God So Loved The World

A study of John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:

-God: “Theos”, “θεός”; masculine noun — spoken of the only and true God. In John 3:16: God the Father, the first person of the Trinity.

-So: “outō(s)”, “οὕτω(ς)”; adverb — in this manner, thus, so; so greatly.

-Loved: “agapaō”, “ἀγαπάω”; verb — to love, used often in the First Epistle of John of the love of Christians toward one another; of the benevolence which God, in providing salvation for men, has exhibited by sending his Son to them and giving him up to death.

-World: “kosmos”, “κόσμος”; masculine noun — the inhabitants of the world; particularly the inhabitants of earth, men, the human race.

-He Gave: “didōmi”, “δίδωμι”; verb — to give One to someone to care for his interests.

-Only: “monogenēs”, “μονογενής”; adjective — “The Greek word translated by this phrase is monogenes. It doesn’t mean “only begotten” in some sort of “birthing” sense. The confusion extends from an old misunderstanding of the root of the Greek word. For years monogenes was thought to have derived from two Greek terms, monos (“only”) and gennao (“to beget, bear”). Greek scholars later discovered that the second part of the word monogenes does not come from the Greek verb gennao, but rather from the noun genos (“class, kind”). The term literally means “one of a kind” or “unique” without connotation of created origin.” (Dr. Michael Heiser, “Unseen Realm” pg. 36).

-Son: “Huios”, “υἱός”; masculine noun — a son; Son of God.

-Believes: “pisteuō”, “πιστεύω”; verb — used especially of the faith by which a man embraces Jesus, i. e. a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah — the divinely appointed author of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God, conjoined with obedience to Christ. To have faith directed unto, believing or in faith to give oneself up to Jesus.

-Perish: “apollymi”, “ἀπόλλυμι”; verb — of persons: to incur the loss of true or eternal life; to be delivered up to eternal misery.

-Eternal: “aiōnios”, “αἰώνιος”; adjective — without end, never to cease, everlasting.

-Life: “zōē”, “ζωή”; feminine noun — life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last forever.

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

This verse tells us God “so loved” the world, in other words, God loves the world “in this way:” He gave His only Son, Jesus, so that everyone who believes in Him will not die and go to an eternity of suffering in hell, but instead be given eternal life spent in incomparable joy and overflowing pleasure forever.

Implication (what does this mean to us):

This verse is probably the most famous of the over 31,000 verses in the entire Bible, because it is a profound and concise expression of the gospel. From the very first line of this verse, “For God so loved the world…” we learn much about the scope and object of God’s love. Humans are the object of God’s love, and the scope of His love extends to the entire human race. This statement would have been challenging for Nicodemus. In verse 15 Jesus told Nicodemus that “whoever” believes in Him may have eternal life, and now in verse 16 Jesus makes it clear that “whoever” means “the world,” or in other words, all of humanity. With these words Jesus shatters the Jewish belief that only ethnic Jews are loved by God, but not the other nations of the earth. God does love Jews, but Israel is the nation He chose to bring salvation to all nations through, because He loves everyone from every ethnicity throughout all of human history.

This phrase “so loved” can be misunderstood. In the English language we would take this to mean something like, God loved the world “so much” that He gave His only Son. That is true, but it is not what John is saying here. “So loved” can also be said as, God loved the world “in this way…”. Consider 1 John 4:7–11 where in verse 11, after explaining the ways in which God loved us by sending His only Son into the world to die for our sin so that we might live, John says, “…if God ‘so loved’ us we also ought to love one another.” This is a passage where John uses the same exact language. He is essentially saying, “Beloved, if God ‘loved us in this way,’ we ought to love one another with this same kind of sacrificial love.” From the words John chose to write, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we are meant to take note of the extreme measures God has taken to show His love to us, and from this we will understand how great God’s love for us is.

Next we come to the phrase, “His only Son.” Many people may have memorized this verse as “His only ‘begotten’ Son,” but this appears as “only Son” in the ESV translation where the word “begotten” has been intentionally omitted. This phrase is translated from the Ancient Greek word “monogenēs.” In the past, Bible translators thought this word combined the roots words of “mono” which means “only”, and “gennaō,” which means “to bear” or “to beget.” This is why many older translations say “His only begotten Son” instead of just “His only Son.” But this is confusing because the entirety of John 1 explained to us the uncreated, eternally existent nature of Jesus as the all creating and all sustaining God of the universe. So, a common question that would arise is, why does John 3:16 say Jesus was “begotten”?

Of course the answer is He was not begotten. The phrase has been mistranslated. Of course this incorrect translation does not change the overall message of the verse. And from the context of the rest of the Bible it has always been clear Jesus has no created origin, but still, this verse has contained within it an unnecessary source of confusion. Translators from previous generations understood the first part of the phrase “mono” correctly, but from peer reviewed research of Ancient Greek scholars we now know that “genēs” does not come from the verb “gennaō,” but rather, from the noun “genos,” meaning “class” or “kind”. From this we now know the phrase “monogenēs,” means “unique” or “one of a kind.” The word carries absolutely no connotation of created origin, which is what we should expect of any description of Jesus Christ, the uncreated God of the universe.

