John 3:16 is, perhaps, the most familiar verse in the Bible. Here in the United States many people can quote the verse. Of those who cannot quote it, many are at least familiar with the reference, if only because they have seen it displayed so often in the end zone of football stadiums. Yet, I am afraid that perhaps we have allowed familiarity to lead us to take for granted the wonderful truths contained in this verse.
My hope and prayer is that in our time spent considering the message of John 3:16, we will not only become more familiar with this wonderful verse of Scripture, but that we will become personally familiar with the God about whom it speaks. The message it shares with us about God can change your life!
John 3:16 tells us about the greatest news ever heard -
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
In this verse, we are told about...
...the greatest love ever shown,
...the greatest gift ever given,
...the greatest opportunity ever offered, and
...the greatest future ever imagined!
Let*s look at what this verse says about the greatest love ever shown.
1. The God Who Loves Us
God loves you and me! What a thought! The wonder of this statement becomes even greater when I realize the glory of the God who loves us.
God’s glory is how we describe the sum effect of all of His attributes. Grace, truth, goodness, mercy, justice, knowledge, power, eternality - all that He is. Therefore, the glory of God is intrinsic. That is, it is as essential to God as light is to the sun, as blue is to the sky, as wet is to water. You don’t make the sun light; it is light. You don’t make the sky blue; it is blue. You don’t make water wet; it is wet. In all of these cases, the attribute is intrinsic to the object.
By contrast, man’s glory is granted to him. If you take a king, remove his robe and crown, give him only a rag to wear, leave him on the streets for a few weeks, then put him next to a beggar, you’ll never know which is which. Because with man, there is no intrinsic glory. The only glory a king has is when you give him a crown and a robe and sit him on his throne. He has no intrinsic glory.
That’s the point. The only glory that men have is granted to them. But the glory that is God’s is His in His essence. You can’t "de-glory" God because He is, by nature, glorious! You can’t touch His glory. It cannot be taken away. It cannot be diminished and it cannot be added to. It’s His being.
Now what is amazing is that this God, whose glory is unlike anything else in the entire universe, has seen fit, because of His love, to reveal Himself to us in the person of His Son - Jesus Christ! Speaking about Jesus, the apostle John said, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth," (John 1:14).
But the wonder of God’s love is revealed all the more when I think not only of His glory, but also of His grace.
In showing His love for you and me, this glorious God has revealed Himself to us, in the gracious attempt to relate to us! And just as God reveals Himself to us through Jesus, He also relates to us through Jesus!
The apostle Paul declared, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich," (2 Corinthians 8:9).
You see, Jesus Christ was God come to earth in human form, to do for you and me what we could not do for ourselves. He came to deliver us from the burden of sin so that we might know the blessing of salvation.
A few years ago, the newspapers reported the story of how on March 5, 1994, Deputy Sheriff Lloyd Prescott was teaching a class for police officers in the Salt Lake City Library. As he stepped into the hallway, he noticed a gunman herding 18 hostages into the next room.
Thinking quickly, Prescott (dressed in street clothes) joined the group as the nineteenth hostage, followed them into the room, and shut the door. When the gunman announced the order in which hostages would be executed, Prescott identified himself as a cop. In the scuffle that followed, he fatally shot the armed man. The hostages were then released unharmed.
What Prescott did for those hostages is what God has done for us in the person of His Son, Jesus. God dressed Himself in street clothes and entered our world, becoming one of us. Then on the cross, He defeated the one who held us hostage - Satan - and made it possible for us to be free!
Because of His love for you and me, by His grace, the glorious God of the universe has made it possible for us to have a personal relationship with Him. He has done this in the person of Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself on the cross for our sake, suffering the penalty for our sin in our place.
The nature of His sacrifice for our sin is such that He not only died for those who choose to believe in Him, but for all those who choose not to believe in Him as well. John tells us that, "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world," (1 John 2:2).
But though everyone is the object of God’s love, not everyone has chosen to be the recipient of God’s love. Martin Luther explained it this way: "While Christ’s death is sufficient for every sin of every person who ever lived or ever will live, it becomes effectual only for those who confess their sin, accept the sacrifice, and embrace Christ as Lord and Savior."
Have you ever made the choice to acknowledge God’s gift of love on your behalf? Have you ever trusted Christ as your Savior and received God’s free gift of eternal life?
Suppose it was your birthday and I wanted to give you a birthday gift. What would I do? Well, the first thing I would do would be to purchase a gift for you. I would go to the local department store and I would pay the price required for the gift I wanted you to have. Next, I would prepare that gift for you. I would take it home and wrap it in a wrapping and tie it up with a colorful bow. Then, I would come to your home, knock on the door, and when you came to the door, I would probably say something like, "Happy birthday!" I would then present my gift to you.
