John 3:14-21 - Jesus’ Purpose (2024 Version)
John 3:14) And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15) that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16) For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17) Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18) Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19) And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20) For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21) But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.
Issues in John: The Gospel of John is rich and multi-faceted. One of the distinguishing features of this gospel is that the Fourth Evangelist uses many words with multiple meanings and expects the reader to hold all of those meanings in mind simultaneously in order to understand what he is saying fully. That is simply how this writer’s mind works. For example, in John the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus are seen as one continuous event, much as a worship service has prayer, music and scripture which all work together to produce a result. Therefore, in John, to speak of any of the events of the Passion/Easter/Ascension narratives is to keep all of them in mind. We see an example of this in our text today in his use of the Greek word we translate as lifted up in verse 14. This word has two meanings, ‘to raise’ as on the cross and ‘to glorify, exalt or make great.’ When John uses a word like this he intends to help us see that the cross and the glory are one. Without either there is no meaning in the other. Taking note of other words the writer uses this way may make the text easier to understand. I urge you to read this study sheet carefully. It is especially important with a text like this one that is so familiar and that many of us have layered meanings upon it over the years that were not the intention of the author.
Specialized Words and/or Allusions
Verse 14 – refers to an incident form Israel’s past that is recorded in Numbers 21. During the time of wilderness wandering, some of the people began to complain bitterly that they had been better off in slavery in Egypt. To wake them up, God sent a plague of deadly serpents. The people cried out for mercy and God told Moses to make an image of a serpent and put it on a pole and place it in the center of the camp. Those who looked on it were healed. They were healed not by the serpent, but because the serpent reminded them of the power of God. For many years the serpent was kept and became a symbol of God’s salvation of the people until people began worshipping it and it had to be destroyed by Hezekiah.
Believing (in Jesus) – This word has at least three meanings for John and his community. 1) To believe in Jesus meant to accept that the nature and essence of God was (is) the way Jesus describes it: i.e. love. This was very hard for people who had been trained to think of God as a judge waiting to exact a penalty for sin and shortcomings. 2) To believe in Jesus meant to accept that Jesus was the Son of God. John and his community were not concerned with the physiology of this, but with the fact that Jesus’ interpretation of the nature of God was reliable because the very mind and essence of God resided in Jesus. 3) To believe in Jesus was to stake everything on him and what he said, did and revealed about himself and the nature of God. This aspect of believing has to do with trusting, even if facts or situations seem difficult to reconcile. To believe in this way is not to deny the faculties of reason or to set aside doubt or confusion. Rather, it refers to relying upon Jesus at all cost even when our capacity to understand is only partial at best.
Eternal life: In John eternal life refers to the life and energy(power) of God available to human beings both now and forever. This is the life by which God lives. It is not exactly the same as everlasting. It is not about duration but depth and it is entered into with Jesus and produces tangible and startling results. Eternal life is a gift of God in Christ and has several results in this life. Eternal life results in peace with God. For John this meant moving out of that cringing, frightened position with God that was always on the look out for punishment. That life position was of the past. It had become irrelevant. Eternal life also resulted in peace with people that led to becoming forgiving of others out of gratitude for God’s forgiveness and acceptance. Eternal life also meant peace with the life we live now regardless of our circumstances (which are always temporary) or our spiritual progress at the moment. Spiritual progress was the eternity long process of walking in the light of love and being changed by it. This kind of peace as a result of living eternal life in the here and now, resulted in a change of attitude that arises from the settled trust that God is loving and at work. Peace with life did not always produce understanding about events or circumstances but allowed the believer to live without resentment. Eternal life also produced peace with the self. Because we are loved and accepted by God we can give up the internal guilt and condemnation that is so often a part of the lives of less than perfect human beings. Peace with self is a result of grasping the truth that, as Augustine put so well, “God loves each of us as if there was only one to love.” Finally, eternal life meant a growing hope for this kind of peace to be made more and more full on earth and completely full in heaven.
Light: The character of light in John is to reveal, provide understanding and allow for choices that promote truth, purity and alignment with the divine reality. The light itself is, of course, God and therefore nothing is hidden from the light. Light is an avenue of grace, although it is not always pleasant to have the light of God’s love and grace shined upon us. In that light we have to give up our illusions and excuses and can momentarily feel bare and confused. Even then, light heals as well as reveals.
Darkness: The character of darkness is to obscure, deceive and harbor impurity. John often uses words for darkness as a metaphor for evil. Darkness is itself an illusion since nothing is hidden from God. Darkness in John has to do with the futile attempt to hide from others and ourselves our own imperfections and sins. Or even more horrendously to decide that what we like and benefit from is always worthy and what others do is always suspect. A classic example comes from ancient Greece. It is said that Alcibiades, an associate of Socrates, said, “Socrates, I hate you; for every time I meet you, you let me see what I am.”
Condemnation/Judgment: In John there is no incompatibility between God’s love and God’s judgment. Judgment in John, and throughout much of scriptures, is always an opportunity. God’s judgment is the result of love that helps us see what we have previously been blinded to. Where it is painful, the pain comes through the faulty choices of human beings. Judgment in John is essentially, light shedding and is always for the purpose of deepening or restoring relationship. John rarely uses judgment in the same sense that Matthew does (see Matthew 25) as a day in the future where the good will be separated from the bad. Judgment in John happens all the time and is simply the living out of the consequences of choosing something other than God as primary in life and running from truth into pretense.
