Game Changer by Larry Perry

John 3:16-17 English Standard Version

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Just as Jesus announced to Nicodemus in yesterday’s reading, now is the time. If anyone has never understood why God should choose to sacrifice His only son to offer the gracious free gift of salvation, let it be known, now is the time to receive Him. This was the only way God could justify man’s presence in His Temple.

Jeremiah 5:4 English Standard Version (ESV) Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord,  the justice of their God.

Only God could justify a people who were helpless to help themselves. To satisfy His Holiness and justify mankind, He had to come and execute justice on their behalf. He had to become the acceptable substitute in order to set man free from the snare of sin.

Romans 3:24-26 English Standard Version

²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Propitiation means acceptable substitute. His sacrifice had to be perfect in order to have the power to do only what God can do, to set aside sin in order to have a relationship with mankind. He is just because He did nothing wrong in living life as the Son of Man. His sacrifice is spotless as demanded by the sacrifices for the sins of the nation.

His sacrifice had to be a free will offering in order that the gift of salvation could also be free.

Isaiah 48:6-8 English Standard Version

⁶ “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. ⁷ They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ ⁸ You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

John 3:9-15 English Standard Version

⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Here in John 3, Jesus is reminding Nicodemus of God’s Word in Isaiah 48 and is announcing that He is the Son of Man and is here to declare this new thing never heard before. It is not hidden from us and we can see why Jesus declares it to Nicodemus. The time is now.

John 3:16-17 English Standard Version

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”