"For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save
the world through him." John 3:16-17
Today’s
post is part of one I wrote a few years back. When studying this well-known verse I
noticed a pattern I has not seen before. It bears repeating.
The pattern we see in this verse is:
God loved.
God gave.
God sent.
God saved.
Our word today is an important word in the Bible,
and no more so than in the Gospel of John. John uses the word ‘believe’ 98
times in his gospel, that is more times than in the other gospels combined and
more than double its use in any other New Testament book.
At the end of the book John stated his purpose
for writing it this way:
"But
these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son
of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John
20:31
John's whole message in his book is about showing
us the proof that Jesus is the Son of God, that He was sent to the world by the
Father and that salvation comes through Him to those who believe in Him. But
why is belief in Jesus so important to John? Let's dig into the answer to this
question using our passages for today and the pattern I mentioned above.
Let's first look at what these passages tell us
about God. First we see God's heart, "For God so loved the
world...". Love is both God's motivation for His plan of
salvation and His demonstration of it. He loved, so He gave. He gave, and
in giving He showed His love. What did He give? A gift that was a great
sacrifice for Himself personally. He gave us His
Son, His one and only Son. He sent His Son into the
world so that we would no longer be condemned to perish, but would instead
be saved by His sacrifice. When we think of gifts this
Christmas, we need to remember the greatest gift ever given. The gift God so
graciously and lovingly provided through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus
Christ.
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:9-10
God's love led to His sacrifice. His gift brought us salvation. Our part is to believe the Son and receive God's gift.. Tomorrow we will look more at this gift.
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