There are a number of implications to this verse. God loves this world. He doesn’t hate it. Despite the mess we are in He loves all of us. The word world as used by John in his writings means the sum totality of humanity as organized without God. So Jesus is telling us that although mankind in general ignores God, refuses to recognize God; nonetheless God loves us to bits. A special Greek word is used here - agapao – it was coined to describe the indescribable – God’s love for you and me.
Then again Jesus is in a special relationship with God the Father. He is God’s only begotten Son. We could consider the mystery of the Trinity. However the thrust here is the fact that God gave up, sacrificed, the Person He loved the most, Jesus, for you and me. I am not sure that I have it in me to give up my children so that a complete stranger could be helped. If you are ignoring God then God is a complete stranger to you and you are a complete stranger to God. Yet He gave up Jesus for you.
Then there is the implication that we are perishing – spiritually in this life – actually in the next. Pretty serious stuff. But God doesn’t want this. He wants us to possess eternal life. And we get this by believing in Jesus.
The next key idea is our poster.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3;17. (NIV)
Our artist, Richard Caplin, who is a born again Christian, has produced an illustration of a rescue at sea. It is a very powerful image. When there is a disaster at sea all the rescue services are mobilized. There is urgency. The rescuers forget their own safety concerns in their desire to rescue the crew and passengers on the endangered craft. Let the urgency of the scene sink in. God thinks it is urgent that you and I are rescued from a life of sin and its
Then again Jesus is in a special relationship with God the Father. He is God’s only begotten Son. We could consider the mystery of the Trinity. However the thrust here is the fact that God gave up, sacrificed, the Person He loved the most, Jesus, for you and me. I am not sure that I have it in me to give up my children so that a complete stranger could be helped. If you are ignoring God then God is a complete stranger to you and you are a complete stranger to God. Yet He gave up Jesus for you.
Then there is the implication that we are perishing – spiritually in this life – actually in the next. Pretty serious stuff. But God doesn’t want this. He wants us to possess eternal life. And we get this by believing in Jesus.
The next key idea is our poster.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3;17. (NIV)
Our artist, Richard Caplin, who is a born again Christian, has produced an illustration of a rescue at sea. It is a very powerful image. When there is a disaster at sea all the rescue services are mobilized. There is urgency. The rescuers forget their own safety concerns in their desire to rescue the crew and passengers on the endangered craft. Let the urgency of the scene sink in. God thinks it is urgent that you and I are rescued from a life of sin and its
