"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in should not perish, but have everlasting life". [KJV]

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life". [GNB].

 John 3:16 is a verse we all know and love. Martin Luther called it "the Gospel in miniature" and it was among the last words he spoke on his deathbed. Is John 3:16 Gods' greatest promise? With the help of the Holy Spirit, we will investigate what wonderful promises this verse contains. Our discussion will be set out under 6 points, similar to the manner in which our Lord spoke to Nicodemus during that night-time teaching session He gave:

1. Benefactor
2. Motive
3. Vastness
4. Gave
5. Beneficiary
6. Objective

1. Benefactor: Who is the benefactor ‑ Who is the giver? - God. "God gave". … we are told by John. He is the same God who created the world at the very beginning. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God sustains the world at the present time. He is in sole control. He made the World and only He can save it. This will be done in His due time. The reality of God is always greater than our human minds can understand or express. The Psalmist puts it like this: "People of Israel ... I chose you …. so that you would know me and believe in me and understand that I am the only God. Besides me there is no other God; there never was and never will be." [Isa 43.10 NIV].

2. The motive: What was it that moved our Heavenly Father to do what He did? ….. It was love, pure perfect love. … "For God so loved .. ", "Loved the world so much …. " is the GNB rendering. The entire Gospel seems to come into focus in this verse. The gift is offered to the world. What is important with a gift is the motive of the giver. A beautiful gift, if given in doubtful circumstances is difficult to appreciate, so we ponder what was in the mind of the giver ‑ and we might even come to the wrong conclusion if we analyse it deeply. The motive of the giver makes the gift. In this promise, our Heavenly Father gives, without doubt, the most precious gift the world has ever experienced. Paul's well-known writings on love, familiar to us all, are in his letter to the Corinthians: "Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up and its faith, hope and patience never fail; Love is eternal". [1 Cor 13:4 ‑ 8. GNB]. Our heavenly Father's love is even greater than this - if that is possible for us to imagine!

3. The vastness / size / magnitude. Just imagine the enormity of the gift God made of His Son! He gave His ONLY Son! Not one from many but only Son! God gave this special Son to come down to this earth, to live as a man with human emotions (we remember the Bible's shortest verse: "Jesus wept". to suffer and die a cruel painful death on a cross. Jesus is everything to his Father and everything to us. We study the accounts of His travels in the Holy Land, learn of His encounters with others and marvel at the miracles He performed. Thus, Jesus means so much to us as individuals. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour at baptism, we also accept our loving heavenly Father. Do we need more?

When we accept Jesus Christ, we have everything, because Jesus is all in all. Paul writes this to the Colossians: "In this way you will know God's secret, which is Christ himself. He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge". [Col 2:2b ‑ 3]. And to the Corinthian Church, Paul writes similarly: "Actually everything belongs to you, …. this world, life and death, the present and the future—all these are yours, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God". [1 Cor 3:21 23]. GNB].

These scriptures describe some of God's many gifts and promises. But to what can we compare the magnitude of the gift of Jesus Christ? Our measuring stick is earth bound. Can money, possessions, success even begin to compare with this gift? Is it not sad that that we place so much value on earthly things? Things which thieves can break in and steal and moth and rust cause to perish. Why do we concern ourselves as to what we eat, or what we wear or how we will live? These things are already among God's gifts to us. We have - the Holy Spirit - the Comforter, grace, wisdom, repentance, faith, food and raiment, rain and fruitful seasons, peace. "Our Heavenly Father who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, graciously give us all things?" [Rom 8:32 NIV]. It is our responsibility to use them all wisely!

4. He gave. Consider the little word "gave". …. "God gave His only Son". ….. At Christmas, we are reminded of Isaiah's words: "…. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is GIVEN". That was the promise to be completed 700 years or so later. The child was born ‑ the gift was given! Today, salaries are paid, goods purchased, houses bought, but gifts are still GIVEN! There is no requirement ‑ no necessity ‑ no obligation ‑ just given. God gave us His only Son, because this is what love does. Love gives freely. It is given by grace alone.

