Wrapped In Love

2. The Gift of Love

“He gave his Son, his one and only Son.” (3:16)

When Martin Luther was printing his translation of the Bible in Germany, pieces of the printed Scripture fell to the floor. A young girl picked one of them up and read the phrase of our text, “For God so loved the world that he gave”. The rest of the sentence was missing. That moment for her was a defining experience as the truth griped her. You see, she had been told so often that God was a Judge and One to be dreaded. She ran home with excitement in her heart, passing the note to tell her mother and talking endlessly of this wonderful discovery. Her mother read it and perplexed asked, “But what did He give?” The young girl was lost for a moment with a puzzled expression, not knowing the answer. But suddenly a thought came to her and her face lit up again as she said, “I don’t know; but if He loved us well enough to give us anything, we need not be afraid of Him.”

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son.”

One of the great mysteries of this verse is not only grappling with God’s love that is so great, so unsearchable, so vast, so immeasurable that he would give his only Son but also the mystery that Jesus was willing to be given.

John Stott, evangelist, preacher and scholar, gives us profound insight into the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son that lead to this verse, this point of history that would change the world forever. Stott speaks of several sources of Scripture that raise questions like:

Why didn’t God come himself?

Did Jesus only come because God required it of him?

(People read the following from power point: Isaiah 53:6, 10; 1 John 4:9-10; Romans 3:25; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Stott then answers the questions this way.

“We have no liberty to interpret them in such a way as to imply either that God compelled Jesus to do what he was unwilling to do himself, or that Jesus was an unwilling victim of God’s harsh justice.

“Both God and Christ were subjects, not objects, taking the initiative together to save sinners.

“The Father did not lay on the Son an ordeal he was reluctant to bear, nor did the Son extract from the Father a salvation he was reluctant to bestow.”

Maybe you are wondering why this is important to us. It is important for this reason. Not only can we read “For God so loved the world that he gave” we can also conclude “For Jesus so loved the world that he came”!

Do you remember the young man at the beginning of the sermon who wanted to write a poetic letter of love to his girl (no, it wasn’t me!)? God not only wrote the letter. He delivered the lover! His love was so profound that he gave the deepest, most intimate expression of his love – His only Son.

It has been said that George Buttrick had seen a painting in an Italian church. At first glance it appeared to be one of any number of typical paintings of the crucifixion. However, upon closer examination, he noticed a shadowy figure behind the cross. It was a representation of God and the nails and spear that pierced Jesus when straight through to the hands, feet and side of the Father.