"The Act of Faith"
Katy Pass, Westmoreland UCC
John 3: 13-16
September 14, 2025
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." This is one of many verses I committed to memory early on in my childhood with the help of a catchy song, the promise of candy for remembering it, and, of course, a healthy dose of terror at the idea of being tested on it in a good old fashioned bible drill. Even without this rather specific background of church upbringing, John 3:16 is incredibly well known. It’s easily plastered on billboards, t-shirts, license plates, you name it. Ironically, I think the "knowing" of this text has led to it being less "known." Its recitation causes us to be desensitized to what the words actually mean. We don’t think as deeply about them, because we know them. I mean, it’s John 3:16. Everyone knows that.
These words were originally spoken to Nicodemus, a man who knew a few things himself. We are told earlier in the chapter that he was a Pharisee and a “ruler of the Jews.” The Pharisees were known for their devotion to following the law as outlined in the first five books of what we now call the Old Testament. So, Nicodemus, as someone high up in this tradition, would be incredibly knowledgeable about all things holy.
And yet, something did not sit right with him about Jesus. According to all that Nicodemus had been taught, Jesus was a liar who went against the Jewish faith by claiming that he was the son of God. But, he was doing things that could not be done without the power of God. Nicodemus dealt with this internal dissonance by going to speak to Jesus himself. Belief is mentioned in our passage for today constantly. It is also the driving force behind the conversation taking place. Nicodemus went to speak to Jesus because he believed in the things that Jesus was doing. Eternal life is given to all who believe. However, there is a difference between these two types of belief.
In chapter 2, right before the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus begins, the text tells us that many people believed in Jesus after seeing the things that he was doing, but Jesus did not trust this belief because he knows what is truly in people’s hearts. Then enters Nicodemus, one such man whose belief has not yet fully permeated his heart. In case the introduction wasn’t enough, John is careful to emphasize that Nicodemus came at night, symbolizing that he was still living in darkness despite approaching the light of the world himself.
So, what is Nicodemus missing? Why is his belief not enough? Jesus tells him that he must be born again. The text that we just read together is Jesus’s answer as to how. The eternal life that Jesus is speaking about is connected to this new birth, a possibility in the present life. In discussing the way to being born again, Jesus does not give Nicodemus a list of actions he must complete. Instead, he talks about the work and love of God. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son. It is through this act that everlasting life is given to all who accept it. It is a gift, freely given.
The belief that Jesus is describing has two major characteristics. First, it is rooted in an understanding of who Jesus is. He is the son of God. He is divine, having come from Heaven. The things that he says are true, the miracles he performs glimpses of God’s glory. Most importantly, he is the source of eternal life. Nicodemus had not yet made this connection. He had the beginnings of this belief; after all, he was looking to confirm who Jesus was. He believed the things that he was seeing, the miracles that Jesus was doing, but he had not yet understood who Jesus truly was.
Belief in this son of God naturally leads to the second characteristic of true belief, which is a changed life. Being born again means that you live in a drastically different way, that you are dead to the way you lived before. You cannot stay in the dark with this kind of faith. It is transformative. It is not just knowing, but living. Jesus invited Nicodemus into this new life, but scholars are conflicted on whether or not he accepted it. He does not respond to Jesus in this chapter. He just sort of disappears. However, he is mentioned twice more in the book of John.
He is cited in John 7 as asking the other Pharisees “does our law condemn a man before hearing him?” as they are getting angrier at Jesus’s claims. After the death of Jesus, Nicodemus prepared his body for burial in accordance with Jewish tradition.
Many of you already know that my own faith tradition is United Methodist, so it may not surprise you that I am about to bring up John Wesley. He wrote a sermon entitled “The Marks of the New Birth” in which he details the characteristics of living a new life in Christ. This sermon and its ideas are at the heart of United Methodism, and the heart of my personal theology. Wesley writes that the marks of one who has been born again are faith, hope, and love. He describes this change, this new birth as having “a love not only ever burning in your hearts, but flaming out in all your actions and conversations, and making your whole life one ‘labour of love.’” Faith is the foundation, and hope an expression of such a love. The three elements are not disjointed, they grow directly out of one another. We do not love one another in order to earn a new life that God will give to us. Rather, being born again, we are transformed by the life that has already been given to us through no power of our own.
I see these attributes of faith, hope, and love in the life of Nicodemus, as well. He spoke out against those who he once feared, the Jewish leaders he wished to avoid by approaching Jesus at night. I don’t know if he believed that it would do any good, or that it actually did since it did not change the ultimate outcome of Jesus being crucified, but he spoke for a reason. He hoped it would do something. Anointing the body of Jesus in preparation for his burial can only be described as an act of love, and both these actions are characteristics of the faith he grew to have in who Jesus was. Faith, hope, and love certainly permeated the actions of Nicodemus after his encounter with Jesus.
I feel a particular resonance with Nicodemus and his acts of hope and love in our world today. I feel close to him, speaking out to those he trusted to uphold the law. I wonder if he felt as hopeless as we have all expressed with the national guard in our streets, with ICE terrorizing our neighbors. However he was feeling, regardless of whether or not he felt it would make a difference, Nicodemus spoke truth. Because a life-changing faith is not limited to knowing, you don’t have to banish all feelings of hopelessness to have hope.
I feel close to him as he did what he could in the wake of tragedy, anointing Jesus’s body in mourning. I feel close to him as I learn of even more gun violence in our country, as I mourn people who should not have died as the product of still more meaningless violence. I don’t have faith in these situations or in the people causing them. I do have faith in the God who so loved the world that he gave his only son to grant not death but eternal life, and that that God came into the world not to condemn it but to save it.
Faith does not mean certainty. As Jesus told Nicodemus, faith leads to being born again, to a life of hope and love. Where we speak truth and stand up for others in the face of injustice. We do not know if it will make a difference, but we can and will hope, continuing to speak anyway. Faith means sitting together as we mourn and do our best to love one another as God loves us. And, when we do these things, we do them in the name of the son of God who loved the world, yes, even them, so much that he died. For us.
We know this verse. We have heard it, said it, sang it, maybe even taught it to someone else. However, our knowing means nothing if it has not caused us to be born again, stepping into a faith characterized by hope and love. May we continue in this faith through the power of the one who we believe in, who loves us more than we could ever know. Amen.
