![]() To believe in Jesus is first and foremost “to trust in Jesus.” There are different levels and degrees of trust. “… so that everyone who believes in him …” God can speak through other mediators and means, and we must learn to respect their experience and not reject their experience or claim that our experience is superior to theirs. So we should not be surprised or skeptical of other people’s experience of God and participation in the life of God who live in other cultures or come out of other religious traditions and do not know the tradition of Jesus. But Jesus is not my only source or medium for experiencing God. As a Jesus follower, I filter all my experiences through the sacred story of Jesus, because Jesus is my primary source and medium for encountering God. I have discovered God’s presence in the wonder and mystery of creation and in common, ordinary, everyday experiences. I have also encountered and discovered God’s power for life through my interaction with others - through words, actions, expressions, writings and conversations. The revelation that has been made known in Jesus has certainly been the primary means through which I have discovered God’s power and presence but not exclusively so. In like manner, there is no need to conclude that Jesus is the only way one can encounter God, especially since the true light that is incarnate in Jesus is the light that enlightens every person (1:9). John has already pointed out in his prologue that God has other children ( 1:12). The Greek word means something like “unique, one-of-a-kind” and speaks of the unique relationship Jesus had with God. When this Gospel says that God gave his “only” Son, there is no good reason to limit this to mean that Jesus is the only way one can encounter God and step into the flow of eternal life. The image of new life (new wine, new birth, living water, bread from heaven, etc.) is the one the writer/community of John’s Gospel employed most often. For the world to be saved is for the world to be regenerated and renewed, so that life emerges out of death. For the world to be saved is for the world to be reconciled to God and one another from all its alienations, divisions and polarizations. For the world to be saved is for the world to be liberated from all its injustices, inequities and oppressions. For the world to be saved is for the world to be healed of its many wounds and made whole. God so loved the world, says John, that God sent Jesus “not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” ( 3:17). “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …” Progressives need to reclaim it, though perhaps in less dramatic style. There is no reason to give this verse exclusively to the conservatives. I would like to pound them over the head with it. ![]() The one time I could be a Bible thumper is when the camera view picks up the guy or gal in the stands behind home plate waving a sign with John 3:16. We see it posted on billboards and held up at sporting events. If one learned just one Bible verse in Sunday school or vacation Bible school, it was most likely this verse. In the Bible if there is one verse to rule them, all it is John 3:16. ![]() In The Lord of the Rings there was one ring to rule them all.
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