Sunday Pastor Tom picked up where Jesus left off with Nicodemus and asked the question underneath it all: why did God provide a Savior in His Son?

Because He loves people. Because without a Savior, people face eternity apart from Him. Because people love the darkness and need the Light.

This week's homework: Memorize John 3:16. Each time you say it, put your own name in place of "the world" and "whoever."

God loved. God gave. What's left is yours: believe and receive.

Read John 3:16, then Romans 5:6-8. Sunday Pastor Tom asked a question: Can a person know that they are forgiven and will spend eternity with God? This week you will walk through God's answer one piece at a time, and it starts where the verse starts: "For God so loved the world."

Most of us hear "so loved" as "loved so much." John means something more specific. "So" means "in this way," and it points back to what Jesus had just told Nicodemus: the Son of Man must be lifted up like the bronze serpent. This is how God loved: by giving His Son to be lifted up on a cross.

And look at who He loved. In John's gospel "the world" is not a warm word. It is humanity in rebellion against God. Paul says it plainly: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God did not wait for us to clean up. He did not love us because we were lovable. He loved us while we were His enemies.

Pastor Tom put it this way: God loved, even in our sin. That is the first reason God provided a Savior, and it is the one everything else rests on.

God did not love you because you were worth it. He loved you while you were still a sinner, and He proved it with His Son.

Don't rush these. Give yourself a few minutes with each one before moving on.

Write your answers down. By Friday you will see where this question leads.

Come back tomorrow - tomorrow we look at what God's love actually cost Him.

• John 3:16 - he gave his only Son
• 1 Peter 2:21-25 - He bore our sins in His body

Read John 3:16 again, then 1 Peter 2:21-25. God's love did not stay a feeling. "He gave his only Son." Pastor Tom said God's love led Him to action, not just a feeling of love for us.

"Only" translates a word that means one of a kind. John used it in chapter 1: "the only Son from the Father." There is no one else like Him, and God gave Him. One commentator called it a shock: God put the well-being of the world above that of His one and only Son.

What did the giving involve? Peter tells us. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree." The sending was the beginning. The cross was the cost. Jesus was lifted up, like the serpent in the wilderness, and carried our sin there Himself.

Love that costs nothing proves nothing. God's love cost Him His Son. That is why John can say God loved the world, and mean it.

God's love is not a sentiment. It is a Son, given.

• John 3:16 - whoever believes in him
• Ephesians 2:4-9 - by grace through faith, a gift

Read John 3:16 once more, then Ephesians 2:4-9. God loved. God gave. Those are finished. The rest of the verse is about us: "that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Pastor Tom quoted a commentary: "Belief consists of accepting something, not doing something." Think back to the bronze serpent. The bitten Israelites were not told to fight the poison, make an offering, or prove they were sorry. They were told to look. The power was in the One who provided the remedy.

That is what believing is. It is not a work you perform well enough to be saved. It is the open hand that receives what God has already given. Paul says it in Ephesians: "By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

If you contributed even a little, you would get a little of the credit. God made salvation a gift so that all the credit stays with the Giver. Nicodemus had a religious résumé a mile long, and none of it could save him. Neither can yours.

You cannot earn what God is giving. You can only believe and receive.

• John 3:17-18 - not condemned
• John 3:36 - no middle ground
• Romans 8:1 - no condemnation in Christ

Read John 3:17-18, then John 3:36. Here is the answer to Sunday's question. "Whoever believes in him is not condemned." Not might not be. Not hopefully won't be. Is not. Present tense. Pastor Tom said this is how you can know today.

Notice why Jesus came: "not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." The first coming was a rescue mission. But notice too that the unbeliever is "condemned already." No one starts neutral. The snake-bitten Israelites were dying before the pole went up. Jesus did not bring the condemnation. He came into it.

Verse 36 removes any middle ground. Belief in the Son means eternal life. Refusing Him means the wrath of God remains. Pastor Tom said it plainly: there is no middle ground here.

Now read Romans 8:1. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Your certainty does not rest on how your week went, how you feel, or how you compare to others. It rests on God's promise to whoever believes.

If you have believed in Jesus, you are not condemned. God said so, and He does not change His mind.

• John 3:19-21 - light and darkness
• John 19:38-42 - Nicodemus in daylight

Read John 3:19-21. If the cure is this simple, why doesn't everyone take it? Jesus answers: "The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil." The problem is not that God has failed to make Himself known. He sent the Light. The problem is that people love their sin and do not want it exposed.

That is uncomfortable, because it is true of all of us. There are things we would rather keep in the dark than bring to Jesus. Pastor Tom said, "Don't let love for your sin keep you from the God who loves you." He already knows. He came to save you, not condemn you.

Then verse 21: "Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." Coming to the light is not cleaning yourself up first. It is stepping out of hiding so that what God has done in you can be seen.

Now read John 19:38-42. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. He is last seen in daylight, openly honoring Jesus at His burial. The man who hid in the dark went public. John points it out on purpose: this is the same man "who earlier had come to Jesus by night."

That is what baptism is. It does not save you; believing in Jesus does. But baptism is how faith goes public, so that everyone can see what God has done in you. Baptism is coming up at Summit in a few weeks. If you have believed and never been baptized, that is your next step.

God loved. God gave. You believe and receive. Then you come into the light.