For God so Loved the World | The Power of God’s Love (John 3:16-18)

Topic: For God so Loved the World | The Power of God’s Love

Reading: John 3:16-18

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Introduction and Overview

The power of the promises contained in John 3:16 have been a source of strength for many throughout the generations. The promise of God in the words “For God so loved the world,” showing why He sent His Son to redeem man from sin, should bring us to our knees. And it does because we see the love, the suffering, the sacrifice, the grace of God and the power of salvation in Jesus Christ, wrapped up in a mere handful of words.

For God so loved the world is more than a promise. It is a truth that will stand and has stood the test of time. So many people have come to Christ on the strength of these few words and understood God’s love and grace. His love is so powerful for mankind that He was willing to offer the greatest sacrifice any could offer so that we would not be damned to eternal destruction.

For God so loved the world is only the start of the promises contained in these few verses. When we see that the promises extend to remove sin, remove condemnation, and to offer salvation to those who have faith, we begin to glimpse God’s love and power. And when we consider who it is He is doing this for, you and I, it becomes very personal. So, let us explore the message contained in John 3:16, as well as the power that is explained in the verses following that lead us to the light.

Key points from reading:

• God loves His people and offers them salvation, even sacrificing His only begotten Son so that we may receive it.
• Jesus came to save the world not to condemn it, and in Him there is no condemnation.
• Jesus brought the light of truth into the world, but many rejected the truth and chose evil instead. But those who seek Jesus and the light will be saved.

Discussion:

1. Scripture: John 3:16 – For God so Loved the World
   • This is possibly the most well known verse in the Bible. In most years, it is the most searched scripture on the web. And for good reason. It holds the promises of God to mankind for salvation through grace, and by faith. It fills us with hope that we are not abandoned to a life of sin, desperation and hopelessness. There are so many aspects to this one verse it is too much to cover in just this one post.
   • If we look at the verse and break down all of it’s components we begin to gain an insight and understanding of the love and power of God. Look at the first words. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” In these words we gain an insight into God Himself. The Almighty and the Great architect of the whole Creation loves us. You and me. God loves us. The first part of the verse looks at the creation in high level overview because God loves “the world,” the next part tells us how much He loved the world. And not the world in the abstract, but the people of the world specifically because it was to you and I that God’s love and grace are offered.
   • The verse continues by saying, “…that he gave his only Son.” As a parent and grandparent, I could not imagine giving and freely offering any of my children up for the sake of others. It is simply too hard to contemplate. And yet God offered up His only begotten Son to be the perfect sacrifice that allows you and I to be set free from sin and to be restored and reconciled to God, so that we can come into His presence. Jesus was offered in death, so that we could live with Him into eternity.
   • The next section of this verse brings it right down to a personal level. “…that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is where it becomes personal. It is one thing to say, “For God so loved the world…” But that is not personal. Here in the second half of this verse it is talking specifically to you and I. You and I are the “whoever” this verse is referring to. It is you and I who are those that will be saved and to whom the promise of eternal life is offered. It is we who will not perish because we believed and had faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. And it is we who will inherit eternal life through faith and the grace of God who has given us this opportunity. That is personal. And it continues on in the next verse.
2. Scripture: John 3:17 – God sent the Son into the World
   • John 3:16 tells us “For God so loved the world…” and it tells us “what” God was doing. He loved the world and He wanted to restore it to the perfect state it was in when He created it.
   • But here in this next verse we see “how” He is doing this John 3:17 tells us how God set up the process and mechanisms of salvation for those who choose to believe. It also explains further the benefits of this faith in Jesus that we receive. All of mankind lives under the fear of death. The scripture tells us this much in the following verse:
     
     14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
     
     Every person begins life in fear of death and that the ultimate fact about life, is that it ends. Death is an unknown to most people. And all people know that death is a certainty. There is no escaping it, and even science with all of it’s advances in medicine and cryogenic freezing has not been able to solve the problem of death. And they never will because death is a spiritual thing, not a physical thing. Science cannot explain, and even refuses to look at the things of the Spirit. They are focused only on what can be seen and measured, and the Spirit is outside of the realm of the physical. Death is the separation of the spirit of man from the physical body. It is not like a disease that can be healed, or a limb that can be repaired. When the spirit leaves the body, it leaves it as an empty shell and no man can restore the spirit to the body.
   • But now we see in John 3:17 that God so loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, not to condemn the world, but to save it. God sent the Son to release us from the condemnation of death. We are all condemned to die because of sin. It is sin that causes mankind to die because all have sinned. The death of the flesh and the separation of the spirit from our physical body is because of sin. But here we see that God is taking away the condemnation of death from us through the offering of Jesus Christ, who died in our place. His offering of death for us takes away the condemnation that all mankind stands in. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world. He came to save the world. From sin, from death, and from all forms of condemnation. Jesus came that we might be saved and have the opportunity of life eternal.
3. Scripture: John 3:18 – Faith takes away condemnation
   • As we continue on into the next verse we find it drills down even further. We are shown that the key to this salvation is faith. For God so loved the world…is the reason He offered us salvation. But here we see that if we truly want the salvation that is offered, and if we truly want to live into eternity, then we need faith. When we believe in God and what He has done, then we are saved. We are not condemned to eternal damnation, but are saved to eternal life in and with Jesus Christ. There is a new heaven and a new earth awaiting those who have faith.
   • And it is not a hard thing to receive this salvation. God established this salvation on the grounds of faith because every person on earth believes and has the capacity to believe. Everyone has faith in something. Even atheists have faith, albeit a misplaced faith. They claim to not believe in God and that there is no God. But they don’t know that for a certainty, and so they have to accept it on faith. They choose to reject the fact that the Creation is so complex and so well-balanced that it could not have logically occurred through random chance. Never has order been established out of chaos without an external intervention to bring order. And yet that is what they would have us believe.
   • But God in His grace has provided the means for us to escape death through faith. And the type of faith we are asked to accept, the thing we are to believe is not a hard thing. It is deliberately easy so that all can come to life in Christ Jesus. The mechanism of this faith is defined in the scripture, telling us what we are to believe to be saved.
     
     “…if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
     
     That’s all there is to this faith for salvation. Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, and believe that God raised Him from the dead. This is all that is required for salvation. Everything else after that is about how to live our lives in Christ and how to please God. But those who believe and call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Why? Because God so loved the world. God wants His Creation to be with Him. He wants us to WANT to be with Him, but He will not force anyone to do so. That is why He has given us a free will to decide our own path, whether it is the path to life without condemnation, or to be condemned to death because we refused to believe in the one who could save us. To everyone who reads this I say, choose wisely.

Prayer Points:

• Pray for a deeper understanding of what the scripture means when it says, “For God so loved the world.” Pray for the salvation that comes to you because God loved you enough to give you the opportunity to be saved, but also loved you enough not to force you to choose.
• Pray that everyone will choose God’s way; that they will exercise the free will God gave each and every one of us to choose Him.
• Pray for a deeper understanding of what it means to be freed from condemnation. And remember the first verse of Romans chapter eight that says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) Understand that you are not condemned when you have faith in Christ because He came to save, not to condemn.