hand in hand

We always hear about the first 16 verses of John 3.

But we seldom hear anyone talk about the next 5 verses.

I think the next 5 verses are just as huge as the first 16.

Give those 5 verses a read

John 3:16-21

“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. 

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, 

but to save the world through him.

“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. 

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. 

All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it 

for fear their sins will be exposed. 

But those who do what is right come to the light 

so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

Then Paul writes in his second letter to the followers of Jesus in Corinth about what believing in Jesus looks like.

As I read John 3 & 2 Corinthians 5 this morning, I was struck by how they go hand in hand.

2 Corinthians 5:14b-21

Since we believe that Christ died for all, 

we also believe that we have all died to our old life.  

He died for everyone 

so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. 

Instead, they will live for Christ, 

who died and was raised for them.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. 

At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. 

How differently we know him now! 

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. 

The old life is gone; 

a new life has begun!

And all of this is a gift from God, 

who brought us back to himself through Christ. 

And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 

For God was in Christ, 

reconciling the world to himself, 

no longer counting people’s sins against them. 

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 

So we are Christ’s ambassadors; 

God is making his appeal through us. 

We speak for Christ when we plead, 

“Come back to God!” 

For God made Christ, 

who never sinned, 

to be the offering for our sin,  

so that we could be made right with God through Christ.