Word Study
I’ve explained most of the most complex words in these passage above. A few others to note follow:
Vs. 14 – must – this is a fascinating word when used in John. It means ‘only through’ in a spiritual sense. It is almost like a necessary initiation into deeper spiritual realities.
Vs. 16 – loved – This word is a form of agape. It is in the aorist tense in Greek. That indicates that it was a supreme act of love. No love can, nor does it need to, surpass this act of love. The ancients talked about this as God’s greatest act of friendship.
World – kosmos – this word refers not just to earth, but to the sum total of the physical universe.
Only – this is a complex word in Greek that could be translated only begotten. It means, ‘like no other, unique.’
Perish – another interesting word. It doesn’t mean to die exactly. It means to be destroyed utterly, or to become lost. It is used of a temporary condition or a lasting one.
Vs. 17 – send – this beautiful word from which we get our word apostle, means to be sent forth on a particular timely mission of importance.
condemn – krisis – this is a legal word for rendering a judgment or passing down a sentence.
Saved – this word means to be made well, recovered, made whole with nothing missing and nothing broken.
Through – by way of, or by the way of. (Notice that in John the end times are already and constantly happening. Each moment lived in the light is a little apocalypse, a little revealing of what love and wholeness look like eternally.)
Vs. 18 – those who do not believe – the tense and word choice here indicates those who refuse to believe and who willfully continue in unbelief. That is, those who prefer darkness to light, ego to love. Remember too, that condemnation is not punishment per se. Rather, the judgment on unbelief is the revelation of the consequences of choosing ego over love and in so doing making God irrelevant and the light undesirable. Try not to read this verse with the medieval images of hellfire with which we have often been bombarded. Just as heaven begins now for John when we place our hands in Jesus’ and commit to walking in the light, so too, hell for lack of a better metaphor, begins now when we choose darkness over light, lies over truth.
Name – this is a symbol for the nature and essence of who God is revealed to be in Jesus. What John is saying is that those who refuse to see the character of God (love) in Jesus have chosen their own way.
Vs. 19 – judgment – This again is krisis, but here the word is used in the sense of a picture of the sundering that takes place as a consequence of rejected the light of God’s love and justice. This is not a sentence as much as a revelation.
Light – let me say just a bit more about light. In John he uses the word to mean insight, an intimate participation in God. It refers to enlightenment, consciousness, illumination. It is about coming to an awareness of a deeper reality than the self. Hugely important for understanding the message of this text!
People – this can refer to human beings and/or human nature. I find the later interpretation fascinating as it invites even those of us who believe and commit to walking in the Christ light to consider the ways our human nature still clings affectionately to the darkness.
Loved the darkness rather than the light – This form of the word love is phileo. Agape refers to unconditional or ethical choosing the good for others. Phileo usually refers to emotions of deep love, commitment and affection that we see in our deepest friendships and close family relationships when we are at our best. The word here is in a VERY strong form. He is basically saying that people are in love with their ignorance, deception and secrets. Yikes! I think the translation of rather is a bit misleading. The word really means ‘more than.’ It is perfectly possible to love aspects of the light that suit us. Here we see that it is also perfectly possible to love our lies more.
Evil – poneros – There are several Greek words we translate as evil. One is kakos which refers to something that is bad or morally evil. Another is phalous which means sorry, vile or wicked. The word used here, poneros refers to evil as an active malignant principle. What he is saying here is that when we love the darkness more than the light, we participate in, become, that principle itself. That sense of becoming one with the darkness we choose is often described as possession in the scriptures.
Vs. 20 – evil – here the word is phalous and with prasso (to make or perform) has the sense of someone who acts out of self service or who actively does falsehoods.
Hate – this interesting word refers to malicious and unjustifiable feelings towards others. It is also used to describe aversion of revulsion.
Exposed – this word means to expose, convict, reprimand or face consequences.
Vs. 21 – do what is true – literally ‘does truth.’ This is not about believing something to be true. It is perfectly possible to believe that something is true and to do nothing about it. Here Jesus is talking about doing truth, acting on it. The word truth, again one of several in Greek, alethia, refers to that which is free from error, is genuine and has integrity. It cannot be attained by rationalization or blaming others for having led one in a direction. The word ‘do’ here is not prasso as above. Prasso refers to doing that come easily. Here it is poieo and refers to doing that is creative and takes effort.
Clearly – manifestly and undeniably
Done in God – we might translate this as ‘wrought.’ It refers to an action in which it is clear that it what is done is God’s labor through the one living in the light.
Questions for Personal Reflection
1. In what ways has God shed the light of insight on you this week? What have you seen more clearly?
2. Are there areas in which you still feel confused (in darkness)? In what circumstances do you find this happening most? What do you know about who Jesus is that might help shed light on your situation?
3. Have you ever responded negatively when something unflattering was pointed out to you about yourself? In what areas do you most resist ‘light’?
4. How do you understand the concepts of light and darkness? How do you see yourself or others ‘doing light’ or ‘doing darkness?’
5. How does this passage, and the study of it, shed light on your understanding of judgment, condemnation, eternal life, good or evil?
6. Jesus tells us that a prime motivation for remaining in spiritual ignorance is not wanting to face our own behavior and choices, how do you see that operative in your life, community, nation, world? Try not to judge. Just notice. Noticing itself is the first step into the light.