For All The Whosoevers (John 3:16) Series

This doesn’t mean Jesus died for animals and that “All dogs go to Heaven.” But it does mean that all creation is eagerly waiting for our redemption. In Romans 8:20-23, Paul describes creation as being in bondage to corruption until our redemption. Think of it this way— because God loves everything he has made, he sent His only son to redeem fallen man in order that through our adoption as sons and daughters, creation itself will be redeemed.

So the first takeaway from John 3:16 is that God is the definer and the initiator of love.

2. God demonstrates love. God wasn’t just sitting up there in Heaven, looking down at us humans saying, “Oh, I just love them.”

Do you ever go to a pet store just to look at the puppies, or baby bunnies? Do you ever watch videos of kittens to see what cats look like before they become possessed by demons?

Right now I’m a little obsessed with baby otter videos on YouTube. I look at them and think, they are adorable! Look at them! I just love baby otters. But now ask me if I would want a baby otter in my house. And the answer is no. They need a lot of space. We would have to convert our pool and backyard to an outdoor habitat, complete with an aquarium, which we would then have to stock with fish and crawdads and mollusks. It would be a long term commitment, because otters can live to be 15-20 years old. They can’t be housebroken. And in Alabama, it is illegal to have one as a pet. So no matter how much I say I love baby otters, there is no way I would ever go through the cost, the hassle, the expense, of adopting one. So at the end of the day, I don’t really love baby otters. You see, for love to be love, it has to be expressed. It has to be demonstrated. And that’s exactly what John 3:16 says God did: For God so loved the world that He gave.

God doesn’t look at us the way we look at hamsters at PetSmart. We look through the glass and we say, “Awwww… that one is so cute? Look at that one on the exercise wheel! Look at that one hiding in his little shelter! There’s one at the water bottle. Look at her drinking. Oooh… that one looks kind of sick. If I was going to purchase a hamster, it sure wouldn’t be that one.

Instead, God looks at fallen, sinful, weak human beings, and He says, I’ll take them all. So He paid the price to purchase every single one of us. The pretty and the plain. Those who are working so hard but getting nowhere. Those who are afraid and timid, who build walls around themselves so no one can get to them. Those who can’t stop drinking. Even those who are sick and weak. God looks down at our little habitat and says, I want to bring all of them home with Me, and I am willing to pay the highest price for them.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.

Some translations say only son, or only begotten son. It’s the Greek word monogenous. It’s the opposite of homogenous, which means many of the same kind. monogenous means unique. One of a kind. One who is like no other. God didn’t have a whole bunch of begotten sons, and He just sent His least favorite to go and die for our sins. God gave His unique, no one like Him Son. In fact, because God has reveled Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to say God gave His Son is another way of saying God gave Himself.