Image from theology.greek.nz
This verse is key to the way you live
From John 3:14-21:
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
What more does the world need to hear than the words of the sixteenth verse? What more do you need to hear? Let's put it in context first: Jesus is having a night meeting. He's meeting Nick at night. Remember Nick wanted to know more about Jesus and Jesus hit him with you must be born again/anew/from above. That in itself is an entire sermon (You can see why the Bible was divided into chapters and verses, right?), but Jesus continued with the reality of what was coming to him soon. He would be lifted up. This can be taken in the literal, that once nailed to the cross, He was lifted up for the painful death process to begin; and the spiritual: This death lifted Jesus above all others. On that cross came victory over sin and death. Then the key: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life." I heard a dear friend once share a testimony at an Emmaus retreat where this verse did not mean much to him until another person said, "Change the word world to your name." When he did that he got the truth: For God so loved Skip that He gave His only Son..."
The rest is equally powerful. We tend to only read the underlined parts of our Bibles. We may be missing equally good things! "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." Saved. Pulled from the brink of death into the fullness of life is what this passage is all about. There are countless lives who have been saved from the ravages of life's deadliest things because of this passage, including mine, because we came to understand the awesomeness of God's love towards us. One of my favorite stories that I've shared in this devotional before, but bears repeating is the story of the Bible missionary sent to Africa to distribute the Word of God and he came to a fierce tribe. Their chief was a man who loved to smoke. He grew his own tobacco but lacked the papers with which to enjoy this habit. The missionary spoke about God and God's love and handed the chief a Bible. The chief had not really heard the message, he was too busy eyeing the Bible and its fine paper. Once in his hand, the chief thanked the missionary for this large supply of paper. The missionary feared that that would happened and he begged of the chief one promise, "Please read each page on both sides before you smoke it!" The chief reluctantly agreed. Years later at a conference of missionaries sponsored by the same agency that sent this missionary, he was set to speak. On the first row was a well dressed man, who called to him as soon as he saw him. "Don't you recognize me?" The missionary had to be honest and say no. "I am the chief to whom you gave a Bible. I told you I was going to smoke all the pages of that Bible and you begged me to please read each page. Well, I smoked every page until I came to John 3:16, and then I stopped smoking! My life was changed, and I became a believer. My tribe became believers and here I am, a missionary for the living God."
PRAYER: Loving God, pull us from the smoke and smell of our sins, to the place of sweet-smelling salvation, a new and right relationship with you. Thank You for loving so much that You gave Jesus to me. Help me to share Him with everyone that I can. In Jesus' precious and powerful name I pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
