For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life John 3:16
The love story
““For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NLT
1. The origin of this love
⁃ It is God Himself “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8 NLT
⁃ It started from God
“This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.”
1 John 4:10 TPT
2. The demonstration of this love
John 3:16
⁃ God prized us dearly, placed great prize on us that nothing else could match it except the blood of His son “That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.”Isaiah 43:4 MSG, no one in heaven or on earth or the underworld was worthy to demonstrate this love Rev 5:
⁃ God gave
⁃ God gave the best He had
This best is personified in Christ
“But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly!”
Romans 5:8 TPT
Love is not by mouth but by deed. It is demonstrated
Jesus the greatest gift reiterated the demonstration of love
“For the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all. And this great love is demonstrated when a person sacrifices his life for his friends.”
John 15:13 TPT
You cannot claim to love without demonstrating it.
This love came from God
This is against many people’s opinion of God as judgemental and incapable of love.
We see Him as the God of discipline and judgements in the Old Testament but all through His discipline we see love
Discipline is proof of love though our bodies might not want to accommodate it
“My son, do not despise or shrink from the chastening of the Lord [His correction by punishment or by subjection to suffering or trial]; neither be weary of or impatient about or loathe or abhor His reproof, [Ps. 94:12; Heb. 12:5, 6; Rev. 3:19.] For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
Proverbs 3:11-12 AMPC
But we see the world today which view discipline as hatred or inconsequential at most.
A parent who loves their child so much that when he misbehaves, they just look the other way but do not correct or reprove him, is breeding a child that will bring shame to them and should be ready to face the consequence
“To discipline a child produces wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child.”
Proverbs 29:15 NLT
“Wise discipline imparts wisdom; spoiled adolescents embarrass their parents.”
Proverbs 29:15 MSG
3. What must you do with this love?
This love must be reciprocated
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”
Romans 10:9-10 NLT
How to reciprocate
⁃ by accepting it for God’s love will not work for anyone who refuses Jesus
⁃ Believing in the Son He gave, not looking for an alternative
“But we receive the faith-righteousness that speaks an entirely different message: “Don’t for a moment think you need to climb into the heavens to find the Messiah and bring him down,”
Romans 10:6 TPT
⁃ Trust in the gift that He will do what He says He will do
⁃ Continue in this love
“I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves me. You must continually let my love nourish your hearts.”
John 15:9 TPT
This love is available to all but its benefits are not accessible to all
It’s only for those who accept the gift expressed in this love.
4. Benefit of this love
⁃ eternal life with the father “And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”
John 17:3 NLT
⁃ Closes the gate of damnation permanently as long as you cling to the son “So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One.”
Romans 8:1 TPT
⁃ No judgement
“I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life.”
John 5:24 AMPC
God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16-17 NLT
“For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.”
John 3:17 AMPC
“He who believes in Him [who clings to, trusts in, relies on Him] is not judged [he who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation–he incurs no damnation]; but he who does not believe (cleave to, rely on, trust in Him) is judged already [he has already been convicted and has already received his sentence] because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ's name.]”
John 3:18 AMPC
“This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.”
1 John 4:10 TPT
The climax and the finishing line of God’s great love for us come with the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There’s no more propitiation for sin, no more sacrifice for sin anywhere
“Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us.”
Hebrews 10:26-29 NLT
We must check ourselves now
“Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as [committed] believers. Examine yourselves [not me]! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves [by an ongoing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit?”
2 Corinthians 13:5 AMP
Questions to ask yourself
How am I dispensing this love to people around me
Can I prove that Christ lives in me through the love I show to others
Am I living like someone Jesus died and resurrected for
Am I following Him as I ought to?
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