“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” KJV
16 “For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] [a]only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. AMP
The most popular Bible verse and preached by all preachers.
There is a Reason For God’s Love; “For God so loved...” 1 John 4:8 and 16 tell us that “God is love.” Never was a more important declaration made than this—God is love. This is a profound statement. God doesn’t just love; He is love. His nature and essence are love. Love permeates His very being and infuses all His other attributes, even His wrath and anger. Because God’s very nature is love, He must demonstrate love. God's love is personal. He knows each of us individually and loves us personally. His is a mighty love that has no beginning and no end. It is this experiencing of God’s love that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. Why does God love us? It is because of who He is: "God is love." And so this outline, frequently used verse, an epic declaration of our Master Himself and loved by all believers of Jesus. May it bring forth to all of us the reason of our heartbeat. Let us be the Nicodemus right this very moment....
I- The Object Of God’s Love
“world”
The object of God’s love is for us all. The World in general so that none should perish. We were created for one reason: to have a fellowship with God Himself! The Bible teaches that something in the heart of God cares deeply for all of creation. In a full-circled Christian understanding of the “good news,” God gave Jesus not only for the human sphere, but because God loves the entirety of the cosmos. Humanity — and the earth itself — are renewed and restored at the end of the age, not roasted and replaced.
The objective of God's Love is that we might have fellowship with Him and in His Love have fellowship with each other. Plainly, we are to enjoy the same intimate fellowship with each other and God that the Trinity has with each other.
God created us as an object of His love. God made us so He could love us and so that we could love Him. God’s love for us is the reason our heart’s beating right now; it’s the reason we’re breathing.
God’s Good News is that He loves you on your good days as much as He loves you on your bad days. He loves you when you can feel His love, and He loves you when you can’t seem to feel His love. He loves you whether or not you think you deserve His love.
There is nothing you can do that will make God stop loving you. You could try, but you simply can’t do it — because His love for you is based upon His character and not on anything you do or say or feel.
II- The Offering Of God’s Love
“...that He [even] gave His [One and] [a]only begotten Son,”
Agape love. God’s sacrificial kind of love. The highest kind of love.
When it comes to human love we like to see more action behind the words. As the saying goes, “Action speaks louder than words.”
The Bible is full of God’s words of love for us, but God also put those words into action when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die upon the cross, even when, in our sins, we were His enemies. God paid the highest price possible so that we could experience the fullness of His love and have that personal relationship with Him.
It was a costly love. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”(John 15:13)
Such love is foreign to our human sinful nature.
The Apostle Paul said; “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8 NKJV)
Jesus went beyond just dying for His friends, He died for His enemies, that is, He died for you and for me, because we’re sinners. And He sacrificed Himself for us so that we could have a loving relationship with Him. Only God has such love, and His love is truly the greatest love of them all.
His Body, His Offering.
III- The Owner Of God’s Love
“...so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish”
We have our continued human existence beyond Genesis 3 only because of the love of God. Had He done what He could in strict justice have done, He would have terminated human existence in Genesis 3.
We are the recipient of God’s love only if we receive Jesus in our lives. Although God’s love is unconditional, being a recipient of this love needs our acceptance and personal belief in this gift of love from God.
“God Loves Everyone” because the word “whosoever” is used in the second part of the verse, but a careful reading of the verse does not yield a clear statement of universal love for all mankind but rather, a statement of universal opportunity for eternal life to all by believing in God's only begotten Son.
Furthermore, here’s what John McArthur has to say as quoted from Arthur W.Pink; “at this point, however, an important distinction must be made: God loves believers with a particular love. God's love for the elect is an infinite, eternal, saving love. We know from Scripture that this great love was the very cause of our election (Ephesians 2:4). Such love clearly is not directed toward all of mankind indiscriminately, but is bestowed uniquely and individually on those whom God chose in eternity past. But from that, it does not follow that God's attitude toward those He did not elect must be unmitigated hatred. Surely His pleading with the lost, His offers of mercy to the reprobate, and the call of the gospel to all who hear are all sincere expressions of the heart of a loving God. Remember, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but tenderly calls sinners to turn from their evil ways and live. Does God so love the world? Emphatically — yes! Proclaim that truth far and wide, and do so against the backdrop of God's perfect wrath that awaits everyone who does not repent and turn to Christ. Does the love of God differ in the breadth and depth and manner of its expression? Yes it does. Praise Him for the many manifestations of His love, especially toward the non-elect, and rejoice in the particular manifestation of His saving love for you who believe. God has chosen to display in you the glory of His redeeming grace.” (Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1930, 29-30).
Conclusion:
Just like Nicodemus, may the darkness of our understanding be illuminated by this very ordinary but well-loved verse.
We are the Object of God’s love as Jesus is the Ultimate Sacrifice and Offering for all of us as He paved the Way, the Truth and our Life.... we are the owner of this kind of love... What shall we do now? Jesus said, “ONLY BELIEVE”
God bless us all in Him.
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