John 3:1-21 Whoever Believes

Last week we talked about picking teams and how if we weren’t very good, we just got put on a team even though they didn’t want us. Today we’re going to talk about something even harder, like when teams are picked and we’re completely left off them. Right away we feel it’s unfair, that everyone should be chosen. This is what many people feel about our point of doctrine this morning called Limited Atonement.

Limited Atonement is the most controversial of the 5 points in the Canons of Dordt. The question has to do, first of all, with the value of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Early Church Father Augustine taught that the atonement of Jesus Christ is big enough for all people. There’s enough power in Jesus’ sacrifice to cover the sins of every human being who has ever lived. What Jesus did on the cross is more than powerful enough to cover the sins of every person in the world.

 “Does the atonement mean everybody is automatically saved?” Does Christ’s death on the cross save the whole world? There are people who believe that Jesus died for the whole world and everyone will go to heaven. They’re called Universalists. Arminians don’t believe in limited atonement, but they also aren’t Universalists. We both agree that not everybody is saved through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. There is a limit to the effectiveness of the cross. As the theologian R.C Sproul writes, “The real issue is the question of the intent and of the design. Arminianism teaches that God, when he planned the way of salvation, intended the atonement for all men, and designed it as such. Calvinism says that God designed the atonement of Jesus Christ to be for the elect only. Every single person for whom Christ died is saved.” You don’t have to worry about whether or not Jesus’ sacrifice is good enough to cover you, as a follower of Jesus and part of God’s family, you are saved.

Jacob Arminius was teaching that we choose to believe in Jesus first. This gets us back to last week, where we were reminded that the Bible teaches us that our faith begins as a gift from God and that we believe through faith, so it all begins with God instead of our choice to believe. There’s this tension that we find in the Bible between God choosing us, but also the call for us to choose God over the gods of the world. Some people refuse to choose God and Jesus. Much of this tension lies in the reality that we’re not able to understand God and need to accept these tensions in faith, realizing that we do have a responsibility for our faith that fits in with God choosing us. This helps us to understand why there are some people who are not saved.

Most of us know the story of Jesus and Nicodemus, the story of one of the religious leaders in Jerusalem who wants to know more about Jesus and his message, but who’s afraid of the other leaders. Jesus and Nicodemus have this fascinating and confusing conversation about being born again, about entering into the kingdom of God and how we need to be born of water and the Spirit. Then Jesus compares the Spirit to the wind that blows around you but you can’t see it, only feel its presence. Nicodemus is left scratching his head, asking, “How can this be?”

Jesus then talks about Moses and the bronze snake. The story goes like this in Numbers 21, “Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.” Jesus is pointing to his own death on a pole, a death that’s going to save people from their sins and give us new life after tasting the death that sin holds. But in Moses’ story, not everyone was saved, only those who looked to the snake on the pole were healed.

Now comes John’s famous words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” These verses are deeply loved for a reason. They’re filled with hope and grace, love and mercy and forgiveness. But there’s a warning here as well, not everyone’s going to be saved, only those who believe in Jesus. This is limited atonement. Later in John’s gospel, we hear Jesus talking to God in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Jesus looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.” Jesus goes on to tell his Father. “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.” Jesus doesn’t come to condemn the world, because Jesus cares deeply even for those who don’t accept him because everyone’s created in God’s image.

Comfort is found in the peace we receive when we realize that as a follower of Jesus you don’t have to worry whether or not Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has washed away your sins and made you right with God: it has. But there are people who do great evil and deliberately refuse to accept Jesus. They’re not made right with God because of their own choices. Not everyone’s going to be saved; God is also a God of justice. An older lady who had lived with her abusive husband for way too many years, in order to find peace with God and comfort for her soul, needed to know that her husband, who was unrepentant and unashamed of his actions and the terrible hurt he has caused her and their family, is going to be held accountable by God for the evil he has done. Limited atonement does not mean that God is a small God, or doesn’t love people as much as the Bible says he does. Limited Atonement means that God hears the cries of the oppressed, sees the victims of evil and holds those who have deliberately done evil accountable. There are evil people in the world who don’t repent; Jesus’ sacrifice will not make their evil right.

God holds us accountable for our sin, yet when we seek truly his forgiveness, Jesus’ sacrifice washes us clean again. Jesus tells us we need to be born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” When we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, transforming us to be more like Jesus, born again, which is represented by the water of baptism as a sign that our sins are washed away, we don’t have to be afraid of not being part of the family of God. This is why we need to know all of Scripture, to hear that God doesn’t give up on us even after Adam and Eve turned away from God, hearing that Abraham was called to be a blessing to all the nations of the world, that God loves the world so much that he sends his own son Jesus to die on the cross to wash us clean from our sin, that there are going to be people in heaven from all over the world and from every culture and ethnic background.

Limited Atonement doesn’t mean that there’s going to be a small number of people that are saved, only that Jesus’ sacrifice doesn’t save everyone, it’s limited to those who believe in Jesus. There’s this wonderful picture in Revelation 7 that shows us how big God’s love and acceptance is, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”