Most people are familiar with John 3:16. It’s a very familiar passage
of Scripture, part of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus about the new
birth. John 3:16 is a
blessed verse. A glorious sentence spoken by our gracious Saviour. John 3:16 shows the Father’s great
love, God’s perfect salvation, and the triumph of his eternal plan. There are three things I want you to think
about in this verse in showing how Christ perfectly saves according to the will
of the Father. God loves, God gave, and God saves.
GOD LOVED - For God so loved the
world
When we think about God’s love here, we
see the Father Truly Loved and the Father Intended to Save.
The very first thing we see when we
read John 3:16 is it’s talking about the love of God the Father. It’s common for people to get confused
about the Trinitarian love of God. Some see the Father as stern. He is strict
and uncaring, and it’s the Son who loves us, because he died for us. It may be
from misunderstanding God’s anger at sin, or confusion about the eternal
covenant. Perhaps a misinterpretation of God in the Old Testament. But if you think about it, saying the
Father is stern, and Jesus is loving would, in essence, say God the Father
really doesn’t love us, but hates us and Christ has changed the Father's mind.
And now the Father merely tolerates us only because Jesus died for us. God the Father is the God of judgments
appeased by the New Testament God of love. But, for this to be true, it would mean
the will of the Father and the will of the Son are competing and opposed to one
another. The Father and his heart would be against the Son, and the Son would
need to overcome and defeat the will of the Father.
Nothing can be further from the truth. The
Lord Jesus tells us salvation begins in eternity with the Father.
We could rephrase John 3:16 by saying, “For
the Father so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” The Father
gave his son. This verse tells us it was the Father who so loved the world. Salvation displays the love of God, one
of his excellencies and eternal perfections. God IS love. Love is a motivating factor in our
salvation. The Father so loved the world, that he gave his son. Not the
physical world, or else there wouldn’t be a New Heaven and New Earth. Not all
of mankind, or else all of mankind would be saved. The Father freely chose in
eternity past, to set his love upon Hell-deserving wretches because he loved,
because he is gracious, because he is merciful. His love was not determined by
the actions of man, or our love or our choice. The great love of God is not payment
for good things we have done.
Not only does the Father love, but it’s
the pinnacle of all love.
When Jesus calls us to love our enemies
in the sermon on the mount, he says we need to love as the Father loved HIS
enemies.
(44) But I say
unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
(45) That ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven:
The low-down, tax collecting Publicans,
everyone’s favorite whipping boys…THEY loved people who loved them. So what is
noble, good, and honorable about that? It's not gracious that the publicans
loved those who loved them. Their love is different from the Father's
love, who LOVED HIS ENEMIES. We love God because "He first loved us".
If the Father only loves and saves because of what we do for him, what
difference is there between that love and the publicans?
No, the Father, in Eternity loved
sinners and chose them for his own, and in His wisdom, ordained a plan to save
us, and adopt us in his family, making us sons of God. No wonder John wrote in 1
John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God
The Father Intended to Save
The next thing we see is that this love
isn’t a generic, undefined love, but love with a desired end and purpose in
mind. It started in eternity past, demonstrated in time, and has a purpose
through the endless ages of eternity future.
Jesus said, “For God so LOVED”. Loved
is past tense. It points to his intention and motivation for sending the Son. Logically
speaking, Love came before the sending, and the sending had a stated purpose.
The Father had a reason for sending the Son.
President Dwight Eisenhower had a new
speech writer come in the Oval Office, and he looked over a draft of a speech
and asked the writer, "What's the QED?
The speechwriter looked at him funny,
and Eisenhower said, "The QED - quod
erat demonstrandum - What's the bottom line? What's the point?
QED is an acronym for that Latin
phrase, and you use it when you demonstrate something has been proven or shown.
Eisenhower wanted every speech to have
a message or a meaning. He didn’t want to just speak nice things, but he wanted
to go into a speech with a plan and purpose – a message. Delivering the speech
was carrying out his plan.
