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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
John 3:16
‘God so loved the world’
Read Romans 1:17 to Romans 2:4
You know John 3:16 by memory. You learned it as a small child. It was probably the first text of Holy Scripture that you can remember hearing: ‘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.’ Everyone knows those words by memory, but do you know the meaning of those precious words? I am afraid that very few people do.
‘God so loved the world.’ Our Lord does not tell us how much God loved the world. He leaves it for our hearts to consider reverently. He simply says, ‘so’, ‘God so loved’. God would have us not only to believe in the reality of his love, but also to admire the greatness and magnitude of his love. The love of God, like God himself, is infinite.
The word ‘world’ describes the character of those men and women who are the objects of God’s infinite love. Our Lord is not telling us that God loves every person in the world. We know that is not true, because God himself said that he hated Esau. The word ‘world’ refers to mankind in general, in all its corruption and misery. Our Lord is not talking about the extent of God’s love. He is describing the character of those who are loved by God. God loves fallen, guilty, depraved sinners, scattered throughout the whole world. ‘The whole world lieth in wickedness.’ God is no respecter of persons. He does not love the Jews only, but Gentiles also. He does not love white men only, but black men also. His elect are found among men of every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue throughout the whole world. God might have poured out the vials of his wrath upon us, as he did upon the angels that fell. But no, he spared us! ‘For God so loved the world!’ justice demanded our punishment. Holiness required the extermination of our race. But that must not be. ‘For God so loved the world.’ Let all men give praise to the eternal God. Were it not for his love, we should all be in hell.