There is another fact that we must put in here. God gave us the Bible. It is also firm evidence and illustration of His great love for us. Without it we would know nothing of His love. Just imagine ourselves without our Bible! Impossible to contemplate isn't it? The term "revelation" means that God communicated to man what He is like and how we can have a right relationship with Him. These are things that we could not have known had God not divinely revealed them to us in the Bible. Although God's revelation of Himself was given over approximately 1500 years, it does contain everything we need to know about God and His Son Jesus Christ.

5. Beneficiary. Next the beneficiary ‑ the receiver or recipient. How do we analyse this? Who benefits? Who receives the gift? To whom does God give this most precious gift? "God so loved the WORLD that He gave". … The World takes some understanding in this application. I remember our Geography master at school ‑ (he also took us for assembly on Thursdays when 500 of us boys sang "Guide me O thou great Redeemer" with great gusto. It is one of my best memories of school). It was his opinion that the world was so important it should be written with a capital W. Who is included? In our text the World is important. It is the beneficiary of this great gift.

That Christ shed his blood for all is in accordance with Scripture. For example, 1 John 2:2 [NIV] states: "Jesus Christ … He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world". Paul writes similarly in 2 Cor. 5:15: "And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again".

He did not die only for some, or even many, but for all. Paul also says quite clearly who God wants saved and to whom he sent his Son. In 1 Tim 2:4-6 [KJV] "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time".

Jesus is the ransom for all. How? By shedding his blood for all. We believe all means all, but this is not the belief of many we meet today. They consider our Bible teaches that the present day is the crucial time of salvation and that any who do not accept Jesus Christ in this life have missed the possibility of everlasting life in the Kingdom of God. This is not our view of the scriptures so let us look into this a little further.

Paul, defending himself before Felix stated: "I have the same hope in God … that all people, both the good and the bad, will rise from death" [Acts24:15]. This scripture indicates there will be two distinct groups: the good and the bad - the just and the unjust and therefore, there must be two corresponding resurrections. The first will be that of life - also called the resurrection of the just in Luke and Acts. [Lk 14:1 Acts 2:15].

The just are those who have been justified by faith. They are members of the Church; they believe and are thus associated with Jesus Christ in all eternity. This starts with the first resurrection, detailed for us in those wonderful verses in 1 Thess 4:16 ‑ 17 [NIV] "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever". This is the prospect for all who respond to the call of Jesus Christ in this life.

The resurrection that must follow must be that of the "bad" or "unjust", and will include the remainder of those who have died. They will rise to what the Bible terms "Judgement Day". They will not be given a second chance ‑ God will give them their first chance where they will have the opportunity to learn the truth and be able to walk in it. The judge before whom they will appear will be the Lord Jesus Christ himself, being appointed especially for this purpose - the details are given in the latter part of our reading ‑ verses 25 ‑ 28. The whole world will thus have the opportunity for everlasting life as the beneficiaries of this great gift.

6. Objective or purpose

We have seen how God's great love gave us his Son and analysed to whom it will be available. Finally, we look at the objective or purpose. It is quite a simple expression but has great significance and meaning. … "…to have everlasting life".

Naturally, we look first to scripture for a definition of eternal life and find it in John 17:3. Jesus is praying, probably within earshot of the Disciples and before leaving the upper room for the Garden of Gethsemane, acknowledged to His Father …….. "… eternal life means knowing you, the only true God and knowing Jesus Christ whom you sent". ……. "Knowing you and knowing Jesus".

In essence ‑ everlasting fellowship with God.

Eternal life, accepted by believing, is a gift of God and brings with it the fullest blessings God can bestow. It does not only refer to a length of time but also to a quality of life. We do not earn eternal life. As we have seen, it is a free gift received when we admit to sin, repent and believe in Jesus Christ alone.

Everlasting life is a deepening and growing experience. It can never be exhausted in any span of time we can imagine and is a firm promise of God fulfilled, without doubt and not to be compared with any we might encounter here on earth. Our earthly promises can be broken, and because we are sinners, are broken frequently. But the promises of God are trustworthy, unfailing and everlasting.

So, is John 3:16 the greatest promise? All our Bible promises are great and it is therefore difficult to be specific! Personally we love this one, not only because Martin Luther liked it but because it contains so much when the individual words are analysed.

We leave you to decide.

DS