John 3:16 Revisited

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He (even) gave up His only begotten (unique) Son...”

Imagine this!  Think about who is actually voicing these words?  It is Jesus, talking to Nicodemus about God’s love and God’s plan for the world.  Jesus is the one to whom He is referring...that His Father gave Him up.  And for whom – the world!  That’s us, in our sin, violence, idolatry and rebellion against the Father of Heaven, The Almighty.

I wonder at the willingness and peace with which Jesus Christ said this.   Fully aware and fully supportive of the plan, God’s plan to save us!  He was in on the discussion and there are no feelings of rejection here.  Just amazing grace, and total surrender to the will of the Father.  Jesus knew from whence He had come.  Back up a few verses and Jesus speaks of His deity.

Joh 3:13  And yet no one has ever gone up to heaven, but there is One Who has come down from heaven--the Son of Man [Himself], Who is (dwells, has His home) in heaven.

And the reason for all of this....

Joh 3:15  In order that everyone who believes in Him [who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him] may not perish, but have eternal life and [actually] live forever!

Christ knew His purpose in the plan, to be the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8) He knew that He was the only begotten Son of the Father to be given up for us.  Ponder the love both had for us, both willing to give up their best – The Father His Son, and the Son His Life.  Both of them in total agreement, both of them proactive in dealing with men’s sinful condition.  Jesus trusting the Father, coming in human flesh to dwell among His created, knew what His suffering and pain would bring.  He was separated from His Father when He bore the sin of the world upon Himself at the cross of humiliation yet great victory.  The Father trusted the Son to accomplish the plan to the very “t” – not strive from it but strive toward it – not to run from the cross of suffering but to run toward it and embrace it.

Humankind desperately needed a Saviour as the prophets’ lamented about our condition.

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before You [O Lord], and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know and recognize them [as]:

Isa 59:13  Rebelling against and denying the Lord, turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and muttering and moaning from the heart words of falsehood.

Rom 3:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

In our despair and suffering of our own making, God and demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)

I encourage you, mediate upon this Love.  Mediate upon the cross of Christ and may the revelation of God’s full Love be yours forever.

The Cross of Christ - Triumphant

Even though Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ was an excellent film, it did give the idea that the cross of Christ, horrific and brutal as it was, was a tragedy. I think that this thought is prevalent in Christendom today. But the cross of Christ was the most triumphant event that has ever been witnessed on earth and the single most important love story played out in history. The love of a Creator Saviour for His created, the love of a Father's anguish in watching His only begotten Son brutally twisted in agony upon a cruel, hard, wooden cross. And why? We were certainly not deserving, despising and rejecting Him, "we all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way." (Is 53:6) But such is love, great love and unfathomable love.

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. (Joh 3:16)

The cross was the ultimate sacrifice by which we were redeemed. The sinless One offered up for the sinner. Our sins, our offences against a Holy God, paid for in full, by the blood of the Lamb. We have been redeemed. A holy purchase has been made. A heavenly transaction took place. Redeemed, "not with corruptible things, like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1Pet 1:18) Our sins, violent, heavy, degrading, shame-forming, guilt-destroying, was laid upon Him and this transaction was "foreordained before the foundation of the world." (1 Pet 1:19-20). A swap was made, "And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." We were the debtors in this transaction. We owed, unable to pay back, bankrupt but His mercy and love reached out in a willing sacrifice to wipe our debts away.

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." (Joh 15:13) Willing to come, willing to feel the restraints of a fleshly body and emotions, hungry, cold, tired, tempted, loved and loving, hated, laughing, crying, touching and healing; yet still God wrapped in human flesh but with extraordinary power, sprung from compassion, moved by the Spirit and intimately empowered by obedience to the Father in Heaven. Thus He can say, "Therefore My Father loves Me because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father." (Joh 10:17-18)

Tragedy, no! Triumphant, yes! And the annals for eternity ring out in joyous applause, to the Lamb, to the Christ and victorious Lord, "And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." (Rev 5:9) AMEN, forever may it be so, for He bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.