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Daily Devotion: John 3:16

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John 3:16    "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."

As we continue our thoughts this week on the subject of love, I am reminded that true love is accompanied by action. I think of the man whose wife said to him on their 50th anniversary, "You haven't told me that you love me since the day we were married." His answer to her was, "Well, I would have told you if anything had changed about that." It is important to speak words of love and it is just as important to show love by our actions. "God so loved...."  It doesn't say, "So, God loved ..." and then He acted as a response to that; rather, this verse tells us that God's love is so deep and wonderful that the ONLY full expression of that love was in the giving of His ONLY begotten Son. I didn't fully appreciate this verse until having children of my own. My love for my children is so deep that I would give myself before I gave them. I say again that God's love could only be fully expressed in this manner.

The sending of His Son was not a mere exercise of Jesus leaving heaven and coming to this earth to teach, heal, and be the example to show us how to live. If we only needed healing, God would have sent a doctor. If we only need to learn, He would have sent a teacher. But we needed saving from our sins. God would have still been God if He had left us in the state of being dead in trespasses and sins, but His love for us transcended our sinfulness. His love was so great that He would not leave us in that state even though it required the perfect, sinless sacrifice. Let's read John's writing from his first letter. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10) That word, propitiation, means that Jesus completely satisfied the debt that was against us because of our sins. He paid the full price for us to have the assurance of our home in heaven's glory. Yes, because of God's love....

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete
"Jesus died, my soul to save"
My lips shall still repeat

Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

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