John 3:16 "First Person"
Michael L. Gill
Four persons, or people groups, are mentioned in John 3:16. The first person mentioned is God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Anyone who comes to God must first believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him.”
What do you believe about God? To believe in God’s supreme power demands that we surrender since it would be futile to resist the irresistible! Why resist Him since He loves us enough to send His innocent Son to die for guilty us! To believe God created us demands that we belong to Him. We are possessed by love, since God is love (1st John 4:16)? To believe God is wise demands that we trust Him. Trust is proven by obedience and expressed in peace of mind. To believe God is holy demands that we love Him! He is not vain, proud, selfish, aloof, and never lies or betrays a trust, and paid the ultimate price to prove His love for you. He does not put you down. He lifts you up! God demonstrated His love for you in that while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you!
Do not think that you can comprehend, with your finite mind, the infinite God! No philosophy, human religion or personal epiphany can totally define Him. Most opinions against God use intellectual arguments to mask a hidden agenda of excusing immorality or promoting human supremacy. The only things we can really know about God are those things He has revealed concerning Himself. The most defining revelation of God is that He loves you.
The common Greek language in which the New Testament was written uses four words to express love. Stergein describes a love based on one’s own nature, standard equipment for parents to love their children. We love them because they are our children, not based on their performance or beauty. Eran describes passion and forms the basis for our word “erotic” love. Philein describes fondness and friendship and is actually part of the name “Philadelphia”, the city of “brotherly love”. God loves you with an altogether better love. Agape’ describes a love that places a high value on something, causing it to become priceless! God has made you of equal value to His Son, by paying the price of His Son for you!
Respond to Him!
John 3:16 "Third Person"
Michael L. Gill
The third person mentioned in John 3:16 is God’s “only begotten son”. The Bible states simply that He was given. Consider what it means to “give”. If something is owed we call it a debt, not a gift. A true gift does not obligate the one who receives to any kind of repayment. We would call that a trade. Such a gift cannot be worthless. A worthless gift is no gift at all, but trash! Romans 5:8 explains that God demonstrated His love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God’s love for us places astounding value on us by giving His Son for us. Ephesians 2:8 explains that we are saved by God’s grace (undeserved favor), through faith.
Suppose that you had no microwave oven, and someone gave one to you. Would that gift change the way you cook? Should not this greatest of gifts change your life? God has removed valuable treasure from His account and deposited it into ours without any reimbursement to Himself. Jesus was called, “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world.”
Philippians 2:5-8 reveals that Jesus existed in the form of God, but did not greedily hang on to His equality with God. John 1:1 bluntly states that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That Word, who is Jesus, made Himself of no reputation, becoming a servant of His creatures, and even took on Himself the likeness of men (Hebrews 2:9 –18) that He might taste death for every person and destroy him that had the power of death and deliver from bondage those who feared death. Jesus humbled Himself even to the tortures and death on the cross! Only a person who had no sins of his own for which to pay could effectively pay for the sins of others and set them free (Hebrews 7:25-28)! Does this great gift obligate you to live for God?
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God gave His Son. Now God waits for you to believe on Him. Don’t make excuses! Many Christians and ministers have failed, fallen, lied, cheated, stolen, and more. God is not asking you to trust THEM, but to trust HIM!
John 3:16 "Fourth Person"
Michael L. Gill
The fourth identity we encounter in John 3:16 is “whosoever”. God tells us that “whosoever believes” shall have everlasting life. In Matthew 24:14 we are told that this good news must be preached in the entire world, showing that God wants everyone to hear it. 2nd Peter 3:9 shows that God is patient toward us and is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It is not in God’s heart to hate us or hurt us. He sent NOT His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved! An evil and unloving God would not break His own heart by condemning His own Son with the guilt of people He seeks to rescue! All that is asked of you is that you are persuaded and confident (believe) in Jesus. That single requirement is explained in Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness (trusting God makes you righteous in God’s sight), and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (confession equals commitment, as when one confesses to a crime!).
The final understanding is that God excludes no one from this everlasting life. People may exclude themselves by their own unbelief! Hebrews 3:18-19 asks, then answers, this question. “To whom did He swear that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
I know that many bad things happen in life, and that very often God gets blamed. After all, if God is in charge, couldn’t He have prevented these many bad events? Few people consider the fact that people make bad choices and that the consequences affect not only themselves but can damage others who are miles or years distant. God, however, can redeem for good what others meant for harm. That redemption for good begins in Jesus redeeming us from sin. If you are among those who angrily accuses God, please consider that He is the only one to whom you can go for help! All is lost and wasted without Him!
I urge you to rest yourself in the God who loves you so much as this. Call on Him in faith.“It is not just our sinning that hurts God.
It is that we do not care that our sinning hurts God.” -Michael L. Gill