Most preachers I know anyway, have a
plan when they get behind the pulpit. The sermon is carrying out the plan.
God had a plan. He had a purpose in
salvation. There was a point to all this. What was it?
It was the Father’s aim, or His will,
or His intent to save a people of His own choosing. God didn’t have to love us.
God didn’t have to save us. God didn’t even need to create us. You are only
sitting there, because God wanted it. This big, wide world you live it...It’s
here because it pleased God to make it, not because he had to.
God chose to create us. God chose to
love us. God ordained to save us. That was the plan.
John 6:35-40. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me
shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I
said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39 And this is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing
but should raise it up again at the last day.
What was the Father’s will? What was
the Father’s intention?
40 And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him,
may have everlasting life: and
I will raise him up at the last day.
Which parallels John 3:16
“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 isn’t the great Arminian
Calvinist killer so think it is.
It was the Father’s will that all those
he loved and gave to Christ would come to him and be saved. The Father chose a
particular people and then gave those particular people to Jesus. The Father's will was
not opposed to the Son's will, but in perfect, Trinitarian Unity, the persons
of the Trinity are unified in will. The Godhead is unified in perfect
fellowship. Perfect love. Perfect Unity.
It was the Father’s purpose for the Son to redeem the people He chose
in ETERNITY PAST. The sacrifice Christ made on the cross was made for the
Father’s elect. The Son was sent so that we might “have everlasting life”
That’s eternity FUTURE.
Ephesians 1:9-14 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the
dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In
whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to
the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in
Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with
that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
God revealed this mystery of redemption
to us. God ordained and predestinated us according to his purpose. Just as John
3 teaches us about the New Birth, Ephesians 1 teaches us that at the New Birth,
the Spirit quickens us to life, and we
are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the promise of eternal life in the
eternal covenant of redemption. The Spirit is our earnest until the redemption
of the purchased possession, or until we have our glorified bodies.
Look in chapter 2, verse 4, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us,5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:7 That in
the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
The purpose, the aim, the Father’s will
was to save to the uttermost, all the way to the end. To raise us up together.
That we would sit in heavenly places. That we would forever be in Christ. His
will that was in the ages to come, he would display his LOVE and grace and his
kindness toward us in Jesus Christ.
A covenant of the Godhead in eternity
past, ordaining salvation for us today "through the blood of the everlasting
covenant", for all of eternity future.
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ didn’t
“win” the Father’s love. Jesus didn’t, in other words, change the Father’s mind
about us through his death, burial, and resurrection. The Bible tells us that
the atonement is the essential way God the Father achieves his loving purpose
in salvation. The atonement flows from
the love of God, which comes before the incarnation of Christ. This love comes
before even the creation of the world. Eternally, and by His own good pleasure,
God chose to love his people.
“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 displays God’s great love,
his perfect salvation, and the triumph of his eternal plan.
Now, with that in mind, let’s think
about our second point.
GOD GAVE - For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son,
In this most famous of all verses, we
find that after the Father loved and because he loved, he gave. When I was
thinking about this, I had 3 questions.
What did he give?
How did He give?
Why did He give?
What did he give?
The Father gave His only begotten and
dearly beloved son.
We have salvation because we are
“Accepted in the beloved" and that beloved one is the Son.
The Godhead enjoyed perfect unity and
perfection in eternity. And God giving of His only begotten Son also shows the
love God has for us. He gave HIS SON.
We flinch a bit reading about Abraham
when God commanded him to offer his son as a sacrifice. Waking up one morning
and taking Isaac on a little trip up the mountain to worship God. It breaks my
heart when I read Isaac say, "Daddy, where's the lamb to sacrifice?" That
part breaks my heart. I remember after Elijah, our first, was born, reading
this passage like never before.
We know that Isaac is the sacrifice.
Abraham was told by God to give his son. His beloved son.
Can you imagine it?
What relief it is, when we read that
passage and the angel stays Abraham, and we find out all along that God was not
going to require Isaac, and he would be substituted for the ram stuck in the
thicket.
