Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

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.

The words are simple and profound, one of the best known verses in the Bible. Their statement is so clear that it’s difficult to explain it any more than the Holy Spirit has already done. So what we can do is take a closer look at these very familiar words and catch up on anything that we might have missed since the last time we read them. Then, since it’s already easy to know John 3:16 by heart, we can better use it for applying it to ourselves and in our talking with others about our Gospel assurance in Jesus Christ. Three of the key words in this well-known verse are verbs—the actions. Those verbs are Loved, Gave, and Believes.

God so loved the world…. Loved. You hear much talk of God’s love, even from non-Christians. However, what’s the reason they give for God’s love? Too often, that old sinful nature tempts us to believe that God loves us because we’re so loveable. Sure, we have faults; but we’re trying to live our lives as best we can. Just like the movies with a loveable but flawed hero, we’re still trying to do our best, and that’s why God loves us.

This gives us entirely too much credit. Remember the truth that God’s Law speaks: Apart from Christ, we are dead in sin, and enemies of God. Far worse than a broken plastic toy, we can’t be repaired. We can’t be reformed. We can’t be patched up so that we’re good enough to belong in God’s kingdom. Furthermore, we’re not just a one-time broken thing; we’re constantly sinning against the Lord and offending His holiness. The only option for us is our sinful nature’s death. All that should have been left for God to do would be to throw us away and move on; based on the cold facts of our sin, it only makes sense.

But “God so loved the world,” says Jesus to Nicodemus. He doesn’t love the world because we are somehow loveable. That would be bad news for you, because His love for you would change depending on how loveable you were that day. No, God loves the world because of who He is: He is by nature loving. His is not a cheap, emotional feeling that comes and goes; no, this love of God is a desire to serve-and to serve no matter what the cost. Remember, our only option as born sinners was death; so the Lord in His love launched His plan to give us life. This is the next verb.

…that He gave His only-begotten Son…. Gave. Note two things about that word. First of all, He didn’t “leverage” His Son or offer Him as part of a Divine trade deal. He gave His Son as a free gift, no strings attached; this is how great God’s love is, that He would save sinners at no cost to them. Second, when He gave His Son, He gave Him up to death on the cross. This is the world’s salvation. Death was our only option, so God figured out how to die our death for us! Sinners sin, so Christ died. That’s how God has loved the world: He’s freely given His only-begotten Son to die for the sins of the world. Even though most will not believe in Jesus-even though most sinners will give Jesus no thanks for His death for them, God has still given His Son to die for them, too! That love is truly great.

So, God loves the world. He has given His Son for the world. This means that He has also given His Son for you. This is the Good News in the rest of the verse.

…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This time the verb is whoever believes. When one gives a gift purely out of love, it is a gift: It is not a forced obligation. In other words, if you give a gift in love, you do so with the understanding that the recipient has the option of rejecting the gift-and that your love will not change because of that rejection. Jesus died for the sins of the world, but salvation is a gift: He will not compel people to be His people. He will not force them to be saved or have eternal life. If people choose sin and death and judgment and hell, He will not require them to accept holiness and life and salvation and heaven.

This is why, although Christ has died for the world, not all the world is saved: Only those who believe have everlasting life. Remember though, this third verb, “believe,” is widely misunderstood, even by lifelong Lutherans. “Salvation then isn’t quite free,” you might hear. “I have to believe to be saved. That becomes my part, my doing, in God’s plan.” But this misunderstands what faith is and actually seeks to diminish God’s great love. Faith is not our part of the deal; it’s not something that we come up with in order to be saved. Along with forgiveness, our faith is also a gift that God gives to us. This is the proclamation of today’s epistle from Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). Along with grace, faith is a gift. Whenever the Lord tells you to believe in Him, He is at the same time giving you the faith to believe. When He told the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and walk” (Mk. 2:11), He gave the man the ability to arise and walk. When He says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” He gives you faith to believe.

The Lord gives you faith-it comes with the gift of forgiveness, and it’s a package, together with life and salvation. In your Baptism, Christ joins you to His death on the cross for you, so that you don’t have to die your own death punishment. He also joins you to His resurrection-He gives you His eternal life. Although your body is still playing catch-up, and your sinful nature still clings and tries to drag you back into the grave, you have eternal life-because Jesus has given you His. He has died your death. He keeps giving you His life. You are not destined to death anymore, because He has died His death for you. By water and the Word, He gives forgiveness, faith, life and salvation.

And so that you do not perish once again, He continues to sustain this faith you have received with forgiveness that is handed out to you throughout your life. When you hear the proclamation of the Word, God gives His only-begotten Son, crucified and risen, to you; your sins forgiven and your faith strengthened. In the Holy Communion, God yet again gives you His only-begotten Son: You eat His body and drink His blood for the forgiveness of sins-so that you should not perish, but have eternal life.