Looking into these details helps build up our understanding of the verse but let us not forget to marvel at the main point of this statement. God’s love for all of mankind is so great, that He sent His only Son to restore us to an Edenic type relationship with Him. He did not, in His love, simply observe us in our hopeless state in this fallen world and pity us. He took action. God the Father sent His Son to die for us and pay the penalty for our sin. Jesus, God the Son, willingly and lovingly left the splendor and majesty of heaven to lay down His life in order to raise us up to new life with Him. God “so loved” the world in this way. And in this display of His infinite love and mercy, we see His infinite and unsurpassed glory.

From this our minds are also meant to be drawn to the time when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son Issac in Genesis 22. Nicodemus would very likely have made the connection in his mind as well. In that case God never had any intention of allowing Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Instead he stopped Abraham, commended him for his faithful obedience, and promised to bless Abraham with many descendants through whom “all the nations of the earth would be blessed” (Gen 22:18). This promise is what Jesus intentionally brought to the mind of Nicodemus. In addition to all the other comparisons being made, such as the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness (v.14), Jesus is reminding Nicodemus of the promise God made to Abraham to bless all of humanity through Israel, that is, through the descendants of Abraham. This story would have reminded Nicodemus of the love of God seen in stopping Abraham, the substitutionary sacrifice provided in place of Isaac, and the prophecy of future blessing through one of Abraham’s descendants.

In saying this Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the promised blessing had arrived and He was standing before Nicodemus at that very moment. Jesus Christ is God’s only, unique and one of a kind Son. Jesus is God incarnate. And God gave His only Son, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The phrase “whoever believes” is whoever “receives” God’s love. Remember, in John 1:11–12 we read Jesus’ own people did not “receive” Him, but those who did “receive” Him were given the right and ability to become children of God. To “receive” Jesus and be granted eternal life means to believe in Him. The love of God seen in the sending of His only Son can only be benefitted from if we believe in Him. There is nothing for us to “do,” but we are required to respond in faith to what Jesus has done for us. “Believes in” does not describe mere intellectual understanding, but rather, to have total reliance and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. As “Thayer’s Greek Lexicon” puts it, to “believe” in this case means to have “a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah — the divinely appointed author of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God.”

From this we also learn of God’s loving intention in giving His only Son. God lovingly gave His Son so that no one should “perish”. Here, “perish” refers to the eternal misery that awaits everyone who chooses to reject God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. But this saving from perishing is not all. We also learn how long God’s love will endure for: forever. God’s loving desire is that we should all have eternal life with Him and all who love Him. God’s desire is to restore the intimate relationship that was lost in the fall in Genesis 3. Christians are not only saved “from” eternal misery, but also “for” eternal joy, pleasure and glory. Immediately upon receiving salvation, all Christians are born again of God’s Spirit, adopted into God’s family, and given eternal life.

The fact is all of us will live forever. Every human being is created in the image of God, which, among other things, means we all have been given the free will to choose whether or not to love Him, and also that our souls are immortal. We are not our bodies. We are immortal souls living within mortal bodies. Everyone will appear before God when they die, but not everyone will be welcomed into His Kingdom to enjoy eternal life with Him. Everyone who rejects the King of Heaven’s free gift of salvation will live forever under His righteous judgment. Those who reject Christ will get exactly what they want, an eternity separated from Him. But that also means an eternity separated from His goodness, love and grace.

Just as God’s love for His children endures forever, His wrath for sin endures forever. Sin against an infinite God requires infinite punishment. But, “God so loved the world He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

“If there is one sentence more than another which sums up the message of the Fourth Gospel, it is this. The love of God is limitless; it embraces all mankind. No sacrifice was too great to bring its unmeasured intensity home to men and women: the best that God had to give, he gave — his only Son, his well-beloved.” (Bruce)

Do not reject this King of Glory, who graciously condescended from the unmatched splendor of Heaven, to live as we do down here in the dirt. As fully God and fully Human, he lived the perfect life we never could live, and died the death we deserve for our sin. His love is infinite. He paid our infinite debt that we never could pay, and now offers salvation to everyone who believes in Him. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Jesus has done it all for us. All that is required of us is to exercise our God given ability to choose to respond to His call, believe, and receive salvation through belief in the One of a kind and only Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

To Him be all blessing and honor and glory forever. Amen.

Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

From this verse we learn of God’s love for all of mankind. He did not withhold even His only Son to save us and make us His children. All that is required to be saved from perishing in eternal misery and for eternal life in full and overflowing joy is to repent of our sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This belief describes a total surrendering of our will to His. This describes total reliance on Him for life in eternity and right now, and it also describes a loving devotion to His will. Having been saved, our lives are not our own. We have been bought at an infinitely high price. God loves us so much He gave His only Son.

Knowing this should give us confidence that whatever else He tells us to do or not do, or whatever difficult circumstances we must endure in this life, God is worthy of our trust, devotion and love. His love endures forever, and all who accept His loving gift of salvation given only through belief in Jesus Christ, will also endure forever, basking in the radiance of God’s love and incomparable glory.

Self Reflection:

What does the sending of His only Son tell me about the nature of God’s love for me?

Do I understand it is only by God’s grace that I can be saved, and my salvation is not dependent on anything I have done or will do?

How does the promise of eternal life in God’s Kingdom give me hope in the middle of suffering and pain in this fallen world right now?