John 3:1–21

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible.

Jesus meets with a Pharisee, a guy named Nicodemus, at night. Although Nicodemus is “the teacher of Israel,” he does not yet understand Jesus’s teaching about being “born again” or “born from above,” or better, “born again from above,” meaning not of the flesh but of the Spirit, what it means to be a child of God, a true citizen of the kingdom. Something only the LORD can do, and He does it only in response to our faith in Jesus.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world…why? Because the world is already under judgment. Our sin made sure of that. But the Son came that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

If that’s you, if you have not yet trusted in Jesus, today’s a great day to do that. It starts with recognizing that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and believing that Jesus is the Savior whom God promised. He lived a perfect life and died a sacrificial death. He was raised to life on the third day, proving that He had conquered both sin and death, so that by believing in Him, we can be saved. We can become children of God—not because of anything that we have done, but because of what Jesus did. The Innocent who died for the guilty so that the guilty could be declared innocent.

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This post is based on a sermon from our Gospel of John series. Download the podcast from the Central Christian Church Main Service, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, or Threads at @ccclancaster. You can also download our Central Christian app in the iTunes App Store.