Many attach the emotion of love to the Christmas season and story. The emotion of love is basically a romantic attraction of some sort. The word romantic describes a literary romance that is heroic or marvelous. Humanity doesn't see, or even look for, any heroic, marvelous attraction between God and humanity and so separate themselves FROM God and ignore the creator of the universe. They spend a lifetime rationalizing ways that it is "rational" to ignore that from which they were created.
The point of this study, however, is that we CAN know the love of God because of the exemplification of the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension that Jesus demonstrated for us. THIS love FAR exceeds romantic love of humanity because it is a love that we do not DESERVE it is a love given just out of goodness, grace, favor, love, desire to help, pardon, mercy, virtue... God's grace outweighs any heroic attraction story perceived of by humanity.
This study looks at John 1:14-18; 3:14-18. John started his Gospel at the beginning with Genesis 1:1. He connected the incarnation of the Word, the Son of God, with the moment of creation when only the eternal God existed, thereby emphasizing that the Word is the eternal God. The One who brought all life into being is also the source of salvation for those who hold to faith of Him. The word salvation in this sense refers to the remission of a death penalty and the conferring the nature of the divine ("pertaining to, of the nature of, or proceeding from God) upon someone who can not merit (earn) it. The Word is the revelation of God, the Father of the Cosmos, to humanity. Look at what John says:
John 1:14-15
14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”)
A word is an utterance (that which is externalized). John is telling us that "God uttered" (externalized) the cosmos into being. If you like, you could verbalize this as the "Big Bang" of which science is currently "in favor". John also tells us that this externalized utterance of God became material, as we are, and lived among humans. Humanity has observed and recorded the glory of this Word. One completely full of divine virtue and the knowledge of reality.
Thespis, from which we get the word thespian, was an Ancient Greek theatrical performer who stepped out of the Greek Chorus (a group telling a story rather than actors portraying a story) and first assumed the role of actor. He became the character that the chorus was telling about and he showed the audience the thoughts, feelings, actions and more of the character he was being.
Prior to Thespis, going to the theater was more like watching a ritualistic religious service...The group would sing and tell the story, but no one individual "took center stage" to demonstrate the story. Before Thespis, the theater was hymns to the gods, stories and poems recited by a chorus. Kind of like watching an opera where everyone sings the same song at the same time. Kind of a "two-dimensional presentation". Thespis was the first individual to take on the role of "actor". He acted as a separate first-person character, an individual within the play rather than as a third-person character in the whole that was the play.
The story of God’s relationship with humanity follows a similar arc. The whole of creation was (is) in chorus telling the story of, and acting at the instigation of God. God instigated the birth of Jesus in which to incorporate. Jesus "stepped out of the chorus" of the cosmos and assumed the title and role of Son of God. Jesus demonstrated, and taught, how a human was to live...by adhering to the SPIRIT of the laws that God had provided rather than merely focusing on the physicality of the laws. God, through Jesus, took on flesh to act as an individual within the play that we know as the cosmos. No longer did we have to imagine what God was like: He was right there with us. This concept was so radical it was hard for people to grasp the concept. The invisible became visible. The eternal became immediate. The impossible became possible. Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah 7:14: He is Immanuel, God with us.
God had long sent messengers to communicate with humanity, prophets, messengers, even angels, but they do not compare to the Word who was sent directly from God as the Father’s unique representative and revelation to humanity. While prophets are human and are given to our human limitations and errors no matter how good their intentions. Through the UNIQUE Son of God, the Spirit of God incorporated into a human individual so that humanity can learn DIRECTLY FROM GOD God's divine nature. In this way we all may become children of God as we look up to God's divine nature and learn to emulate it.
John tells us that Jesus was full of grace and truth. The term for full has the meanings of containing in itself all that something can hold and being complete, lacking nothing. Humanity often has difficulty comprehending HOW an infinite, omniscient, and omnipotent God could POSSIBLY assume a limited body. But thought, like light, does not take up physical space. How much light can one cram into a jar? Light being energy passes continually through the jar just as cell phone signals are passing through out bodies at all times these days. Just as it takes the correct signal receiver to receive the energy messages of a cell phone signals, so it takes a particularly attuned individual to receive the light energy, i.e., divine energy messages from God.
In this context, it means that Jesus contains in Himself the characteristics of grace and truth in a fullness (perfection) only found in God. Grace (charis) refers to favor and good will toward someone as well as its practical application. Truth (aletheia) carries the aspects of being upright, steadfast, and dependable. Finally, it can refer to reality itself.
John the Baptist was physically older than Jesus, but the Baptist noted that he was not the Messiah, but merely the forerunner. Jesus, the incarnation of the eternal Word existed before the Baptist, and before everything else in creation for that matter.
Next, John tells us how to "see" God.
John 1:16-18
16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side —he has revealed him.
The coming of Jesus allows humanity to move from being rule followers to followers who actually think and behave as God would. The view of most religions of the world is: try harder, stop messing up, look holy, smile more, clean up, straighten up, don’t have too much fun, try to be worthy, say the right words, do the right deeds, and stay out of trouble. In other words, pretend to be something that you are not.
The focus of the Christ follower is Jesus (God) alone. We choose to be in a relationship with the only One who can really change us as we seek to emulate God’s perfection, wholeness, and Love. We choose to be members and representatives (ambassadors) of God's family of created beings.
