Knowing a Loving God

For Christians seeking a deeper relationship with their Creator, understanding God’s unfailing love is paramount. The Bible assures us that God is love; He is not merely loving, but all love originates within Him. We are able to love God only because He first loved us, meaning we must receive our love from Him to offer it back.

This profound quality of the Creator is summarized in what many consider to be the greatest verse in the Bible, the gospel in one verse: John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life”.

This passage provides the “good message” or “glad tidings” (the literal meaning of the Greek word translated as “gospel”)—that God is love. The message of the entire Bible can be distilled into this single, simple yet deep verse.

Within these 25 famous words, we discover seven distinct descriptions of God’s wondrous love.

1. The Surpassing Quality of God’s Love

The measure of God’s love is described by the word “so“. This adverb is called the biggest little word in the Bible.

When the Bible states that “God so loved the world,” it signifies a love that went to extraordinary lengths to express itself, a depth beyond human comprehension. Bound up in the word “so” are:

• All the agonies of the cross.
• All the riches of God’s grace.
• All the depths of human sin.
• All the beams of His mercy.

This surpassing quality of love is what makes the heathen wonder and the devil tremble.

2. The Surprising Object of God’s Love

The object of God’s infinite love is the world. The world is composed of individuals who are often described as the unholy, the unloving, the lonely, the loathsome, the arrogant, and the lawbreakers. God loves each and every one of these people.

It may be hard to fathom how one person, Jesus Christ, could die for the entire world, which includes billions of souls throughout human history. However, because Jesus was the Son of God, God in the flesh, His death was infinite, sufficient, and equal to the needs of everyone who would ever live and believe.

This infinite love is also intensely personal. While hanging on the cross for the sin of the whole world, Jesus focused on one individual next to him, assuring him, “Assuredly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise”. This demonstrated that God loves the whole world personally, reminding us: “I love the whole world but remember that includes you”. As St. Augustine said, “God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love”.

3. The Sacrificial Cost of God’s Love

God expressed His love by giving “his only begotten son”. This required God to give up heaven’s best.

The bond between a father and his son is incredibly powerful. God loved His Son just as much as we love our own sons. He sent Jesus into the world knowing that He would suffer and die. Because the wages of sin is death, someone had to die; Jesus took our place willingly as our substitute so that we could be set free. This act of self-sacrificial creation established the conditions we call Calvary.

4. The Serious Offer of God’s Love

The offer of God’s love is open to “whoever”.

No matter how broken, how bad, or how much baggage a person carries, the word “whoever” means there are no conditions attached to the offer. God focuses His infinite love on us, not because of who we are, but in spite of who we are and because of who He is. He accepts us just as we are. The offer is personal; believers are encouraged to put their own name into the verse to understand its pointed, personal nature.

5. The Selective Choice of God’s Love

Although the serious offer is made to “whoever,” it is only received by those who “believes in him”.

The grace of God is sufficient for everyone, but it is only efficient for those who put their trust in Christ. Salvation is a free gift, but like any gift, it must be received to matter. If a person stands before God having only known about the gift but never personally received and unwrapped it, the gift is meaningless to them.

6. The Special Promise of God’s Love

The promise of God’s love is that believers “should not perish”. God gave His Son so that we would avoid perishing.

It is essential to understand that perishing does not mean annihilation or ceasing to exist. Everybody will be alive somewhere forever and ever—either in the presence of God or in the absence of God.

The word “death” in the Bible means separation.

• The first death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body.
• Spiritual death (perishing) is the separation of your soul forever and ever from Almighty God.

To perish means not to have everlasting life. If one rejects God’s grace and does not receive Jesus Christ, they will be accountable to God for their rebellion and will enter the state of spiritual death.