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.

 -John 3.16

John 3.16 is a verse that’s almost become a cliché.  Often seen at sporting events on sign, it is possibly the most known and yet misunderstood verse there is.  While powerful in its meaning, it has been diluted and distorted by those that misuse it to teach error concerning doctrine.  Yet, despite what men may have done with John 3.16, it does not do away with the impact of Jesus intended by His statement, originally made to the Jewish teacher Nicodemus (Jn. 3.1).  Consider what was done because God loved us. 

The verse starts out by saying “For God so loved the world...”.  Notice, it was not just those that were trying to live righteously.  It was not just the nation of Israel.  It was the entire world that God loved.  God’s love is a universal love.  It is only a love such as is found with God that could do what needed to be done to save this world from sin.  For as Paul said through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners...” (Rom. 5.7-8a).  What God did for us, had nothing to do with us deserving it, but rather was done despite what we deserved.

It goes on to say what God did based on His love and that is that “...that He gave His only begotten Son...”.  The phrase “only begotten” in the Greek is the idea of “one of a kind” or “unique”.  In one sense, all of mankind can be said to be descended from God, that is, to be “His offspring” (Acts 17.28).  However, there was a unique Son of God to be found among all of mankind that was the One  to be given.  This unique Son of God would relate to God in a way that no other child of God could or would.  This Son would stand completely sinless before the Heavenly Father (Heb. 4.15).  This Son was equal with God (Jn. 5.18).  This Son was not created, but was eternal like God the Father was (Jn. 8.58).

The difference that giving His Son would make was to be found through faith.  The verse goes on to say “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”.  The key to understanding what this verse is saying is found in the word “should”.  If you truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, why would you not be believing in Him?  This is not teaching “faith-only”.  A faith without the necessary works to follow it is no better than the faith found among the demons (Jam. 2.19-20).  Rather, it is believing in the Son of God that should lead a person to make the necessary response of faith to the Christ, that is, to be “born again” (Jn. 3.5).

“[W]hile we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5.8).  That faith and the works we do as a part of that faith can allow us to have eternal life is a testimony to the love that God has for us.  The world deserves to be destroyed for the sins it has committed, yet, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3.17).  Why would anyone not accept what God did because He loved us?

Copyright © 2010 By Peter Wesson

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.