God so Loved—John 3: 16

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3: 16) This Bible verse stands out as one of the best-known and best-loved verses in the Bible. It is generally one of the first verses memorized by children and adults alike. Moreover, it carries a very important message that has to be responded to.

It was Jesus Christ who spoke this verse. That doesn’t mean that other Scripture is of less value, but since this was the Lord Himself speaking, I think that we had better stop and listen to what He is saying. It could be important to us.

To begin with, “God so loved the world.” Why wouldn’t God love this world? He created it. But I believe that God had more than just the world of nature in mind when He spoke of His love. I am inclined to believe that God created the insect and animal kingdoms in mass. Not so with mankind. He created one man and one woman. Then He endowed man with His own image. As far as I’m concerned, that makes you and me very important. We are of greater value than all

fish that swim the waters, all the great and small animals that roam the lands, or all the birds that fly the skies.

But the first man and woman, rebelled against their creator and passed that rebellion down to us. This rebellion or disobedience is summed up in that three letter word called ”sin.” Man is not an animal. He was given by His Creator a moral consciousness, which meant he had to be responsible for his actions. We as human beings have a free will. Our first parents chose to disobey God’s will, and so passed this desire on to us. Too often, we choose to disobey God’s will when it conflicts with our own will.

Because of our sin and separation from God, God provided a plan to reconcile man to Himself. John 3: 16 goes on: “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” The essence of the plan was that Christ was to take upon Himself the penalty for our sin, which meant His death. First Peter 2: 24 say, “He Himself [Jesus, the Son of God] bore our sins in His own body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness: by His wounds you have been healed.”

Wow! Just contemplate what God did by giving us His Son. But you may say, “Yes, God so loved the world, but I’m just one person out of six billion.” Consider the next phrase from John 3: 16: “that whoever believes in Him . . .” The “whoever” speaks of one person, that make Jesus’ death on the cross eminently personal.

Let us now focus on the word “believe.” Just having an intellectual knowledge of what Jesus did for us on the cross can do nothing for us. For example, I grew up attending Sunday School. I had a fair knowledge of the entire Bible. I knew the stories of Jesus backwards and forwards. However, I did not relate these stories to my life until I was 16 years old, when I heard for the first time that Jesus died for me personally. That meant I had to accept it or reject it. I

wouldn’t be writing this if I had rejected what Jesus did for me! This “believing” means accepting and receiving what Jesus has done for you personally, and then, in your own words, saying, “Jesus I know that you died for me. Forgive my sins. I commit my life to you.”

Now what does this mean for you as an individual? It means many things, but as we go back to the verse, we read, “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” If you truly believe in Jesus, you now have a new life in you. It is Jesus in you, and His life in you is permanent. You are now a child of God the Father.

“God so loved . . .”