JESUS DIED SO YOU CAN LIVE!

TODAY’S PASSAGE: 

John 3:16-21 (NLT) 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

• Giving is one of the main ways that God shows us His love.

• The Greek word for “gave” is didōmi . In this context, it means entrusting someone to another person so that they can look after that person’s well-being or interests.

• Because God loved us, He gave us Jesus to look after us and take care of our greatest need.

• Humanity’s greatest need has always been to be forgiven and rescued from perishing.

• The Greek word for “perish” is apollym . It means to incur the loss of true or eternal life, and to be delivered up to eternal misery.

• When Jesus came and died for us, He saved us from eternal misery and enabled us to receive eternal life!

• When the Bible refers to “eternal life,” it means an everlasting life (a life without end) that is active, vigorous, blessed and devoted to God.

• Eternal life is only available to those who put their trust in Christ, and we get to experience this life both now and forever from the moment that we choose to repent and live for Him.

• The Bible makes it clear that everyone will one day face judgment

Hebrews 9:27 (EASY) – Every person must die once. After death, God will judge each person.

• The Greek word for “judge” is krino . In this case, it means to condemn or to decree (inflict) a penalty on another.

• Thankfully, Jesus did not come to judge us but to save us!

• He didn’t come to inflict the penalty of our sin upon us. He came to provide a way for us to be forgiven of our sins by the shedding of His blood!

• Without a blood payment for our sins, we can never be forgiven.

Hebrews 9:22 (NLT) For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

• Good work is not enough to escape the penalty of sin, only a blood sacrifice is. No matter how good we think we’ve lived our lives, we can’t be forgiven of even one sin without the shedding of blood.

• Instead of forcing us to pay the penalty for our sins, Jesus came to pay the price for us by shedding his own blood on the Cross.

Hewbrews 9:26 (NLT) – But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.

• There is no judgment for anyone who believes in Jesus! (V. 18)

• All throughout the Bible, we see a battle between light and darkness, between life and death.

• God has given all of us the right to choose which side we will be on by how we live our lives. Some will choose death and darkness, while some will choose light and life.

• When we choose to sin and do evil, we place ourselves in darkness and choose death.

• This was the state of every person before Jesus came into the world and into our lives.

Matthew 4:16 (NLT) – The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.

• Jesus is the light of the world that leads us out of darkness to life.

John 8:12 (NLT) – Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

• We come to the Light by doing what is right, repenting of sin, and choosing to live a life aimed at pleasing God and doing what He wants.