God’s Love

For football enthusiasts, the debate continues: who is the GOAT (greatest of all time)? Is it Messi? Or Ronaldo? That question may never be settled; however, I’m reasonably sure that very few people would disagree when it comes to the Bible that John 3:16 is the GOAT of all Scriptures. This text is so common and popular that I believe every Christian and even many non-Christians can recite it off the top of their head. Give it a try if you are reading this article.

I believe John 3:16 is the heart of the Christian message. It is the most beautiful summary of what Christians believe. Martin Luther, the Magisterial Reformer, calls this verse “the gospel in miniature.” The core idea expressed in John 3:16 is God’s boundless love:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The Greatest Love

Love is arguably the most discussed topic in the entire world. It’s the theme of many songs and poems and engages a lot of discussions. Two complete strangers meet and unexpectedly fall in love; parents love their children; siblings express love toward one another and neighbours love each other. Human beings, indeed, have the capacity to love one another. Scripture commands it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:25-30).

However, every form of human love pales in comparison to God’s love. God’s love surpasses all human love, making it the greatest love of all. Human love is fleeting and conditional; God’s love is everlasting: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3). One of the strangest occurrences in a marriage takes place when two people who previously loved one another so much become the worst of enemies. Unfortunately, we hear of such stories quite often.

Isaiah 49:15 reminds us that even mothers can forget their babies. This is evident in stories we hear of abandoned infants found in places like forests or dump sites.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15).

Such is the fleeting nature of human love, yet God’s love for us is so great that he will never forget us.

The opening words of John 3:16 introduces us to what can be considered “The Definition of Love”: “For God so loved…” The love of God is a deep subject we cannot exhaust. It is vast. It has breadth, it has height, and it has depth. And it surpasses all knowledge (Ephesians 3:18-19). The apostle John describes love as the very essence of God. Love is God’s nature. “God is love” (1 John 4:16).

There is a common practice of discussing the subject of love under four Greek words: Agape, Philia, Eros and Storge. But the New Testament, in reality, only uses two of these words (Agape and Philia) to describe love. In its strictest sense, Agape describes God’s love, and Philia describes brotherly love—love shared among one another. Agape is God’s unconditional love. It is not earned, neither can it be bought. It is unconditional.

The Greatest Enemies

Now love must be expressed. We don’t only talk about it, but we show it. And love has an object. Often, we love people who love us back. It’s human nature to be nice to only those who are nice to us. But God’s love is unlike ours. The Bible teaches that God first loved us (1 John 4:19). In fact, the ones God loved are rebels who have trampled His law. His enemies (Romans 5:10).

If you have come to faith in Christ Jesus, I pray you appreciate the depth of the love of God that has been lavished on you. “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Our salvation was bought and purchased long before we were born. It has nothing to do with your deeds —good or bad (Romans 9:11). Notice how God’s love is captured in the past tense, “For God so loved the world”. This means God’s love was displayed long before we were born. There is nothing in us that merits God’s love. Yet he loved us all the same.

Notice that ‘the world’ is not here referring to the trees, vegetation or the natural environment. Though there is a sense in which God loves the natural world and will redeem it one day (Psalm 19:1), the world in view here is the inhabitants. It is sinful humanity. And this world is a world of darkness, evil and wickedness. Jesus put it this way:

“And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3:19-20).

This is a clear picture of the world. Sinners hate the light and love darkness, and they do wicked things.

In John 3:16, an analogy is drawn from verses 14-15 of this chapter. It recalls an incident in Numbers 21:4-9, where the Israelites rejected God. They murmured and complained. In judgement, God sent serpents among them. The snakes bit them, and some died.

The reality is that all human beings have rejected God and been bitten by sin. Who is without sin? Apart from Jesus, who lived a sinless life, the word of God knows no such person. In fact, real human experience tells us there is nobody in existence who has never sinned. All humans have rebelled against God. We were conceived in sin. We were born into sin. Sin is our very nature. We live our lives in sin. And this sin has affected our whole lives. In theology, this is called Total Depravity. It means our whole nature has been affected by sin due to the fall of Adam in Eden. (Romans 3:23).

The Greatest Sacrifice

Herein is the love of God displayed; it is shown to the “vilest offender”. What is your sin? Perhaps, you are among those who think their sin is so great it cannot be forgiven. No, God’s love is greater than any sin, no matter how grave. God’s love is the greatest because he loved the unlovable: Sinners, liars, fornicators, idolaters, complainers, the ungrateful and wicked, murderers, drug peddlers, thieves, the sexually immoral, hypocrites – think about all these and more. God showed his love to such.

How did he do it? He provided The Greatest Sacrifice in human history: “that he gave his only Son.” When the Bible says God gave his only Son, it conveys the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus for the sins of his people. The narrative of the Bible is one of a Holy God on a mission to rescue sinners. God gave his son to pay for our sins in order to bring reconciliation between God and humanity.

Love gives: therefore, God gave us a great sacrifice to pay for the sins of his greatest enemies, sinners. It is only by understanding God’s attitude towards our sins that we can truly comprehend the nature of our rebellion.: “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalm 7:11 KJV).

Love is not cheap talk. Love is expressed. God didn’t just talk about his love. His love moved him to act. Love is shown by what we do for one another and how we care for one another. Imagine someone saying they love you. But they don’t show it, and they don’t care about your well-being; they only keep talking about it. They show nothing to prove they love you. Would you believe they do?

The Greatest Promise

God, the Greatest Lover, showed his love by giving us his Greatest Sacrifice, Jesus Christ. In the love of God, there is forgiveness of sin and pardon from sin. There is reconciliation with God. In Jesus Christ, God has made to sinners The Greatest Promise. The promise of eternal life: “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” In Jesus Christ, God is merciful towards sinners. They are pardoned for their sins.

In his first advent, that is his first coming, he came to offer salvation to sinners. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Mark Johnston notes,

The primary purpose of Christ’s coming in the incarnation was to bring redemption to a fallen race. Though it is true that Jesus, at the end of the age, will be the Judge of all the world…yet the main purpose of his coming was to be the supreme expression of God’s saving grace…Here is the gospel in all its simplicity —the good news that there is forgiveness from God for all who put their faith in his Son. There is nothing a person can hear more precious than this.

Dear friends, God has given us his Son, Jesus, that whoever believes in him will not perish. “Whoever believes.” This is the free and universal offer of the gospel. This is the gospel offered far and wide. The door is open for people of all races, backgrounds, gender, ethnicity, colour etc. There is no Greek, no Jew, no Gentile, no male or female. No American, European, or African. The offer is open to all: Sinners are everywhere called to repentance.  

The Greatest Danger

When the Scripture says, “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”, it also means that whoever doesn’t believe will perish. If one doesn’t believe this Greatest promise, The Greatest Danger awaits them. They will perish. They will die in their sins and be condemned to eternal damnation.

In John 3:18 we are told that “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” If you don’t believe in God’s sacrifice for your sins, you are condemned already. I doubt anyone will reject a precious gift from someone who loves them. But that is what those who do not believe are doing – they are rejecting God’s love.

If you haven’t yet contemplated the depth of God’s love for his greatest enemies—a  love that was demonstrated through the greatest sacrifice in human history and is accompanied by the greatest promise ever made—then I implore you to do so. Failing to recognize the magnitude of God’s love could lead to the greatest danger of all: the risk of eternal damnation. Take a moment to reflect on the sacrifice that God made on our behalf and allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the immense love that he has for all of us, even when we were his enemies.

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