God's Great Love

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

What proclamation of the Gospel has been so oft on the lips of missionaries and preachers in every age since it was first uttered? What has sent such thrilling sensations through millions of mankind? What has been honored to bring such multitudes to the feet of Christ? What to kindle in the cold and selfish breasts of mortals the fires of self-sacrificing love to mankind, as these words of transparent simplicity, yet overpowering majesty?  For God So Loved

Such a love as that which induced God to give his only begotten son to die for the world could not be described: Jesus Christ does not attempt it. He has put an eternity of meaning in the particle so, and left a subject for everlasting contemplation, wonder, and praise, to angels and to men. The same evangelist uses a similar mode of expression.

1 John 3:1 Behold, What Manner of love, the Father hath bestowed upon us.

This does not mean that God approved the conduct of men, but that he had benevolent feelings toward them, or was "earnestly desirous" of their happiness. God hates wickedness, but he still desires the Happiness of those who are sinful. "He hates the sin, but loves the sinner."

In this wild, wicked world that we live in today, God still loves his creation, mankind. There was a day in history that He looked down on man and the bible tells us in Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

So the Lord tells Noah to build an ark of gopher wood and gives him the plan to build it so that he and his house could be saved. From the time that Noah had entered the ark until the day that the ark rested on dry ground and they came out of the ark, Noah had been on the ark one year and ten days. When they came off the ark:

This didn't stop sin. Sin continued on. We can read about God's judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and how that God destroyed those cities because of their wickedness, but don't forget about God's mercy on Lot who had vexed his righteous soul. God so loved the world that he was willing to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of one righteous, but He couldn't find one. So God shows mery to the nephew of Abraham, His faithful servant and leads him and his family out of the city. God gave a second chance to Lot and his family.

I. God So Loved the World

The world was in a ruinous, condemned state, about to perish everlastingly; and was utterly without power to rescue itself from destruction, and exposed to the wrath of God.

But God, through the impulse of his eternal love, provided for its rescue and salvation, by giving his Son to die for it.

The sacrifice of Jesus was the only mean by which the redemption of man could be effected, and that it is absolutely sufficient to accomplish this gracious design: for it would have been inconsistent with the wisdom of God, to have appointed a sacrifice greater in itself, or less in its merit, than what the urgent necessities of the case required.

Sin must be an indescribable evil, when it required no less a sacrifice, to make atonement for it, than God manifested in the flesh.

No man is saved through this sacrifice, but he that believes, he who credits what God has spoken concerning Christ, his sacrifice, the end for which it was offered, and the way in which it is to be applied in order to become effectual.

It was a free and unmerited gift. Man had no claim: and when there was no eye to pity or arm to save, it pleased God to give his Son into the hands of men to die in their stead.

Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

In order to the redemption and salvation of man, it pleased God to give his only-begotten Son. He not only sent him into the world with full and ample power to negotiate a peace between heaven and earth, but he gave him, that is, he gave him up to suffer and die for us, as the great propitiation or expiatory sacrifice. It comes in here as a reason why he must be lifted up; for so it was determined and designed by the Father, who gave him for this purpose, and prepared him a body in order to accomplish it.

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

His enemies could not have taken him if his Father had not given him.

1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

It was the opinion of the Jews that the Gentiles, whom they often term the world, and nations of the world, were to be destroyed in the days of the Messiah. But Christ didn't come into the world to destroy the world or to pronounce judgment on the world, but He came that the world through Him, might be saved. He so loved the world, that He gave Himself for it.

2 Cor. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son."

And He did it for you and me.