John3:16

John 3:16–21 NLT

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

john 3:16

John 3:16 NLT

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

introduction

IIn a world where it appears that love has disappeared and disintegrated God gives a scripture that helps us know that there is a love that supersedes all types of love. That’s the love of the Lord.

This passage today brings us to the great metropolis of gospel truth. No other single statement in the Bible so aptly sums up God’s redemptive purpose in Christ for the human race. Volumes have been written on it. Its each and every word has been weighed, examined and marveled at and preached on. Who will ever know the countless number of Adam’s ruined race have found their way to heaven by the discovery of ?

The text revolves around ten words: God, loved, world, gave, Son, whosoever, believeth, perish, have, and life. Those ten words make up the constellation of the redeemer in the firmament of divine revelation. The creative work of God is summed up in the ten commands in (And God said). The legislative work of God is summed up in the ten commandments in . The redemptive work of God is summed up in the ten words mentioned here in .

These words can be arranged in five pairs: (1) God and the Son, the giver and the gift; the author and finisher of salvation; two eternal, self-existing, uncreated members of the Godhead. (2) loved and gave, a two-fold revelation of the benevolence of God; love, the prerequisite of such a gift, and the gift, the proof of such love. (3) world and whosoever, all people universally, without distinction or exception; and each person individually, as though that person were the only one in the world. (4) believeth and have, the hand of faith stretched out in confidence to the giver, and the hand of faith drawn back in contentment with the gift, the trust and the transfer complete. (5) perish and life, the unutterable lostness of those who die in their sins and the unending life of those who die in the Savior; two eternal destinies, heaven and hell, with a great gulf forever fixed between banishment and bliss, the extremes of horror and happiness, the terminus of two roads: the broad road that leads to destruction and the narrow road that leads to everlasting life.

A twenty-five word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life. Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions. If you know nothing of the Bible, start here. If you know everything in the Bible, return here. We all need to remember. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human.

These words are to Scripture what the Mississippi River is to America – an entryway into the heartland. Believe or dismiss them, embrace or reject them, any serious consideration of Christ must include them. Would a British historian dismiss the Magna Carta? Egyptologists overlook the Rosetta stone?

The verse is an alphabet of grace, a table of contents to the Christian hope, each word a safe-deposit box of jewels. This text sets before us a glimpse of the heart of God. This is love stronger than death, the love that suffers long and is kind, the love that never fails. This text also gives us a glimpse of the mind of God along two lines. First, the thought of God concerning his Son. In the original text it reads like this, “For so loved God the world that his Son, the only begotten he gave, that everyone who believes on him may not perish but may have life eternal.

-2-

In the KJV there are 25 words in this text and the central one is Son. That, of course, is exactly the way it should be. When you think of God all centers on his Son. God has no purpose, no plan and no program for this world or any other that does not center on his Son.

Secondly, the thought of God concerning our salvation: “whosoever…” Again we are brought back to Jesus. He is the one who saves people from their sin, writes their names in life’s eternal book, secures them a place in the family of God and a home in heaven.

The word that activates it all is the word believeth. Simply and solely; God calls on us to trust his Son.

This text also gives us a glimpse of the will of God. God is not willing that any should be perish. The idea of limited atonement that God chose certain ones of the human race, an elect company, and that Christ died for a few only is a slander on the love of God. The gospel invitation is extended to all.

John Butler outlines this verse thusly:

· Passion of God’s love – so (thus)

· Perimeter of God’s love – the world

· Proof of God’s love – He gave

· Price of God’s love – gave His only begotten Son

· Prerequisite for God’s love – believeth

· Protection by God’s love – shall not perish

· Provision of God’s love – “have everlasting life

I. Motivation –Love

II. Method – Son

III. Message – Believe (That whosoever…)

IV. Mission – Salvation (Should not perish…)

His love is:

I. Universal

II. Personal

III. Eternal

A

1