He Gave His Son

So far we have covered the conditional sentence opening John 3:16. For (or since) God loved the world. We have the motivation, but we have not yet arrived at the action.

Tonight we will look at the action that God initiated because He loved the world. And that action is giving.

The Greek Word ἔδωκεν

The word John used in this verse is the word ἔδωκεν, which is derived from the word δίδωμι. δίδωμι simply means to give or to grant something. It is a fairly common word in Greek, one of the first vocabulary words you learn in first semester Greek.

By necessity we must study not just this word, but the words connected to it. We must have a subject, which is actually built into the Greek verb. So from this one word we actually have two English words: Third person (he, she, or it) gave. Now we know that the person giving is God since we just read that it was His love that motivated the giving. But we cannot understand completely without our next phrase - His Only Begotten Son.

We will look more in detail at that coded phrase in our next session, but at least now we know what, or should I say whom, God is giving.

A Demonstration of God’s Love

The opening phrase is traditionally translated as "God so loved the world that…" and is typically understood to mean, "God loved the world so much that…" There is nothing incorrect about that idea, but the actual phrase means "God loved the world in this way," with emphasis on what God did, more than why.

Paul uses this same kind of language in Romans 5.

Romans 5:8 NKJV

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Paul provides a theological treatise here on what it truly means when John/Jesus says that God sent His Son. For the Father send His Son with a great purpose. What is that purpose? Let’s examine the first half of Romans 5.

Romans 5:1–5 CSB

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Righteous Declaration

Right in the first verse we find the purpose for which God sent Jesus - to justify us by our faith in Him. Justification is Christ’s purpose. Now I realize that there is more to Christ’s incarnation than simply justification, but this is the main purpose.

What does justification mean? Justification is the doctrine concerning how believers are declared to be in right standing with God through their faith in Jesus Christ. We are justified by faith assuming our faith is in Christ Jesus.

Peace with God

Justification means that we have peace with God. Through Christ, we are no longer in rebellion against God. We are no longer considered enemies of God, but enter into a peace treaty with God. Justification takes away the guilt of sin, and so makes way for peace.

When my kids get together with their friends, it is always a time fraught with a delicate balance. Sometimes they will be playing just fine, but then suddenly one of them are sitting there by the adults. “What’s wrong?” one parent will ask. The reply being that the friend had done something and now the kids were mad at each other. Usually after a brief discussion, we send that kid back to the friend. They spend the rest of the evening playing happily together. It’s interesting that peace can come nigh instantly.

But this perfectly illustrates the idea of God and man. Man has sinned against God, placing great enmity between the two. But at the moment one believes in Christ and calls upon His name, justification takes place. Peace between God and that person is restored and there is instantly a friendship with God. We are in a covenant friendship with Him, just as Abraham was a friend of God and Christ called His disciples friends. God sent Christ to establish the peace.

Access by Faith

Because we have peace with God, we are allowed access to Him. Before justification, we stood in Adam and under condemnation, but now in Christ we have perfect standing before God. This allows us access to the Father. We can boldly enter His sanctuary, as the writer of Hebrews says, by the blood of Jesus. We enter through the curtain of His flesh, boldly approaching His throne.

Rejoice in Hope

Ephesians 2:11–12 CSB

11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.

This describes all of us. We were once without a relationship with God. We were therefore without hope. But now we have hope. This hope is not in our good works (Eph. 2:8-9), but in the salvation of Christ and the peace with God accomplished through him.

This hope produces within us a daily confidence despite the conditions of the day. The Christian has a hope for the future. This sustains us through all the difficult times. But we not only find hope in the future, but in our own pasts as well. As we reflect on the ways God has provided for us, we have confidence in whatever our current trial. We do not glory over these trials, but in trials.

The Holy Spirit

In His act of justifying us, Christ has granted to us the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit is given to each believer. The Spirit points us back to the loving action of the Father evidenced through His giving of the Son. He reminds us that God poured out His love to us.

Paul uses this marvelous illustration of God’s love pouring out or streaming upon us. The stream is sweet, but if you trace the sweet streams of justification back to their source, we find it to be the death of Christ. It is through the streams of Christ’s blood that all of these privileges come to us.

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Romans 5:6–11 CSB

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

Righteous Reconciliation

The apostle describes the fountain and foundation of justification, which is found in the death of Christ Jesus. It is by Christ’s death that we are reconciled to God.

Paul turns to support his claims of 1-5 by appealing to what God did on our behalf to make this possible.

An Improbable Sacrifice

What God did makes little sense. No one in their right mind would die for someone who deserved to die. So Paul puts forth a situation that is more probable to take place. Would some die for a person who is good or righteous? But that is not likely either. While we do read some stories about people sacrificing themselves to save others, it is really not a common occurrence.

Now what about if someone had punched a man in the face. The man had committed an offense against him. Would he likely die for that person? No, not at all. It would be crazy for someone to do something like that. But that is exactly what Christ did for us.

We committed the greatest criminal act that exists when we sinned against God. Think about all that Christ experienced. He was beaten, scourged, cursed by men. He was mocked with a crown of thorns and a robe. He was spit upon. He was stripped naked and soldiers gambled for His clothes. He was forced to carry His own instrument of torture before being nailed to it. Even then, Christ could have refused to continue, but instead He took it all. And He still died for those men. He died for us.

