John 3:1-21 (12)

In verses 19-21, John expounds not only the reactions of men toward Christ, but also their motives and reasons for these differing reactions: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

The word “verdict” may be misleading, because it denotes the process of judging, rather than the sentence of condemnation. We should notice here that John is describing how the judgment is worked out rather than pronouncing God’s judgment. First, John says, “Light has come into the world.” This establishes the reference point by which people are judged. Their nature and their motives are uncovered by how they react and relate to the light. This light is Jesus Christ, who says elsewhere in this Gospel, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (8:12). John continues, “But men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” He tells us men’s reaction and the reason for this reaction. Jesus Christ, the light, has come into the world. But men love darkness instead. This is not because it is irrational to come to the light, nor because these men already have the light, nor because they have something better. They love darkness because their deeds are evil, because they are sinners.

Now, it is not as if these evildoers merely prefer darkness while commending the light and those who come to the light. No, John says, “Everyone who does evil hates the light.” They resent and detest the light. Some run away from it, and some actively oppose it. Paul lashed out at the light until the light struck back and made a believer out of him (Acts 9). The evildoer, the sinner, “will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” There is something wrong with the sinner, something wrong with the non-believer. There is something wrong with the person who hears the gospel but does not believe, with the person who argues against Christianity. And there is something wrong with the person who affirms a religion other than the Christianity. What is wrong is that the evildoer fears that his deeds will be exposed. The word rendered “exposed” can also mean to convict or to reprove. This is the reason why people do not come to Christ and believe in Him. The unbeliever is evil, and he does not want to be exposed, convicted, and reproved. He resents and fears the light, and so he runs away from it and hides from it. They would give themselves all sorts of reasons for not coming to the light, fearing that they would be exposed for the depraved individuals that they are. For example, some people might base their unbelief on a work of fiction, a novel based on old and refuted theories about the Christian faith (i.e., The Da Vinci Code). And often their arguments and theories even contradict one another. But they are desperate, and so they will hang on to anything to give them an excuse.

In contrast, “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” The verse literally says, “whoever does the truth,” or as in the NASB, “he who practices the truth.” So in these three verses (v. 19-21), John gives us a picture of one who does evil and one who does the truth. Although John is fond of contrasts and parallels, his description of these two persons do not exactly correspond at every point. The former does evil, but rather than saying that the latter does good, he says that this person does “the truth.” In both his Gospel and his epistles, “truth” is inseparably tied to the person and doctrine of Jesus Christ. Thus the person who welcomes the light is not just one who does good in general, but he is one who follows or practices the teachings of Christ. He comes to the light “so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” Here is another point where the contrast is not an exact parallel. The evildoer does not come to the light because his deeds are evil, and he does not want to be exposed, convicted, and reproved. On the other hand, John does not say that the one who comes to the light wishes all to see that his deeds are good, but he wishes to make it known that his deeds have been “done through God,” or literally, “wrought in [or by] God” (NASB). The one who comes to the light does so because God has been working in and through him, which is exactly what we read in Paul: “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).

Nothing in this particular text tells us why some evildoers remain such. We don’t read that evil is self-caused or that men make themselves evil. In addition, in a context when Paul is talking about the elect and the non-elect, those whom God loves and those whom God hates (Romans 9:13), he mentions that it is up to God to make “some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use” (v. 21). The Gospel of John itself refers to those who “belong” to God and those who “belong” to the devil, and nothing indicates that the people themselves are the ones who decide to whom they will belong. So both the elect and the non-elect are made as such by God for His sovereign purpose to glorify Himself, and that explains why they behave differently in John 3:19-21.

So that’s John 3:1-21, a powerful testimony to the necessity of grace to bring a person to faith in Christ Jesus, and just one of many passages in the Gospel of John that displays God’s sovereignty in human salvation.