This is the Good News of your salvation: 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. Memorize this verse, and you can constantly remember your salvation through those three verbs.

You are also, just with this verse, well-armed with Biblical facts to respond to any challenge you may ever have to answer. The words are simple, but they are adequate in explaining to anyone the hope that is within you. Maybe you’ll hear something like: “Clearly, God doesn’t love the world because He has made the path so narrow. There’s only one way to heaven? There is only one Savior? Why does God make it so hard to be saved if He really loves us?”

You know better, because you know John 3:16. Here’s the proof of God’s love: He gave His Son for the salvation of the whole world. It’s true, apart from Jesus, there was no hope of salvation. But because Christ has already died for the sins of the world, anyone who believes in Him will be saved. It is a foolish argument of the sinful nature to fault God for providing only one escape from hell. No one ever criticized Jonas Salk because he only came up with one vaccine for polio; rather, they give thanks that a vaccine was finally found. No one criticizes parents of a soldier for losing only one child on the field of battle; we honor those parents whose son or daughter has made that sacrifice, right along with those who lost more. Yet when God gives His only-begotten Son to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world, He gets faulted for not doing enough.

The world will fault God for providing only one way to heaven, and try to invent other ways instead. You know this is disastrous. Instead, you give thanks that God has provided a way to heaven: His only-begotten Son-the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn. 14:6). This Way to heaven is so great and all-encompassing that He offers salvation to all the world.

You will also hear this: “The real reason Jesus came is to show us how to live. We just need to follow in His footsteps and imitate His example.” You know better, because you know that God gave His Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That’s what John 3:16 says. It doesn’t say, “So that all who imitate His life might not perish.” Does trying to live like Jesus save us? No. We can’t perfectly follow Him, and His perfect example shows us how sinful we are. We stand condemned. But God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (Jn. 3:17). While Jesus did set an example of a perfect life, this is not why He came. He came to pay sin’s price. His life and death-not your imitation of Him-is your salvation.

The Old Adam, the sinful human nature inside us, responds like this: “All right. I can’t live perfectly, and I sin. So since Jesus has died to forgive me, I can now do whatever I want.” It’s attractive, this notion that we have a license to sin and still be forgiven; but it’s a false, damning teaching. The Lord has died to save you from sin; how could a Christian go on indulging in it? It would be like saying, “I’m thankful that the Coast Guard pulled me out of the water and saved me from drowning. Now that I’m safe, I think I’ll tie some bricks to my feet and jump back in.” Sin kills, and Jesus has died to make you alive. When temptation beckons the next time, you have this Good News: God so loved you that He has given His only Son to die for you-to save you from sin and death. It is this Good News that strengthens you against all the temptations of the devil and your sinful flesh inside you.

Someone, maybe even a despairing loved one, might have thought: “Yes, God gave His Son to set me free from sin and death. But then, if I sin again, I am lost once again.” What a horrible thought, to believe that any little sin robs you of salvation! But you know better, because you know John 3:16: it doesn’t say, “So that all who never sin again might not perish but have eternal life.” The sins that you commit each day do not condemn you, because Jesus has died for all of these sins. In fact, there is only one sin left to condemn anyone: that’s unbelief. Whoever believes will not perish, declares the Lord here; and in Mark 16 He says “whoever does not believe will be condemned.” The most heinous crime or the grossest immorality does not condemn the one who repents of sin, because Christ has died for everyone. It is only the impenitent one who is not forgiven. It is only the one who says, “I do not believe in Jesus,” or “I choose to continue in my sin and not repent” who stands in peril of judgment. Therefore, if your sins trouble you, take heart: Your sins do not condemn you, because Jesus has died for you. The devil would have you believe that you’ve sinned more than God’s grace allows. He would have you believe that you should give up confessing your sins because you’ve gone too far, because he wants you to stop being forgiven. No, don’t listen to the devil, for he knows only corruption and lies. Instead, let your sins be a constant reminder of your need for your Savior; confess your sins every day, and rejoice that Christ has redeemed you-so that you would have eternal life.

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.

Rejoice in these simple words of salvation. Meditate especially on the three important verbs Loved, Gave, Believes. God’s love gave us Jesus, and by the faith He has given in your heart to believe, you know this to be true. You have forgiveness and life.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Num. 21:4–9 a bronze serpent…on a pole
Ps. 107:1–9 they cried out to the LORD in their trouble
Eph. 2:1–10 you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses … His workmanship
John 3:14–21 As Moses lifted up the serpent