Now think with me about this for a moment. I have purchased your gift for you, haven’t I? I mean, if you paid for your gift, it wouldn’t be much of a gift, now would it? I have also prepared your gift for you, and now I am presenting your gift to you. What would you have to do in order to receive that gift?
Simple. You would acknowledge the one who had purchased the gift for you, prepared the gift for you, and presented the gift to you. You would speak to me and say something like, "Thank you so much for buying me this gift. I appreciate what you have done." Then you would invite me into your home as you received the gift as your own.
Now, that is exactly what each of us must do to receive God’s gift of eternal life. You see, God purchased eternal life for us through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. There, He paid the price so that we might have eternal life. After Jesus died on the cross, He was then raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven. In speaking to His disciples about this, Jesus said, "I am going there to prepare a place for you," (John 14:2). Now, by the work of His Holy Spirit, God seeks to present each of us with the opportunity to receive the free gift that He has purchased for us, the gift that Christ has ascended to heaven to prepare for us. And just as you would acknowledge me in receiving your birthday gift, we must each acknowledge Christ and His sacrifice for our sake, if we would receive eternal life. You must invite Him into your life, just as you would invite me into your home.
Please understand. You are the object of God’s love. But unless and until you have chosen to acknowledge the price Christ paid so that you might have eternal life, and invited Him into your life, you have not yet become the recipient of His love. Why not make that choice if you haven’t already? The one who loves us is a glorious and gracious God who desires to present us with the gift of eternal life!
2. The Ones God Loves
John 3:16 tells us that God loves the world. As we have seen, Christ’s sacrifice was "for the sins of the whole world," (1 John 2:2). But not everyone in the world has acknowledged the demonstration of God’s love through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Though everyone in the world is the object of God’s love, not everyone in the world has chosen to become a recipient of God’s love.
What this tells us then is that there are two types of people in this world, and God loves them both!
God loves all who choose to reject Him. Though there are people who choose not to acknowledge Christ’s sacrifice for their sake and select not to invite Christ into their life, God loves them, nevertheless. And God will, by virtue of His love, seek to reach out to them, despite their rejection of His love. God expresses His love, but their unbelief keeps them from experiencing it!
A preacher and his unbelieving barber were walking down the street as their conversation turned to the love of God. Said the barber to the preacher, "If God was as loving as you say, why does He permit all the poverty, disease, and squalor that exists in the world? I cannot believe that a loving God would permit these things."
The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Then he said, "You can’t be a very good barber or you would not permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut or shave."
Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man*s condition? I can’t help it that he is like that. He has never come into my shop; why, I could fix him up and make him look like a million dollars, if he’d only let me!"
Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said: "Then don*t blame God for allowing people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved. The reason people are slaves to sin and evil habits is that they refuse the One who died to save and deliver them."
The barber saw the point. Do you?
Only those who choose to receive God’s love can experience all that can be achieved by God’s love. But even though there are people who persist in their unbelief and rejection of God’s love, that doesn’t mean He quits loving them. God loves even those who reject Him.
But God especially loves those who receive Him! All who receive Jesus experience, first hand, the love that God expresses to all!
Vance Havner told the story of a professor who wrote a book on the subject of love. The only defect was that the professor had never been in love. When he took the manuscript to a typist to have it prepared for the publisher, the typist turned out to be a very lovely lady. When their eyes met, something happened to the professor that was not in the book. He was happier in five minutes with love in his heart than he had been in thirty years with love in his head.
Like the professor, you will never experience the love God is seeking to express toward you apart from entering into a personal relationship with Him through receiving Jesus as your Savior and Lord!
Some time ago, I found myself standing before a pastor, who asked me a question, "Will you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Not being a fool, I of course said, "Yes." He then turned to my wonderful bride, Donna, and asked her the same question. To which, I am glad to say, she also responded by saying, "Yes." At that instant, by virtue of our expressed willingness to commit to one another, Donna and I entered into a special love relationship that has forever changed our lives.
The Bible tells us that, "God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us," (Romans 5:8 - N L T) Centuries ago, God gave an answer to the question of whether or not He was willing to enter into a love relationship with us. Through His coming to earth in the person of His Son, He answered that question with a resounding, "Yes!" Through graciously giving His one and only Son, God has expressed His willingness to give Himself to us.
Now, the question is put to each of us. And if we answer "Yes, I am willing give myself to Christ," then we will enter into a personal love relationship with the glorious God of the universe that will forever change our lives.
