Read: John 3:16-21
God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son . . . (v. 16)
John 3:16 is perhaps the most famous verse of the entire Bible. It’s common to see it emblazoned on bumper stickers or banners at sporting events. It’s a verse that’s easy to remember and easy to love. It confirms what everyone wants to believe about the love of God.
Less popular are the verses immediately following John 3:16, especially John 3:18: “whoever does not believe is condemned already.” People are quick to claim that God’s love applies to everyone and that everyone’s default destination is salvation. In John 3, Jesus says the opposite: Salvation requires belief; and without saving faith, the default destination of the human race is condemnation. Without divine intervention, all people will receive the “wages of sin [which] is death” (Rom. 6:23).
That’s why we celebrate Christmas. At Christmas we remember that God the Son took on human flesh and made his dwelling place among us. He came to undo the effects of our sin: first by living a perfect life; then by dying a sinner’s death. He came, as the carol says, “to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray” (“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”). This is the power of God’s love: not that we are by nature so lovable, but that, despite our natural tendencies to reject God, rebel against his will, and recoil from his presence, he moved heaven and earth to be with us.
As you pray, thank God for his saving love.
Ben Van Arragon is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church in North America. After twenty years of congregational ministry, he now serves his denomination as a pastor wellbeing consultant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
