Cosmic Good News

Dec. 14

Read: John 3:1-21

Cosmic Good News

What is arguably the most famous verse in the bible is spoken to just one man as he met with Jesus under the cover of night. A cautious - or maybe scared - Nicodemus receives these famous words from the Lord:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

There is a sort of “selfish” way that we read this verse to ourselves. We see the word “world” as the focal point of God’s love and we read it as “humans”. “For God so loved all the humans… only the humans… that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” We might be shocked to find out that the word used there is “kosmos”. It is a word that goes significantly beyond just “humanity”. We probably recognize it as the root of our word cosmic. It is a word that encompasses all of creation - all of what God has made. The actual root of the word is as much an IDEA as it is a thing. The first / primary definition is: “an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, or government.”

What does this tell us as God’s children? It tells us that that the work that God is doing through Jesus Christ is motivated by his love for all of creation and to restore and put back into order the “apt and harmonious arrangement” that he had made. What God is doing stretches beyond humans… it is something for ALL OF CREATION that he is bringing about through those people he redeems. Those saved by Christ are not only “seeing” the Kingdom of God and “entering” the Kingdom of God… they are actually being used by Jesus to bring the Kingdom of God to fruition. God’s primary end of Jesus’s work is not only saving humans, it is more correctly the putting back into order the entire “cosmos”… the universe… all of creation BOTH SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL.

Creation itself is groaning for redemption:

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God… in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (Rom. 8:19-22)

The world is waiting for the “revealing” of the “sons of God”, because creation knows that revealing comes will the final moments of Jesus returning and completing his work of “putting all things in their proper place” and “placing all his enemies under his feet”. (1Cor. 15:24-28, 2Cor. 5)

God’s work of redemption is part of something larger… more all encompassing than we give it credit for. We become fixated on what WE get, and lose sight of what God is doing. Ephesians 3 opens our eyes to something LARGER:

“Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace… (to preach) the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord…” (Eph. 3:7-13)

The mystery that was hidden for ages in God is that - through Christ - God would call a people to himself who would manifest his manifold wisdom to “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places”. This was God’s purpose from the beginning… his “eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ”.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus that night, and Christ spoke those most famous of words to him, Jesus was opening Nicodemus’s eyes to the COSMIC “good news” that was unfolding before him. He was painting the broader picture for Nicodemus. This curious and scared pharisee knew something big was happening. He knew in the deepest parts of who he was that Jesus was from God. He knew there was more going on… so he snuck out to find Jesus. Do you feel it? Do you realize that, in Christ, we have been “born into” a new identity that is a part of God’s “eternal mystery” and plan being worked out in Christ? Do you realize you have been conscripted into the “sons of God” to put God’s manifold wisdom on display for heavenly realms and spiritual creatures you probably don’t even think about?! As God’s children, we have a unique part to play in HIS Kingdom. Creation is groaning and waiting for the people of God to wake up.The heavenly realms are watching closely to see what God is doing through us… his children. Those famous words of John 3:16 draw us into God’s larger story. This is the “cosmic” good news of Jesus. We are being used by Christ to put the universe back in order… Jesus our KING who has “all authority in heaven and on earth”… is sending us. (Matt. 28:18) This is the Kingdom of God that comes rushing in with baby Jesus all those years ago. This is the hope of Christmas. This is the “joy to the world” that the angels sang of. This truth is so powerful it had to spread… those words that were spoken late one night, undercover, in the shadows with Nicodemus, are now spreading throughout the cosmos; “For God so loved the world”. Love you guys. - JDP