1 Mar 2008
John 3:16. Is there any better summary of the entire Bible than this one sentence? Can we find a more succinct description that reveals who God is and what He offers us; that explains both our deepest need and our grandest hope? It is all found in this one verse.
John 3:16. I don’t even need to write it out and you know what it says. It may be the most memorized verse in the entire Bible and possibly one of the most beloved. It is a verse that is the basis for teaching our children about Jesus. It is one of the verses we use when we are sharing our faith, trying to explain both the human need and the divine solution.
John 3:16. This verse says it all. It is not only good literature, but it is the pinnacle of the biblical message. In this one verse we are shown the great spiritual drama that every human is part of whether they realize it or not. Here we are shown God “the Giver” – not a heavenly Judge waiting to punish humans for their sin, but the Creator who loves His creation enough to send His Son to pay the penalty we can not, to receive the punishment we deserve. And the drama unfolds as that Son, Jesus, comes to earth, lives among us, and dies on a cross, carrying with Him the sin of the world. The rest of the cast in this passion play includes all of humanity, every individual. We are “the Recipients” – the ones God loves, the ones with whom He seeks to be reconciled. This unmerited favor, which the Bible elsewhere calls “grace,” this gift of salvation is offered to all, free of charge.
So the drama is not only that God is willing to do everything necessary for our salvation; the tension is whether we will accept His gift. For salvation is offered to us, not forced upon us. We can reject His gift and Him, or believe and benefit from all that His gift would give, both in this life and for all eternity. God has already made His choice; the next move is up to us.
Max Lucado’s most recent book is all about this powerful verse, and is aptly titled 3:16 (The Numbers of Hope). In the flyleaf he states that this verse “is an alphabet of grace, a table of contents to the Christian hope… A twenty-six word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same. Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions. If you know nothing of the Bible, start here. If you know everything in the Bible, return here. We all need the reminder. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God’s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16.”
Both that need and that solution is what Easter is all about. As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord on Sunday, March 23, we will be looking at this singular statement of faith given to us in John 3:16. Each of the three Sundays preceding Easter we will look at what this verse tells us about God, and about what we can do in response to His gift of salvation. We will look at God’s Heart – For God so loved the world; God’s Gift – He gave His only Son; and God’s Promise – that Whoever believes in Christ, shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Finally, you will have an opportunity to enjoy a 40-day devotional written by Max Lucado for your personal preparation for Easter (these will be available Sunday, March 2, so you will have to read two per day), and get a booklet based on Lucado’s book 3:16 that can be given away as both an invitation to our Easter services and as an explanation of your hope in Christ (see the Bell front cover for more information about this). Pray about who you can give this message to.
May we all be blessed by further study and consideration of this powerful verse, and may we bless the One who so graciously has demonstrated His love to us through His one and only Son.
Denis Whittet
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