God’s Love

John 3:16a “For God so loved the world.”

Pastor-teacher Dr. John MacArthur states that John 3:16 may or may not be the most familiar verse in all of Scripture, but it is surely one of the most abused  and least understood. The verse is so well known that the reference alone is thought by many to be a sufficient proclamation of the gospel, which extract the above portion of text and use it as an argument for universal atonement. More extreme Universalists claim it proves that God loves everyone exactly the same, and that all will be saved; as if the verse negated all the biblical warnings of condemnation for the wicked. The immediate context of John 3:18 gives the necessary balance: “Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God”. Surely, that is the truth that needs to be proclaimed to our generation with at least as much passion and urgency as the message of God’s love and mercy.

MacArthur points out that John 3:16 does not focus on the extent of the atonement; the verse is a statement about the magnitude of God’s love. Here is a profound wonder: God loved “the (God-rejecting) world” – this wicked realm of fallen humanity – so much that He sacrificed His only begotten Son to pay the price of redemption for all who believe in Him. John writes on this central point in 1 John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God.” The Apostle Paul by this same truth in Romans 5:8 “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

Romans 3:22-24 “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

No matter how wonderful the world may appear, it is not worthy of God’s redeeming love. Why would He choose to love finite, fallen human beings at the cost of His own Son’s life? It is not a wonder that God doesn’t save everyone; it is a wonder that He saves anyone at all. Why didn’t God just write us all off as wretched sinners, make us the object of His righteous wrath, and display His glory in just judgment against us? Rev. John Tweeddale asserts that understanding how undeserving the world (Greek – kosmos) is of God’s love is the key to John 3:16. Only then will we appreciate the unexpected gift that God gives. The term “world” in John 3:16 is not so much on the identity of God’s people but on the nature of God’s love. A solid case can be made for believing that “World” refers to the quality of God’s love. Benjamin Warfield convincingly states: “World is not here a term of extension so much as a term of intensity. Its primary connotation is ethical, and the point of its employment is not to suggest that the world is so big that it takes a great deal of love to embrace it all, but that the world is so bad that it takes a great kind of love to love it at all, and much more to love it as God has loved it when he gave his Son for it.”

1 John 4:8b “God is love.”

The world represents sinful humanity and is not worthy of God’s saving love. Apart from the love of God, the world stands under God’s condemnation. The reasons for His love are to be found in God alone, not in those whom He loves. This is a tremendously humbling truth: God’s love is graciously, freely bestowed, not merited by anything we can do. In Christ, believers experience God’s surprising, redeeming, and never-ending love. There is no occasion for human pride in the doctrine of God’s love – only sober-minded humility, deep gratitude, and the quiet reverence of a faithful heart. John 3:16 is about the greatness of God and God’s love.

Blessings