God proves His love for us in that while we were enemies against Him, Christ died for us. We are identified with those men who beat, mocked, and killed the Lord. James says that if you have broken the Law in any area, you are guilty of it all. Yet because of His great love, Christ died for us. God the Father gave His Son to us.

We didn’t deserve such a gift, and we didn’t—and won’t ever—earn it. “Amazing” can’t begin to capture what He did. But Paul continues. His description of the penalty Jesus paid for us serves as background for an even more stunning idea. If Christ’s death accomplished all of this, how much more is possible, considering He rose from the dead and lives on?

Agent of Change

We tend to focus on the death of Christ more than on His life. His death was only the beginning.

I have sung a song here before called the end of the beginning. it is a song by David Phelps, but listen to the chorus.

He was born of a virgin one holy night In the little town of Bethlehem. Angels gathered round him underneath the stars Singing praises to the great I Am. He walked on the water, healed the lame and made the blind to see again. And for the first time here on earth we learned that God could be a friend. And though he never ever did a single thing wrong The angry crowd chose him. And then he walked down the road And died on the cross and that was the end of the beginning.

Paul began his letter to the Romans by reminding them that all humanity faces God’s wrath. But then He made a way for us to be reconciled with Him through the death of His Son, but what does that love hold for us now that we have been declared righteous?

This is the turning point of the book of Romans. Since we have been justified by Christ, what does the mean for us practically?

Paul will spend much of the rest of the book of Romans examining this thought in detail, but drop down to look with me at

Romans 6:4–14 CSB

4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

Righteous Sanctification

Christ died to justify us or as I said this morning, to redeem us. But Christ did not stay dead! Three days later, He rose. And this demonstrates to us a second purpose for which God sent Him. He doesn’t just justify us, but sanctifies us.

Dead to Sin

If we identify with Christ in His death, then we also identify with Christ in His life. But we forget how bad sin is and we try to go back to it. Our mortal bodies are inclined to continue to do what we have always done - sin. The only hope we have of living in freedom from sin is to die to it. Since we aren’t going to physically die (at least not yet), identifying ourselves with Jesus’ death and resurrection is the key to overcoming the power of sin in our present, fallen state.

Remember that death is a consequence of sin. Adam and Eve did not have to worry about death before their sin. It is not because we have physical bodies that we die. In fact, the bodies that we have will be glorified at the end of days. We will still be physical beings. We aren’t just going to be physical bodies floating around in heaven forever. We will have physical bodies, just ones without sin and its effects. I will be preaching over this topic the next few Sunday mornings leading up to Easter, so I won’t spend much time on it tonight. The point is that death is a consequence of sin, not of physicality.

When something is alive, it has the power and ability to do whatever it was created to do. When something is dead, it loses any power or capability. Paul here is saying that in baptism we identify with the death of Christ. We illustrate a death to sin. Yet we also see a resurrection, a new life of righteousness. If we have died to sin, how can we live in it anymore?

Christ’s resurrection has a sanctifying force within it. The resurrection is transformational.

Yet human power cannot keep this force moving. It requires spiritual power. We often think of sanctification as primarily a role of the Spirit. He empowers us to continue in sanctification initiated by our identification with the risen Lord. He points us back to Christ and His life as demonstrated in the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is a guide to the life of Christ Jesus. He is the sanctifying example for us to follow, empowered by the Spirit.

Instruments for Righteousness

Notice what Paul says here. Do not allow sin to reign in your mortal bodies. Paul doesn’t say that sin will no longer reign in our bodies. It does reign without any hope except for the power of God. Even as redeemed and justified believers, we must contend with the presence of sin. But one day our bodies will be renewed, made immortal and incorruptible. Only then will sin be truly dead. Until then, we strive against sin.

Billy Graham popularized the legend of the Two Wolves or Dogs, which has been quoted far and wide by this point, even though he had admitted to making the story up.

Anyway, it goes like this:

AN ESKIMO FISHERMAN came to town every Saturday afternoon. He always brought his two dogs with him. One was white and the other was black. He had taught them to fight on command. Every Saturday afternoon in the town square the people would gather and these two dogs would fight and the fisherman would take bets. On one Saturday the black dog would win; another Saturday, the white dog would win – but the fisherman always won! His friends began to ask him how he did it. He said, “I starve one and feed the other. The one I feed always wins because he is stronger.”

As we await our immortal bodies, God’s Spirit empowers us to live free from the bondage of sin. Sin still dwells in us, but we have a choice of which nature we will feed. If we go back to obeying sin’s desires, it means we allow it to reign in our bodies. The old desires will still be present, but we are no longer enslaved to them.

Paul says to stop feeding the dog of sin. Feed the dog of righteousness by offering yourself to God. Let him use you as His instrument, or as a weapon of righteousness. You are either one or the other - a tool for righteousness or a tool for sin. But sin no longer has power over you because of Christ.

God Sent His Son

What does it mean that God sent His Son? God sent His Son to us to justify us by His death, but also to sanctify us by His life. He did this so that none should perish, but have everlasting life.

Next time we will be looking at what exactly is meant by His Only Begotten Son, as phrase which has sparked much debate and many heresies across history.