Now do not misunderstand me: the love of God is real, and it is deep, and it is wide. But hear me carefully, because there is a popular message today that is wonderful-sounding and false: “God loves you, so everything is already right between you and Him.” That is not the gospel, child of God. The love of God is the reason salvation was provided: it is not the means by which you receive it.
Look at the most famous verse in the Bible, and look at it carefully:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, KJV)
See the order? Love gave. But who has the life? “Whosoever believeth.” Love gave the Son; faith in the Son receives Him. God “commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), but that same Book says, “he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). Both are true. Love gave; believing receives.
The setting: the Lord Jesus speaks to Nicodemus
John 3:16 was not spoken to a crowd that needed cheering up. The Lord Jesus spoke it at night to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews (John 3:1–2). This was a religious man, “a master of Israel” (John 3:10), and Jesus Christ told him plainly, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). A good reputation and a love for God’s law had not made Nicodemus right with God.
Then the Lord Jesus reached back to a story Nicodemus knew well. In the wilderness, fiery serpents bit the people, and many died. God told Moses to set a serpent of brass upon a pole, and “if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:9). God’s mercy provided the remedy for every dying Israelite. Yet only the one who looked lived.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14–15, KJV)
That is the setting of John 3:16. God’s love lifted up the remedy at Calvary. Looking to Jesus Christ in faith is how a dying sinner receives it.
The words John chose
The word “so” in “God so loved” speaks of the manner of His love, not only its size. God loved the world in this way: He gave His only begotten Son. The verb “believeth” describes a living trust that rests on Jesus Christ, not a passing opinion about Him. And “perish” is the word for being lost and ruined. The verse sets two destinies side by side, and the dividing line is believing on the Son.
A love that is holy and just
The love of God never sets aside the justice of God. Sin still deserves judgment, and a holy God cannot simply look away from it. At the cross, God’s love and God’s justice met in one Person. Paul says God set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood:
“To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26, KJV)
John says the same thing: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). The love of God did not ignore your sin. It paid for your sin in the blood of the Lord Jesus.
Three truths in the text
- The love of God is the source. Salvation began in the heart of God, not in the effort of man (Romans 5:8).
- The Son is the gift, and His blood is the price. God gave His only begotten Son, and we are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19).
- Believing on Jesus Christ is the empty hand that receives. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
The whole Bible agrees
Paul joins the same truths together in Ephesians. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” (Ephesians 2:4–5). Love moved God to act, and grace saved the sinner. A few verses later he says how that grace is received: “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).
Titus says it the same way. “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:4–5). Love appeared in Jesus Christ. Mercy saved. Works were shut out.
What God’s love actually calls you to
And God’s love does not leave you where you are, patting your sin on the head. Paul asks, do you not know “that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). His love calls you to turn and trust, not to relax in your sin. There is only one door: “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). So I am not saved merely because I am loved: I am saved because the God who loved me gave His Son, and I received Jesus Christ by faith in Him. Love gave. Believing receives. Come to Christ. Glory to God.
Related Teaching
The Gospel, Stated Plainly
Everything I teach on this site rests on one message from Scripture. Read it in God’s own words from 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 1:16, and Ephesians 2:8-9.
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
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