For God so loved the world
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” – (John 3:16-18).
The cross was a diabolical device that the Romans used to torture criminals to death, with the exception of one cross. One cross was a divine device to deliver sinners from death and endless torture, and that is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).
The Father sacrificed His only beloved Son on the cross for sinful men and women. This sacrifice is the supreme love of God even though this evil, sinful “world” is in rebellion against Him. “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).
Jesus shared with Nicodemus why He, the Son of Man, came down from heaven. God “loved” the world through His Son, Jesus. He “loved” the world by sending His Son into the world to die as a sacrifice, so that He might be “lifted up” as a sin-bearer.
The statement that God loved the entire world was foreign to Nicodemus and other Jewish leaders. He would have expected: “For God so loved the Jewish people.”
Nicodemus and his fellow Jews knew that they were God’s chosen people, and God had set His love on them.
In Deuteronomy 7:6-8, the Lord said, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord, your God, has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.
“The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath, he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
God loves this sinful world
Jesus’ message was that God loved the world, even outside of Israel. God would reach this world through Israel, His child. Jesus said God’s love extended beyond the limits of race and nation.
Nicodemus and his fellow self-righteous Pharisees thought they were above ordinary sinners. However, “God so loved the world” was just plain appalling to them! God’s love extends to the world. God’s purpose is to save Gentiles as well. The Father’s love extends even to those who are enemies of Israel.
God demonstrated His love for the world in Jesus. The Israelites learned that God loved them only through Christ. If they reject Christ, they also discard the love which the Father manifested toward them in Christ.
Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your home, you didn’t give me water for my feet, but she wet my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has poured perfumed oil on my feet. This is why I tell you that her many sins have been forgiven; so she has shown great love. The one who is forgiven little loves little. Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:36-8:3).
Jesus told Nicodemus, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The message was clear: the Jews and Gentiles could receive salvation and enter the kingdom of God now.
This phrase “whoever believes in Him” means more than mere intellectual assent to the claims of the gospel. A person must be “born from above.” God chooses to give a person a new nature that produces a change in heart and obedience to the Lord. It allows the person to believe, trust, and make a commitment to Christ as Lord and Savior. The believer is no longer an enemy of God. He or she has become a friend of God.
Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees were looking for a Messiah that would destroy Israel’s enemies – the Romans and the other Gentiles. He did not think that God would save Israel’s oppressors. But he was wrong. Jesus said, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
Jesus entered this world in His incarnation, knowing that hostility would result. His sacrificial love for mankind would lead Him to the cross and to death. His sacrifice would be needed to redeem the world.
The Son of Man did not come into the world to save only Jewish believers. Instead, He came to provide salvation to the world. He came to save men and women who were in darkness and dead in their trespasses and sins. The Son of God came into the darkness of this world to bring His divine light to penetrate the hearts of both Gentles and Jews.
Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to reveal and save sinners. He provided a way of escape for those in the darkness like Nicodemus.
Jesus’ coming did not bring a verdict and a death sentence. Those who see this light by the power of the Holy Spirit and recognize the tragedy of their situation have one responsibility: to believe. The obstacle to God’s love is the heart of man. Most people “love darkness instead of light.” The world hates God.
Evil and darkness wage war against God, who is the light of the world. However, despite these efforts, the darkness cannot vanquish the light. False religion always hates the real Christ. It still manufactures a false Christ and a false gospel. Error always seeks to kill the truth and those who proclaim it.
By contrast, those who love the light, who believe in Jesus, and “live by faith,” these believers will enter the kingdom of God while on earth and enjoy eternal life. They will promote Christ and His truths.
Why does He not save everyone?
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go” (John 11:38-44).
One question that some ask if God loves even His enemies, why did He not choose to save everyone? Christ died for all, and His death was sufficient for all. God invites, commands, and desires salvation for all men and women. Unfortunately, wicked men and women do not love God. They are sons and daughters of Satan. They love their sins and will not repent. They hate everything about God, including His followers.
