John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
I enjoy and learn so much from the writing of great Christian ministers of the past. One,
an American ordained Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister - Pastor J. Vernon McGee, in 1967, began broadcasting the Thru the Bible Radio Network program. In a systematic study of each book of the Bible, McGee took his listeners from Genesis to Revelation in a two-and-a-half-year "Bible bus tour," as he called it. After retiring from the pastorate in January, 1970, and realizing that two and a half years was not enough time to teach the whole Bible, McGee completed another study of the entire Bible in a five-year period. At the time of McGee's death, the Thru the Bible program aired in 34 languages, but has since been translated into over 100 languages. Though he passed away in December of 1988, it is broadcast on Trans World Radio throughout the world every weekday. BY visiting the ministry”s website at www, ttb.org, anyone can receive broadcast information and request a monthly newsletter.
In this month’s newsletter article by Dr. McGee from his booklet titled: “God So Loved”, he writes: The words of John 3:16 – arguably the most well-known verse in the Bible – are simple. In fact, most of the words you read in the Gospel of John are so simple that a child can read them. But, they are also so profound that I wonder if any one of us really know their full meaning.
In the original language, John 3:16 reads: “loved God the world”. Greek sentence structure places the important part of the sentence first – the love of God. Jesus communicated this simple, profound truth in a conversation with a Jewish church leader named Nicodemus. But often missed are the two verses that come before John 3:16, and they help us to more fully understand. Let’s go back and read them.
In John 3:14-15, Jesus stated, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The Lord Jesus calls Nicodemus’ attention to something he was very familiar with – an event in the Old Testament Scriptures during Israel’s 40-years in the wilderness. Numbers 21:9 says, “So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” Jesus said that Moses lifted up the bronze serpent, “even so must the Son of Man be lifted up”. The word “must” corresponds to the “must” our Lord said earlier to Nicodemus in John 3:3-7, Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Since Nicodemus must be born again, then the Son of Man must be lifted up. The necessity of being “born again” makes imperative the lifting up of Christ on the Cross. It is a divine compulsion.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God [that is, His remarkable, overwhelming gift of grace to repenting believers] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
With this picture, our Lord threw open the doors of Heaven for Nicodemus (and for us), and we see the King of Glory – not enthroned and crowned, but on the Cross. Christ reveals His death on the Cross to Nicodemus three years before He died. Clearly and definitively, this is why He came; He came to die for our sins. Why? We owed a sin debt that we could not pay, so Jesus Christ paid a debt on the Cross that He did not owe, so that we could be forgiven and freed. Why did He die? Because God loves you and me. I am a sinner, but I am going to Heaven someday because of this one truth: I repent of my sin, Christ died for me and I trust Him.
These are days in which a great many people are called to go through dark nights and deep waters of trouble. When you face problems and face them alone, you need to know that God loves you. Whoever you are, wherever you are, God loves you, and His love is revealed in Christ on the Cross. And my friend, you will find it only there; nowhere else. The Bible makes it crystal clear: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Will you believe?
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