God So Loved The World

Lent is one of my favorite parts of the Liturgical year for with it comes a sense of renewal and spiritual growth. On the third Sunday of Lent our church choir that I sing in sang one of my favorite anthems that I learned back when I was in High School. “God So Loved The World” As we sang this song I reflected on the idea that God’s love for us is immeasurable. It goes beyond our human understanding.

Here is a close-up view at what this song expresses about God’s love for us. God’s Love Is Extravagant – “for God so loved”. If the apostle Paul was the “Apostle of Grace,” then the apostle John was the “Apostle of Love.” John is the one who tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). And it is John who tells us that God’s motivation for the salvation of sinners is love: “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son.”

John is the only one of the four Gospel authors to record these words of Jesus during His encounter with Nicodemus (John 3: 1-21). The word “so” is key. If we said it in modern English, we might say, “For God loved the world so much. . ..” It’s important to remember that God didn’t just say, “I love you”—He demonstrated His love by Christ dying a horrific death on a Roman cross. He suffered and died on the cross because of our human iniquities and sins. He who was without sin took upon Himself all the sins of the world; past, present and future.

God’s Love Is Extensive – it is given to “The World”. That is everyone in the world. Not only is God’s love extravagant, it is extensive: “For God so loved the world . . ..” John’s first use of the New Testament verb for love, agape, occurs here in a verse that would define its use throughout the New Testament— unconditional love.

For God to love the world—a world completely marred by sin means His love would have to be unconditional. For Jesus to have said that God loves the world was unheard of. The Jews prided themselves on looking down on the Gentiles. God loving the whole world was an idea unique to Christianity. Such a notion could only come from a God who is Himself perfect love.

Our burden is to go to all the world, with any means possible, and tell people that God loves them. History has noted some very evil characters over the years, people we think God couldn’t possibly love. But that is wrong—God loves the whole world and every person in it. God loves the whole world with an unconditional love. His love is eternal.

God’s Love Is Unique “that He gave His only begotten Son”. “Only begotten” meaning only or unique. There is no one like Jesus—He is completely unique in all the universe and God gave Him as a gift to us. Because He was God’s only Son, His unique Son, He was priceless and no human being in this world could pay the price for our sins. God gave the most valuable thing He could give.

The apostle John summarized this truth in 1 John 4:9: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.” By giving the most valuable thing He had, God “manifested” or demonstrated His love to us (see also Romans 8:32).

God’s Love Is Expansive – “that whoever believes shall not perish, but have everlasting life” The Gospel is not limited just to some. God sent Christ into the world so that “whoever” might believe and God’s love is directed at every person regardless of their race, creed, gender, or economic status: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

God’s Love Is Exclusive – “whoever believes in Him” If God’s love is extravagant, extensive, and expansive, then why isn’t everybody in the world a Christian? Because His love is also exclusive. Out of the “whoever’s” of the world it is only those who believe in Jesus that ultimately experience God’s love personally. Just because God offers the Gospel to every person in the world does not automatically mean that every person is going to receive it by faith. Salvation is a gift, and like all gifts it must be received to be enjoyed. One must welcome Him into our lives, we must die to ourselves and rise to Christ in all that we say and do. We must be willing to put our worries and cares at the foot of the Cross and trust in Him.

God’s Love Is Exceptional – “will not perish” The last two truths about the Gospel must do with what the Gospel promises to those who believe and go out and sin no more amid the gift of penance and repentance.

God’s Love is unfathomable. As Jesus expired, the source of life gushed forth for all souls, and His mercy opened for the whole world. His divine life, filled with unending Divine Mercy, envelops the whole world and empties Himself out upon all us.

God’s Love Is Eternal – “but have everlasting life” Finally, the last truth about God’s love in the Gospel is that those who believe in Christ will have “everlasting life.” Eternal life begins the moment we believe and transform ourselves. Every Lent we are given the chance to renew ourselves.

"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). To know God through Christ is to have and know eternal life. Paul says in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing—not death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things now or in the future, heaven, hell, or any created thing— “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”

The love of God is present for every person in the world at any moment in time. But we must reach out and receive that love. It is not easy. Many circumstances will present themselves as obstacles and reasons not to believe. But is not the promise of everlasting life the single most important reason to believe? It doesn’t matter what you have done in the past. Today is the moment to believe and receive God’s gift of redemption, love, mercy and eternal life. Today is the day that you can believe that the salvation of Christ is yours if you die to yourself and rise to Him.

Lent is here and gives you the opportunity to reflect on your life and seek to rid yourself of sin and the old ways and become a new creation in Christ. We must always remember that the inexhaustible love of God, in whom mercy is endless, looks kindly upon us and increases His mercy in us. We only need to submit ourselves to His holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.