Isaac lives! Isaac goes free! Abraham doesn't sacrifice his son. The ram is the substitute.
Then we get to the New Testament, and
it dawns on us, that substitute was not a ram. That the substitute was a Son. A dearly beloved Son. An only begotten Son. A son whom the Father was, "Well
pleased"
And this time, no angel stayed the
Father's hand. This time, there was no other substitute
to turn to.
It was Passover week in Jerusalem, and
millions of lambs were slain, but that wasn't enough. The Son. The Only BEGOTTEN SON was
given
How did He give?
The Father gave the Son, his Only
Begotten, as a sacrifice for sin. Not simply as an example. Not only as a moral
teacher, but as a sacrifice.
The giving included more than sending
into His own creation, born of a woman. The giving is more than sending THE
Prophet to preach and to teach and to heal. He gave his Son, to die for
sinners.
Why did He give?
The Father gave because it was
necessary.
It was necessary because of who God is
It was necessary price of redemption
Isaac asked Abraham, “Where is the
sacrifice?” But Jesus didn’t need to ask the Father. Jesus knew all along.
Jesus lived his whole living looking toward the cross. The Father willingly and
lovingly sent the Son, and the Son willingly and lovingly came and died.
David risked his life for his father's
sheep. He fought a lion to protect those sheep. He fought a bear to protect
those sheep. He loved his father. He loved his job as shepherd. He loved those
sheep.
How much, the Shepherd of our souls,
who loves the Father, and loves his sheep, that he voluntarily laid down his
life as a substitute.
John 3:16 is true as it is necessary.
It’s this the great question? Why? Why
didn't the Father simply forget our sins and move on? Why didn’t the Father proclaim
his people innocent by “order of the King”?
The Father loved the Son. Surely,
couldn't there had been another way?
Murray asked, “If we say that he could
not [save by any other way], do we not impugn his power? If we say that he
could but would not, do we not impugn his wisdom? Such questions are not
scholastic subtleties or vain curiosities. To evade them is to miss something
that is central in the interpretation of the redeeming work of Christ and to
miss the vision of some of its essential glory. Why did God become man? Why,
having become man, did he die? Why, having died, did he die the accursed death
of the cross? This is the question of the necessity of the atonement.”
It's necessary because of Who God is.
What God does is related to who God is.
Like I said, God didn’t have to save
us, but when He chose to save us in His love and His mercy, he had to save us
in a way that also coincides with his holiness and his justice.
God is simple. That just means he is
not made up of different parts. He is not 50% love and 50% holiness…
We talk about the attributes, plural,
but that doesn't mean they are parts of God. It's not that God is love and his
love is greater than his holiness. Or Love is primary, and justice is
secondary. Or that his attributes are at odds with one another.
God is perfect, simple. He isn't a
composite of things, but He is One. So, God, by being God, by being I AM THAT I
AM, cannot, separate Himself from, or disown, or disavow his character. God is
Love, He is also Just and those two things, in our mind, are just different
views of God's perfection.
God is so great, so immense, that we
cannot conceive of Him, unless we think of Him in such a way as different
attributes and how they relate to us in time.
Thomas Boston said, "the glory of
one attribute is more seen in one work than in another: in some things there is
more of His goodness, in other things more of His wisdom is seen, and in others
more of His power. But in the work of redemption all His perfections and
excellencies shine forth in their greatest glory.
This is why the cross was necessary.
God couldn’t express his love in
forgiving sinners and ignore his justice and his holiness, because God is
perfect.
So, while God did not have to save,
because HE purposed TO save, it was necessary to save through a blood
sacrifice.
It was necessary price of redemption
Galatians 3:21 Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given
life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
IF there could have been another way,
there WOULD have been another way.
The Cross is a display of God love.
It is a display of God's wisdom
It is a display of
God's Justice in punishing sin
Hebrews 2:10 For it
became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing
may sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings.
If something is becoming, it’s proper. It’s right. So, in other words, it
was suitable and proper, it was complete right and appropriate for the Father
to bring his sons to glory through the sufferings of our Captain. If there was some
other way, it would not have been suitable and proper.
