8/23/2023
Elijah McSwain, Sr.
John 3:16-20 NKJV — “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."
Invitations are a common concept among every society. The purpose of an invitation is a grand gesture of inviting people to a gathering where an event is set to take place. The invitation often reveals details about the event in connection with the sender.
In many instances, invitations are sent for birthday parties, housewarmings, graduations, business openings, church services, weddings, and much more. Generally, included with certain types of invitations, the sender will send out an RSVP. The RSVP is given as a way of providing a response to the given invite. The invitee usually responses with either a yes or no in regards to if they are able to attend the event.
In the spiritual realm, God has sent out a personal invite to everyone who is willing to become a part of His kingdom through the means of salvation. The invitation of salvation has been universally extended to all of mankind to be joined together with God by way of Jesus. Every individual has a choice as to how they will respond to God’s invitation. God compels everyone to come and yield to the gospel call.
According to The New National Baptist Hymnal, it states “the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the gospel; that it is the immediate duty of all to accept them by a cordial, penitent, and obedient faith; and that nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth but his own inherent depravity and voluntary rejection of the gospel; which rejection involves him in an aggravated condemnation.” 1
This article of faith pertaining to The Freeness Of Salvation mirrors the biblical text of John 3:16-20 which contains picturesque language of freely receiving God’s invitation or blatantly ignoring it.
An All-inclusive Invitation
John 3:16 is perhaps one of the most quoted and known Bible passages among both Christians and non-Christians. It is a verse that speaks to the love of God toward a fallen world as He was willing to send His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sin. Faith in the God’s sacrifice, the salvific work of the cross, and the resurrection of Christ grants forgiveness of sin and everlasting life. In essence, this Scripture provides insight that God is welcoming to all as He summons them to partake in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ by believing in the historic event at the cross.
The interchangeable words “whosoever or whoever” in John 3:16 (according to the KJV and NKJV versions of the Bible) are all-inclusive terms that projects forth that God calls everyone from every tribe, every demographic, every nationality, and every ethnicity to join together in His eternal domain.
God's invitation does not have restrictive stipulations based on selectively inviting people only from a wealthy economic status, from a certain prestigious educational background, or from a certain ancestral lineage. His invitation is not based on skin color or skin tone, titles, prominence, achievements, accolades, societal affiliations, or any merit. His invitation does not include any economic or social barriers. Everyone is bid to receive the invitation through the exercise of faith and enjoy the blessedness that is associated with gladly receiving what has been freely given.
In the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah describes an all-inclusive invitation given to the nation of Israel and others to engage in a spiritual feast of the Lord.
Isaiah 55:1 ESV — “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
In this passage, “the Spirit of God sends out the evangelistic invitation to Israel to return and at the same time invites everyone everywhere to the gospel feast. All that is necessary is a consciousness of need (thirst). The blessings are the waters of the Holy Spirit, the wine of joy, and the milk of the good Word of God. They are the free gift of grace, without money and price.” 2
This is the same sentiment that is written in the gospel of John. Everyone is welcome to experience the blessings of God’s salvation by coming to partake in what is being offered. God is beckoning every sinner to come to His marketplace and freely receive what He has in store for them. There is no need to bring any source of monetary value because what God offers has already been paid in full by the atonement of Christ.
By His invitation, He is inviting people to come into a saving relationship with Him by drinking of the Living Water that quenches all of our spiritual thirst and by eating of the Living Bread that gives life.
Scriptures such as John 4:14 and John 6:51 echo these truths.
John 4:14 NKJV — “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 6:51 NKJV — “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
The gospel invitation is an invite to eternal life.
Belief is the proper and desired response that the inviter seeks from the invitee. Saving faith in the redemptive work of Jesus at Calvary allows us to be recipients of the life of God and know Him personally.
John 17:3 (NKJV) is written “and this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
To know God means to know Him relationally through the experience of a saving relationship by our belief in His Son. The realization of what Jesus has done for us at cross permits us to have fellowship with Him. Eternal life equates to knowing God personally and knowing Him personally interconnects our life with the very life of God. We share God’s life. God graciously allows us to experience His divine quality of life.
Belief in the Son of God is the key to obtaining everlasting life and being the benefactor of an all-inclusive invitation.
To draw out this parallelism, when people are invited to a birthday party for a child, typically the one who hosts the event showers their guests with party gifts for accepting the invitation and coming to the event. Similar to this type of gesture, God gifts us with His Son Jesus, eternal life, peace with Him, joy, a newfound positional standing before Him, forgiveness of sins, the continual ability to enter His presence, and so many other blessings that are associated with being drawn to God for salvation in Christ. We are beneficiaries of saving faith and all that is associated with God as a result of our faith.
