John 3:16

One of the best known verses in the Bible is John 3:16. We see it everywhere, people holding signs with John 3:16 on them in pictures, Tim Tebow has it written on his eyeblack, it is on bags and shirts and bumper stickers; it is the ultimate symbol for being a Christian. 

http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2012/03/john-316.html

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1870689,00.html

I wonder if anyone really thinks about what it means anymore. Let's take a look at the verse:

For God so Loved the World 

That He Gave His Only Son,

That Whoever Believes in Him Shall Not Perish

But Have Everlasting Life

Let's start with the background. God created a perfect world and then created man to have authority over it.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26

Man was only given one rule, that he may not eat from one tree. This was a test of obedience and love, but man failed.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:15-17

With this act of disobedience man gave the authority he had over the earth and all things in it to Satan. When people say, "why did God let this happen?" The answer is simple, we gave authority to Satan. We had free will and we chose to hand the dominion of the earth to Satan. God does not cause disasters or evil things to happen, but He does not interfere with our free will. God wants us to love and worship Him by choice, not because we are forced to which is why He does not interfere with the choices we make; good or bad. 

Then God chose Abraham to be the Father of a new people, a people dedicated to God. Abraham made a covenant with God. God would bless Abraham and he would be the father of many nations. As we see in the Bible, God keeps His promise to Abraham and his descendants become the Israelites. One of Abraham's descendants is Moses. Now to Moses God gives the ten commandments and lays out the system of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. Blood must be shed for sin to be forgiven. This is a precursor to Jesus sacrifice in the New Testament.

Up until the time of Jesus the Jewish people lived under the law. The law required sacrifice of animals at different times for forgiveness of sin. You can read about all the different sacrifice requirements in the book of Leviticus. If you are wondering why the Jews don't continue the system of animal sacrifice today it is because according to the Torah sacrifices were only allowed to be made in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Once the Antichrist comes to power, he will rebuild the Temple and the sacrifices will resume for a time. This will continue until the Antichrist comes into the Temple and declares himself God. 

Now we get to the verse. God loved all of us, not just the Jewish people. Very few gentiles would become Jews and follow the system of law. God needed a sacrifice that would be for all people and would do away with the system of law. God became a man and was born as the poorest of the poor. Jesus endured all that we as human beings endure during our lives. He was hungry, thirsty, cold, tired, alone; everything that you imagine a human would experience. During His lifetime, He focused on telling as many people as He could reach about God and His love for all people. He knew that He was sent to earth for one purpose, to die.  When He was crucified He took all the sins of everyone on himself as a one time sacrifice. He died so we could live! There is only one thing that we need to do, believe in Him and accept the gift that He died to give us, eternal life. 

There is more to this verse, everyone always stops at the one verse 3:16. I want to talk about more than that part of the verse. Here is the continuation:

¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:17-18

Now we see the reason that God sent Jesus into the world. Not to condemn the world, but to save it. Jesus is our only hope. We cannot get into heaven based on the good deeds that we do. If we are judged according to how "good" we are then we would be doomed. No one on their own can be good enough to get to heaven. All we need to do is accept the gift that Jesus is giving to us through grace. 

Whoever believes in Jesus and accepts this gift of life, their sins are washed away. The slate is wiped clean. The opposite side of this gift is the rejection of it...anyone that does not believe in Jesus is rejecting the gift of salvation that He died to give you. It does not matter how good you are, you have committed the unpardonable sin by rejecting Jesus. 

I pray that you reach out and take that FREE gift that Jesus wants to give you. It costs you nothing and it will change your life. God loves you so much that He sent His son to die so that you do not have to...why would you not take the gift He is offering to you....