John 3:16 is probably the most quoted scripture in the Bible. We all know it. But we often don’t read past verse 16. This week I was struck by v. 19. It says that the judgment is when the light has come to the world but people still love the darkness because their works were evil. Wow! The judgment comes to those who reject the light for the darkness. There are 3 things that strike me most about this passage. First, people can still reject Jesus (the Light) even when face to face with him. Second, those that rejected the light and loved the darkness did so because of their evil works. And third, this verse mirrors what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rejected God and chose to eat of the tree of good and evil.
Let’s start in Genesis…one of my professors when studying ethics in the Old Testament, Dr. Jim W. Adams, had taught me God had made a distinction between what is right (tob) and what is wrong (ra’)” when he commanded Adam and Eve to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So, in Genesis 3:22 (ESV), when God said they have “become like one of us” what God was saying is that the adam now can make the distinction between what is right and wrong
A very respected theologian, John Goldingay (2003) suggested this ability to distinguish between good and evil was a gift God had intended for humanity but was testing Adam and Eve in the garden. Unfortunately, “they declined to accept that reverence for YHWH as the beginning of insight. They want to decide what counts as good, whereas YHWH expects them to do what they are told even where they cannot see the reason” (Goldingay, 2003, p. 135). What the Genesis narrative shows us, is that God is sovereign – God alone is YHWH and he alone is the one who decides what is good and evil. But since Adam and Eve failed the test, their sin had led to “a loss of innocence, loss of relationship, loss of possibilities, loss of life” (Goldingay, 2003, p. 144). Humanity made themselves like God by choosing to eat of the tree of good and evil. By pursuing the right to determine the trajectory of their lives, themselves defining tob and ra, they had reversed the creator-creature roles (Goldingay, 2003, p. 135). This is the sin we inherited from Adam.
Now, let’s fast forward to John 3. Jesus, the light of the world, sacrificed his life for our sin – the one that thinks we “are” God. Jesus, through his sacrifice, restores the loss of innocence, and relationships, and possibilities, and the loss of our lives – Jesus restores the creator-creature role. What an amazing gift! I want that.
But here’s the catch. People are still choosing darkness because of their evil works – I think this shows that people are rejecting God because they want to do what they want to do. They keep thinking they are God and rejecting his gift to them because it requires putting God at his rightful place as Sovereign Lord – the only one who gets to choose right and wrong. And this my friend, is the judgment.
This week, I’m asking God to shine his light into the darkness of my heart and show me where I have chosen to make my own path instead of responding to his Grace. I’m praying that my heart stays tender and in tune with God’s grace, and the light of Jesus, so that I do not reject God for my own evil works. Today, I’m choosing again to put God in His rightful place as sovereign Lord.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you agree or disagree?
References:
Goldingay, J. (2003). Old Testament Theology Volume One: Israel’s Gospel. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.
Elizabeth Horn 
Elizabeth, this is a very good article. I think you (as well as Goldingay) are correct about what happened in Adam. In “The Ancestral Sin, “John Romanides (2002) shows this was the very of the Church Fathers prior to Augustin. According to the Fathers, God’s intent for “the adam” was that through his loving obedience and union with God he would attain immortality. Instead, Adam chose for himself apart from God, severing himself through disobedience from the life of God. Ultimately, it was not the fruit of the tree of knowledge that produced death, but rather it was Adam’s disobedience that produced death, and that death has passed on to all of us and is what corrupts us and our relationship with God, others, and all creation. “Disobeying God’s commandment regarding the way to perfection and following the way suggested by the devil, man indeed missed the mark regarding his original destiny, and instead of becoming immortal, he became mortal” (Romanides, p. 125). Thank you for the thought-provoking article.