Baptism we are called and equipped to make that decision for Christ. Listen again to the Lord Jesus speaking today in Saint John’s Gospel:
“And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” (John 3:19-21)
Friends, those who do not yet know that Jesus Christ is Lord need to hear this wisdom from those who do know the Lord and who love and serve him as friends. But no one will receive the Good News from someone who does not both love and live the truth that Jesus Christ alone is the salvation of the world, the life of the human race, and the resurrection of the dead.
Three weeks from today we will celebrate the Passover of the Lord on Pascha or Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In these remaining Lenten days and every day of our lives, let us live by grace through faith, hope, and love. Let us live the truth of the Gospel so that everyone we know will rejoice in the Good News that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This is the text of my homily for 10 March 2024, the Fourth Sunday of Lent.
Fr Jay Scott Newman
Thank you for your homily. It serves as a strong reminder of the gifts God has given to us and the need to act on them while we still have the time.