When Abraham took
Isaac up the hill, God demanded a blood sacrifice. It was suitable for
God to accept a substitute. It was right and
proper to accept it for Isaac.But that blood wasn't
suitable and sufficient to be a complete satisfaction of God's justice. It was suitable and proper for
salvation to come through the suffering Captain. Nothing else was suitable.
17 Wherefore in all
things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that the might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertain to God to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people.
The word translated
“behoved him” means to be duty bound, or “must needs”. It’s the idea of being
under obligation, under a necessity with no other choice. So, it was necessary
for Christ to be made flesh, like his brethren. It was required under the
eternal plan of redemption, for the Word to be made flesh that he could make
reconciliation for the sins of his people. Christ was duty bound, to fulfill
his promise and the covenant, to die for sinners.
If it was one way of many, or if it was even a
preferred option, it would not behoove him, nor would it be suitable for the
father to Send him.
Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. The Shedding of an
animal's blood for man's sin was not a suitable substitute. It wasn't enough. It never brought
satisfaction. The crime of your sin
was so great, only a blood sacrifice could satisfy justice. The heinousness of
your sin was so vile, only the sacrifice of man could satisfy justice. Your Sin is so
horrible, that only the sacrifice of a perfect man, a sinless man, would be
suitable and sufficient.
And so all those old
testament sacrifices were merely patterns of the Heavenly, eternal plan of
redemption. God sent His Son, because that's the only way those HE loved would
be saved.
“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 displays God’s great love,
his perfect salvation, and the triumph of his eternal plan.
GOD SAVES – “that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life”
It was the Father’s will that the Son die for his people, that
they should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Father’s aim was for his
elect, whom he loved, to be with him in glory. He sent his Son on that mission,
to save and redeem the lost. The son accomplished that mission by substituting
himself in the place of sinners, redeeming them from God’s sword of justice,
paying their sin debt, and making atonement, himself being the propitiation for
sinners.
The will of God was that sinners would not perish but have
everlasting life.
God in his infinite wisdom, ordained that men would receive
salvation and the forgiveness of sins through faith.
God saves by grace. Full and free. Completely and successfully.
Perfectly.
The truth is beautiful. God loves, perfectly. God loves,
completely. The love of God is on full display by saving unworthy, undeserving
sinners. It doesn’t beautify love to say that God loves everyone equally, all
in the same way, and some of his loved ones go to hell, and some don’t. Does it
uphold and beautify and make great a love that loves me the same way as
Pharaoh? Or, that I am loved the same way and as much as God loves Goliath.
Does it inspire worship and praise that God loves me the same as he loved the
rich man in Hell?
Other than several inches, what’s the difference between me and
Goliath? Other than political power, what’s the difference between me and
Pharaoh? Other than money, what’s the difference between me and the rich
man?
You could argue (and would be correct) that these men are far my
superior. Goliath was a great champion. A war hero. A battle-hardened famous
warrior. I played football in High School. Pharaoh was the most powerful king on Earth. He had the power of
life and death in his words. He ruled a nation and is famous, even today.
Pyramids and structures still stand built in honor of the throne he held. I am
a business analyst for the state of WV. Do you really need me to point out the difference between a rich
man and a preacher? Superior strength. Superior intellect. Superior wealth,
power, and influence. There really is nothing that I have that’s any better
than these three men. Knowing my heart,
like I do, I can’t say that I’m morally superior.
Why am I saved? Why are they in Hell and I’m on my way to Heaven?
Because the Father so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son as a
sin-sacrifice, an atonement, a propitiation for sins of those he loved. The Son
expiated the sins of those people, forgiving and paying the sin debt. And,
according to the wisdom of God, we receive the forgiveness of sins, eternal
life, and escape the punishment of hell, by faith in the finished work of
Christ.
“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 displays God’s great love, his perfect salvation, and the triumph of his
eternal plan.
I
implore you, to believe in the Only Begotten Son and receive everlasting life.
