Responding to God’s Love

Verse: JOHN 3:16-21

God is love. Most likely, we have heard these wonderful words from 1 John 4:8. But do we really understand what they mean? John 3:16 sums up the truth they convey—namely, that because God deeply loved vile, sinful, rebellious humanity, He came to earth in human flesh and died a gruesome death to save us. This is no shallow love.

Some people question Jesus’ sacrifice, though. They think, certainly the Lord could have come up with a different way to offer salvation. He is God, after all, so shouldn’t He be able to do all things? They fail to consider two of His unchangeable attributes.

First, the Lord is holy by nature. This means that He cannot look upon sin with approval, so He must condemn transgression. Second, God is just. As a result, all wrongdoing—without exception—must be punished (Rom. 6:23). The Lord’s every action must be consistent with His nature.

We all fall short of God’s perfect holiness, and He is unable to fellowship with us in our fallen state (3:23). But our heavenly Father desires an everlasting relationship with us. So He provided the solution by sending His Son Jesus to earth—to live as a man and die on the cross. This is the ultimate expression of love. As 1 John 4:10 states, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The wise will accept the free gift of salvation. That is, they will receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and commit to follow Him. How do you choose to respond to His amazing love?

Bible in One Year: John 4-5