However, those who reject God’s invitation miss out on the blessings of God through special grace which is something that only recipients of the invitation get to experience as briefly mentioned above.
Blatant Rejection Of God’s Invitation
The Gospel of John gives a stark contrast to those who gladly receive God’s invitation in comparison to those who reject God’s invite. In the Gospel of John, the basic difference between condemnation and salvation is spiritual death and spiritual life, faith and unbelief.
Warren Wiersbe concluded that "the difference between perishing and living, and between condemnation and salvation, is faith in Jesus Christ." 3
As mentioned in verses 18 and 19 of John Ch. 3, the person who believes in Him is not condemned; but the person who does not believe is condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Condemnation implicates that a person is held under the bondage of guilt and shame, held under pronounced judgment for their unforgiven immorality, held liable for punishment for their offenses, are in an unfavorable standing before God, declared as being wrong, and are deemed spiritually dead. People are labeled as condemned for their failure to acknowledge the saving provision of God through Christ.
Rejection of God’s saving invitation signifies that a person assumes that he or she is spiritually okay without Christ.
This assumption is made based on several thought processes like:
Sin is often seen as insignificant.
God is often viewed as imaginary and nonexistent, therefore, I don’t have to give an account for what I do.
Hell is seen as a illusion of the mind.
God is a God of love, therefore, He will not execute punishment.
We only live and die, there is no such thing as heaven or hell.
These very notions keep people under a state of condemnation because their thought processes undermine the work of Jesus. Thus, they do not see a urgent need to be delivered from sin and hence, they continue to live life on their own terms.
Consequently, condemnation is the result of their own depravity and inclination to love sin. People as such love sin but have hatred toward Christ. Unregenerate sinners have a tendency and disposition to sin. They often love sin’s pleasure, they love it’s thrill, and they love the darkness that covers the sinful acts that they do. For this reason, they do not want any association with the light of Christ since it exposes the sin that they love to partake in because their deeds are evil.
“The word “evil” means wicked. People reject Christ not because they are ignorant of what He offers but because they love their deeds of darkness. The “deeds” here are the actions of those who go negative in volition toward God. They reject the advances of God over and over. The inner motive of those who reject Christ is that they have a vested interest in doing so. Their soul stands bare before Him. This is why people persist in rejecting Him. They love darkness for what it hides. They do not want their value system disturbed.” 4
Simply put, they want to keep doing what they are doing without any interruptions or reservations.
God has made Himself accessible through the extension of His saving invitation. He will not be forceful in making someone receive what He has willingly given. It is by a person’s own admission of refusal and voluntary rejection that keeps them in a state of condemnation. God offers His invitation to all, some accept it while others reject it. Jesus said to those who reject Him in John 5:40 “but you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."
The willingness of person to refuse a holy God causes that individual to perish in their spiritual condition and continue to be in a state of condemnation.
God is seeking to obtain a relationship with the lost as He invites them to come. He desires to remove the label of the lost from being condemned to being redeemed by God. It behooves the lost to willingly receive His gracious act of kindness.
There are many esteemed places that people are invited to in this lifetime where a person has a right to decline a given invitation; but God’s invitation is one that should never be ignored. Ignoring God’s invitation has eternal implications and lasting effects.
Proverbs 1:24-31 states the declaration "because I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, they would have none of my counsel
and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies."
"Sinners who respond with indifference and mockery at God’s indictments increase their guilt and bring upon themselves the wrath of God’s mockery and indifference." 5
Romans 2:5 states that this is a result of a hardened heart. The verse states, "but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. " Judgment, condemnation, punishment, and spiritual death are the rewards of rejecting God’s invitation to salvation (cf. Romans 6:23). "There is no other way to escape eternal death and separation from God except by believing in Jesus’ death for our sins." 4
For the believer, the death of Jesus liberates us from sin, spiritual death, the wrath of God, alienation from God, and condemnation.
Romans 8:1 ESV — There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Everyone has a choice, either be a beneficiary of God’s saving grace or be the subject of condemnation and His divine wrath for declining His invite of redemption.
References
The New National Baptist Hymnal
The Believer’s Bible Commentary
The Wiersbe Bible Commentary
Grant Richison. Verse By Verse Commentary
The MacArthur Study Bible