John details the purpose of the incarnation of the Word. Grace (charis) in this context has the meaning of God’s favor toward humanity as displayed through Jesus Christ in regards to salvation. The profoundness of God’s outpouring of grace upon grace in Jesus is further emphasized by the contrast with God’s law. God gave the law through Moses but the law was not embodied in Moses. The law represented God’s standard of righteousness but it was incapable of saving people from sin, death, and separation from God.
We see that God created humanity and guided them through his word directly given to them face to face. We see too that humanity couldn't live up to even the simple directions given and as a result rejected the sovereignty of the God of the cosmos and fell under a death penalty – "you will surely die." We see God at work through Noah, through Abram, and others until finally God writes down ten principles by which humanity is to live. He gave them to Moses. Humanity was still not mature enough to live by the simple principles and instead developed from them over 600 laws and regulations that were impossible to follow, and merely provided a way for the "keepers of the law" to exploit and have authority over everyone else.
Now Jesus has given us an audio/visual aid to show us how to live and even now much of humanity is not mature enough to to comprehend how to live. Jesus made it SIMPLE. He took the ten principles and honed them down to a fine edge: 1) Love (unconditionally care for) God, 2) Love (unconditionally care for) those around you. If you want to make it even more simple just ONE simple sentence will suffice: Love (unconditionally care for) what is around you. Because "God IS Love" this will put you in direct connection with God.
In verse 17 John states Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He is the perfect revelation of God. This is the first time John explicitly connected the Word of God with Jesus Christ. By observing, studying, and looking at the God energy that is within and exemplified by Christ we may see God. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, he was only allowed to see God’s back and not His face because “humans cannot see me and live” Exodus 33:20-23 states.
John also provide us another emphasis that Jesus is the Word who is God, the one and only Son of God. Because God has incarnated and shown humanity the intentions God establishes he is the only One capable of fully knowing God with full authority. Anyone else is merely offering an opinion about what God has uttered. Like John the Baptist they cannot be the Messiah, but CAN point the way to and prepare for the Messiah.
In Jesus Christ God has made Himself known to humanity, becoming part of humanity through the incarnation and demonstrating the way for people to be forgiven their death sentence and reconciled to God who uttered the cosmos into existence and in which we currently live.
Next we see just what it takes overcome our death sentence.
John 3:14-18
14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
The word Loved (agapao), is rarely found in Greek literature outside of the New Testament, this Greek term was used by believers to denote the special unconditional love of God and to designate God the Father’s love for Jesus, God’s love for the individual believer, and Christ’s love for a disciple. The 
Greek term translated as world is kosmos. Verse 16 tells us the God has an unconditional love for the Cosmos to the point that God provided HIMSELF as a sacrifice through his son Jesus, who, though he died physically, now spiritually lives with God in eternity.
The reason for this love sacrifice, John 3:18 notes is "Whoever believes in him [i.e. the Son, Jesus Christ] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God". The point in Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus is that Jesus came to the world to save a world that was already condemned, one already under a death sentence. He noted that remission of this death sentence comes through Jesus being "lifted up."
The world, and us in it, are "condemned already" due to the sin of Adam and Eve, and Jesus saves us through his death on the cross. All who look on Christ in faith receive this redemption from death; those who do not have faith are not condemned by Christ, because they were already condemned to death due to sin.
The people of Israel had been in slavery in Egypt. Through Moses, the Lord delivered them up out of slavery, redeeming them from their captivity. He is now leading them to the land He has promised them. Yet, the people continually rebel against the Lord. They finally "spoke against God and against Moses," accusing them of bringing the people out to the wilderness to die. Then, they call the manna which the Lord had been sending them "worthless." Thus, they despise the Lord's grace and mercy in delivering them out of captivity.
Therefore, the Lord gives them what their sins deserve: death. He sends "fiery serpents" to them, which bite the people and kill them. Sin came into the world through the serpent, Satan, and now here in Numbers the people are suffering the consequences of sin, namely death; they are "condemned already".
That's a lot of words to say basically that Christ interprets the event in Numbers in light of what he came to do; he came to die by being raised up on the cross in order to save people who were "condemned already" by the serpent Satan and the sin he brought into the world. So, what happens in Numbers points forward to what Christ was coming to do on the cross for all people.
Indeed, Christ came to save not only us, but also his entire creation his Cosmos. He died and rose to save a world that was "condemned already," restoring it to the perfection in which he had originally created it. This will come on the "Last Day" with his return and the resurrection.
Anyone who does not believe is already condemned verse 18 says. Condemnation is the consequence of refusing God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. Here is the best analogy I can come up with for the situation of humanity. The first human created a crime against God. As a result, all of Earth, indeed the cosmos, was set on a course (cursed) with separation from God and all of the negatives that entails. Like toddlers who have run away from home we have no parents to guide us and we are already sentenced to death. We are already snake bit! But if we BELIEVE; if we have and exercise FAITH that the judge has already provided a pardon for us, then the death sentence is remitted and we CAN enjoy ETERNAL LIFE.
As non-intuitive as it seems for the Israelites in the wilderness who were snake bit and dying because of their rebellion against God, God, through Moses, gave them a sign that BELIEF will cause them to live. LISTEN TO GOD AND DO WHAT HE TELLS YOU AND ALL WILL BE OK. Ignore God and you are already dead. Jesus' mission is similar. Jesus IS God's message and Jesus TEACHES God's Message, and Jesus LIVES God's message until his PHYSICAL body died and then he was raised to live eternally with God and is still teaching his lesson to humanity.
Want to overcome your death penalty? Listen to, learn from, and exercise faith in God, faith in Jesus and faith in eternal life.
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