Defined by Love, Not Sin

St Timothy Presbyterian Church

Scripture Passage

John 3:14-21

Worship Video & Audio

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Sermon Script

The Gift of Eternal Life

The gospel of John is the gospel of life. John saw clearly that God's will for the world is to have life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

God loves this world so much. It is God's precious creation.

Yes, this world that has so many problems. A world that is full of wars, greed, and hate. A world that is in peril because of what we've done. A world that many people have lost hope in.

Yet God loves this world. God's desire is for us to have eternal life.

Eternal life is not just life that lasts forever. It is also about the quality of eternity we experience now.

Eternal life is a life that is full and overflowing in the present moment.

This is what Jesus said:

Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)

Eternal life is an overflowing, abundant life, now and in the future.

But clearly there is something missing.

Something is drying up this flow of living water. Something is diminishing the abundance of life.

Something is seriously wrong. Serious enough that God had to send his only Son so that we can have life.

What is taking away life to the point where God had to send his only Son?

This is what Jesus says:

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

Hiding Our Sins

The problem is that people love the darkness. They hide their sins. They don't want to be exposed. They fear condemnation.

This fear is understandable. The world is a harsh place. It defines people by their sins.

People are merciless when your sins are exposed. Reputations and lives get ruined.

People will judge you and condemn you for your wrongdoings. To avoid condemnation, we hide our sins.

When you hide your sins, you can't see life clearly. You don't see how sin affects you.

Sin distorts you. It distorts how you see other people. It distorts how you interpret things that happen. It distorts how you respond to people and situations.

This distortion manifests in ways that affect others. When you hide your sins, you don't see how they affect others.

The thing with sin is that we don't choose whether to sin. It's just a part of who we are and what we do.

It is like the air we breathe. We cannot escape it. We breathe in sin, and we exhale sin.

The world we live in is an endless cycle of sin. The more you hide your sins, the more blind you are to the fact that you are a victim to sin and its distortions.

When you hide your sins, you are not truthful about who you are and the role you play in the endless cycle of sin.

You present a false self. Meanwhile, the sin is very real. It kills your spirit. It dries up the living water inside of you.

When you see your own sin clearly, you begin to see the effect it has on you. You begin to see the effect it has on your life.

When you see your sin clearly, it opens up the possibility of living an authentic life.

Looking Directly at Our Sins

John begins today's passage by mentioning Moses:

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. (John 3:14)

The Israelites were stuck in the wilderness for a long time. They grew impatient.

They complained against God and Moses. They detested even the food that God provided.

So God sent poisonous snakes that bit the Israelites and killed them.

They confessed their sin to Moses and asked him to plead with God to take away the snakes.

This is what happened:

And the Lord said to Moses, Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live. So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it upon a pole, and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. (Numbers 21:8-9)

God did not take away the poisonous snakes.

Rather, the people had to look directly at the cause of their deaths. They had to look directly at their sins.

God did not take away the snakes, but he nullified the effect of their poison. It would no longer kill them.

Jesus says:

But those who do what is true come to the light. (John 3:21)

God sent Jesus to shine a light on who you really are.

Without being truthful about who you are, you cannot live an abundant life. It will only be a false life.

When you come to the light, your sins are exposed. Who you are and what you've done is seen clearly in the light.

But Jesus did not come to condemn us or judge us. He did not come to define us by our sins.

Defined by Love

The light does not only reveal your sins. It illuminates the deeper love of God.

Jesus' journey culminated in the cross. When you look upon the cross, you see our sins on that cross.

Jesus took our sins upon himself as he hung on the cross. The cross is meaningless if you don't see your sins there.

But hidden in the cross is the deeper love of God.

Love that is more powerful than sin and death. Love that overcomes them. Love that creates new life.

At the cross, we are no longer defined by sin. We are defined by love.

That is why we look to the cross as our symbol.

God sent Jesus into the world to redefine who we are. We cannot see the love of God without seeing our sins.

But we are no longer defined by sin. We are defined by God's love.

Sin is always with us. We cannot escape it. But sin no longer has power over you.

Relationships become more difficult the closer you get to them.

They are more difficult because they see your flaws and sins more clearly. They will point that out. And it hurts.

Conflict arises because we want to hide our sins or resist being defined by them.

My friends, don't worry any more about what others say you are, even those closest to you. Accept their truth-saying, don't hide it or deny it.

But believe that you are more than your flaws.

Faith is believing that I am defined by God's love, not my sin.

Faith is trust and belief that even if the whole world condemns me for my sins, I am not defined by them. Even if I have hurt or harmed others, I am not defined by that.

That is a hard thing to do in this world. When you see your sins clearly, it is hard to believe that.

But that is why God sent Jesus to this world. Jesus died for you so that you can have new life defined by his love.

With Transformed Sight

When you see your sins so clearly, but see God's greater love and mercy, the only result is humility. Awe. Gratitude. And grace.

Grace transforms you.

You can still see the sins of others. If anything, as you see your own sins, you begin to see the sins of others more clearly too.

But just like yourself, you no longer define them by their sins. You look at them with grace.

Instead of condemnation and judgment, there is more understanding, compassion and empathy.

(Danushkah Wickramasinghe – no retaliation, no anger. Empathy for accused)

What a man. He sees the heart of God. I pray for him.

This world doesn't need more vengeance. It doesn't need more condemnation.

It needs more grace. It needs more understanding.

That is why God sent his only Son.

Walk in God's light. Accept his grace and mercy.

Be a giver of life by bringing grace and mercy into this world with God's love.

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