So Loved the World
John 3:16 is the most familiar, most memorized verse in the Bible—for good reason. What the naive reader gets out of it is there and profoundly true. But we will miss a good bit of its meaning if we fail to read it as part of the whole conversation with Nicodemus. We must also remember Nicodemus's Jewishness, and that for him, concepts like the new birth have not been part of his frame of reference for as long as he can remember. This makes the new birth and the word "world" jump out at us in a completely new way.
Nicodemus is expecting God to love not "the world" but "Israel." Jesus is challenging all of his preconceptions about the Messiah and the Kingdom. Nicodemus must be born again. He is not ready to talk about the politics of overthrowing Rome—is not within a hundred miles of that topic—until the Kingdom causes a complete, internal, spiritual transformation in his life. And he needs to remember the Abrahamic Covenant. The whole point of calling Abraham's family was so that, through it, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Jesus' Kingdom is about a bigger and more radical regime change than Nicodemus was yet capable of imagining.
Rome, schmome! Jesus has bigger fish to fry. Nicodemus needs to rethink everything—everything! And he won't be able to do it until he believes.
By chapter 19, we realize that Nicodemus did. Will we?
Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. He stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, between theology and literature, and between Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023). He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on Christianity from the online archives
27.5—Sept/Oct 2014
on Growing Vegetables as a Primer in Moral Philosophy by Rachel Lu
30.3—May/June 2017
Insider Attempts to Disorient the Orthodox by Alexander F. C. Webster
more from the online archives
34.1—January/February 2021
Jesus' Astonishing Other Teaching on Marriage by James Ware
33.3—May/June 2020
on the Wisdom of the Good Doctor Edmund Pellegrino by Allen H. Roberts II
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
