James Nisbet Commentary - John 3:16 - 3:16

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James Nisbet Commentary - John 3:16 - 3:16


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THE MAGNA CHARTA OF CHRISTIANITY

‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’

Joh_3:16

That is the great Magna Charta of Christianity. What is the meaning of it? I believe that it meets with a response not only in your hearts but in all the hearts of all mankind. We believe in God, and we believe in love. Not only in the beginning there was God, but God is, and if there is a God men ask that that God shall exhibit:—

I. The highest quality known to human nature.—What is that quality? It is the theme of all the poets, it is the inspiration of the greatest pictures of art, especially Christian art. What is the meaning of it? There is only one meaning of it—that the biggest achievement of man, springing from the deepest parts of his human nature, is love.

II. Christianity not a new thing.—Now the mistaken conception people have got about Christianity is that Christianity was something that came into the world two thousand years ago, or nearly that, as a new thing, and that you can put on your letters ‘Anno Domini.’ That is quite true in a sense, and yet really it is untrue. There is no date that you can put down ‘Anno Domini,’ for He is from eternity. Before the foundation of the world God loved man, and placed love as the key of all the universe.

III. Love manifests itself.—Some people think of love as a sentiment. Divine love is far deeper than that. And God reveals His love. How do you reveal your love? Exactly in the same way as you reveal your intelligence—by an incarnation. How is God to manifest Himself that He loves? In the stars? In the flowers? In a magnificent sunset? We all know that, but yet how far is He? If God loves He must come to us in personality, and if He did not the world would say: ‘It is a mistake, and God has not revealed Himself yet as He can and as He ought.’ God was in Christ. That is the highest revelation you can have—God in personality. And why was that? Do you not see what we had done? We were made all right, but we were spoiled by sin. Then the communion was broken, and if the communion is to be established again in personality, as it started in personality, it can only be done when Deity touches the eternal shore on one side and man on the other side, and redeems our human nature. That is what God did, and Christ took our human nature and redeemed it, and presented it perfect and spotless to God.

IV. Salvation by faith.—Mark the text—‘That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ People say they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by a speculative assent of something they call the intellect. That is not belief. Do you know what it cost God to believe in the redemption of men? It cost Him His only begotten Son. What did it cost Christ to save man? It cost Him a Cross, and yet men think they can be saved by the sentimental assent to the doctrines of Christianity. Christ never said: ‘He that believeth in the doctrine of the Atonement shall be saved.’ He said, ‘He that believeth in Me shall be saved.’ What does that mean? Belief with the intellect? Yes. Belief in the Atonement? Yes. What else? You have got to believe with the heart. What else? To believe with the will, and to do His Will. Christ asks you for your heart—all you have got. I want you to give your intellect and lay it at the Cross; I want you to give your love and put it at the feet of the Crucified; I want you to be able to say, ‘O God, not my will but Thy Will be done,’ and give your will to God. Then you will understand that he that believeth has communion with God and hath eternal life. Will you have it? How can you get it? Do you know what wants redeeming? It is human nature, and He has redeemed it. Will you give it back to him and get this new life? Will you understand that you have been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ? I want you to go away believing in the doctrine that God is love, and that the highest life is that which is wholly consecrated to Him.

Rev. A. J. Waldron.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THREE MYSTERIES

There are three great mysteries which are conveyed in this text.

I. Here, first of all, is the mystery of the Divine love of the world.

II. Then there is the second mystery—the mystery of self-sacrifice in God, Who gave His Son.

III. Then I come to the third mystery, perhaps the most wonderful of all—God’s individual care for the soul.—It is no Gospel to you or to me to be told that God so loved the world, unless I am told that whosoever believeth in Him shall have everlasting life, unless, as a sinner, I am told that whosoever cometh unto Him, He will in no wise be cast out.

Illustration

‘Do not believe that the world is so had as you are in your more despairing moments tempted to suppose. Remember the warning of him in the Psalms—“I had almost said even as they; but lo! then I should have condemned the generation of Thy children.” Carry a pure, simple heart within you wherever you go. Everywhere you shall find that the children of God are not so hard to seek; everywhere you shall find the tokens of that Blessed Spirit Who is ever working in the dark places of human life, drawing souls and hearts in ways unknown to us to God. And carry also in your hearts that thought—you in your loneliness, your difficulties at home or in your work, your depression, your sadness, or solitariness, are yet the object of God’s eternal care and love, that you may be able to see and to know that God is present with you, watching over you, keeping you, saying to you, as He said to Jacob, “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.… I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” ’