God hates the wicked because of their sin; yet He has compassion, pity, patience, and genuine affection for them because of His nature. Christ’s followers are commanded to go and tell others that God loves them, and He sent His only Son to die for their sins. If they seek God, He will find them. Those chosen before the foundation of the world will repent and believe in Christ, then they can experience the kingdom of God now.
At the same time, believers should warn unbelievers that if they do not repent and believe in Christ, they are under God’s judgment and wrath, which will be finalized for all eternity when they die in unbelief. John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Christ’s message: “You must be reborn from above.”
Jesus told Nicodemus that he would not see the kingdom of God unless he was reborn from above. Jesus’ following words to Nicodemus are also alarming, “he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Nicodemus is not only unable to enter the kingdom of God in His present state but he is also condemned to perish in hell if he does not believe in the name of God’s only Son. His name is Jesus. The Father draws men to Jesus. John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
God loves even the worst of sinners and makes a provision for their salvation. God sent His Son into the world because that was the only way that He could uphold His holiness and justice by Jesus’ bloody sacrifice, and at the same time, forgive sinners.
God is holy and just. He will not brush away sin without demanding the person pay the just penalty. God must judge all sin. Because of His great love, He sent His only Son, who is eternal God in the sinless human flesh, to bear the penalty that we deserve. Paul said in Romans 3:26, “God can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
The one who does not believe in the Son of God is under condemnation. Those who do not believe in Jesus will perish. The cross draws a distinct line. Either a person believes in Jesus Christ and has eternal life, or the person does not believe in Him and perishes.
God’s great love does not override or deny His perfect holiness and justice. The main reason Jesus came to this earth was to die on the cross to rescue sinners from God’s eternal judgment.
Jesus paid the penalty that humanity deserves
Jesus’ crucifixion began with a scourging or flogging of His back. The Romans used a whip called a flagrum, which consisted of small pieces of bone and metal attached to a number of leather strands. The number of blows given to Jesus is not recorded; however, the number of blows in Jewish law was 39 (one less than the 40 called for in the Torah, to prevent a counting error). During the scourging, the skin was ripped from the back, exposing a bloody mass of tissue and bone. Extreme blood loss occurred, often causing death or at least unconsciousness. In addition to the flogging, Jesus faced severe beating and torment by the Roman soldiers, including the plucking of His beard and the piercing of His scalp with a crown of thorns ( John 19:1, Mark 15:15, Luke 22:63-65).
So, God’s love for this sinful world is astonishing. He would be just and righteous to condemn all men and women to hell because everyone has sinned. However, He didn’t do that. At high cost, He sent His own Son to bear the penalty that humanity deserves. Those who believe have eternal life; those who do not believe are under God’s condemnation and eventually will perish.
When Jesus comes again, He will wage war against a sinful world. In Revelation 19:15, the Bible says, “Coming out of His mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.”
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus went into a hostile world to save some and condemn others. Jesus says that some “will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Jesus referred to eternal punishment as the place where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). It is eternal death.
Eternal life grants believers access and fellowship to the eternal God. Once a believer passes from this world to the next, it is a perfect life, without any of the consequences of sin and death. It is an “abundant life” with “fullness of joy” and “pleasures forever” in God’s presence. There will be no more pain, weeping, or sorrow.
Eternal life begins the moment a person is born from above by the power of the Holy Spirit, and then he or she will believe in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. Believing in Jesus requires understanding who He is, and what He came to do through His death and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit awakens a person’s spirit and brings it to life. A believer is transformed by the Holy Spirit, allowing him or her to believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God enables believers to entrust their eternal destiny to all that Jesus did in dying for their sins on the cross.
It means that a person with a new heart will repent and put his or her faith entirely in Jesus. In the same way, there will be many who say they believe in Jesus, but they have never been “born from above.” They will not find the entrance into God’s kingdom, without God intervening in their lives.
(E-Book: Born from Above; Introduction; Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Chapter 10; Chapter 11; Chapter 12; Epilogue)