In Order that the Whole World Might be Saved through Him

Several years ago, I preached a sermon on the following “simple and straightforward” passage. This sermon almost and ultimately led to my “resignation” from the church I was serving. I invite you to read this scripture, which is vital to our faith as Christians, and in my opinion “not as simple and as straight forward as most of us believe or would like.” 

“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. 

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. . .” (John 3:16-21) 

We all know and love John 3:16, “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.” I chose to focus on the next portion of this important but complicated piece of scripture: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

Before elaborating on these verses, I suggested that this passage, and the Bible itself, was dangerous and should contain the same warning as a pack of cigarettes, “Using this product could be hazardous to your health.” My intent was positive, that “the Bible contains many truths, some of which we do not want to hear or follow.” That was not how it was received, and what people heard, coupled with my emphasis on “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that “the whole world might be saved” turned out to be my undoing. 

True, the passage goes on to proclaim that “those who do not believe in the name of Jesus are condemned already,” but my belief and proclamation was that God was bigger than any human being or any religion and that God sending Jesus into the world so that the whole world might be saved, meant just that, “that the whole world, all people, might be saved.” 

I know that there is an important Christian tradition that only through Jesus can we be saved, and I understand and believe that. I also believe that God sending Jesus into the world that the whole world should be saved, does just that, whether a person believes in or even knows Jesus. God is so much more powerful than our knowledge and beliefs. My whole point of the sermon was that “God’s ways are not our ways and that God can and will do more than we can ever ask or imagine.” As St. Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:12-13) 

Sadly things did not turn out as I had hoped and prayed: people left after the sermon and before communion in tears; I spent a month meeting with individuals who questioned my faith and suggested that Satan was supplying my sermon material. Ultimately, I was called before the Vestry, the governing body of an Episcopal Church, and within a year my salary was cut by $10,000 per year and I retired on the spot. 

I pray you readers will join me in believing that God is bigger and more merciful than we are and that Jesus truly did “come into the world that the whole world might be saved.” 

I once wanted a simple faith, one which gave me all the answers. What God gave me instead was an exciting faith, a faith with more questions than answers, and a faith filled with joy for the journey. 

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 219)