A childhood verse

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

I feel like this is a childhood verse - the first verse many of us learned and growing up, how many of us heard, “This means He loved you.”  And while that’s true, that is so limiting of the scope if this verse and it’s true meaning. 

God loved the WORLD.  The WORLD.  That means everyone.  EVERYONE. 

Let that soak in.

Do we disappoint Him?  Do we break His heart with some of the decisions we make? I'm pretty sure we do.  But beyond that, God loves.  Loves so much He sent His son as a man to die for us so that we no longer have to be ruled by our sin, so that we could experience the fullness of His love.   His love is so much stronger than any disappointment.

How many of you have heard the verse that follows?  “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17

It’s hard to think how many people miss out on the blessing of His love because others choose to preach a false gospel of condemnation.  God created an amazing and beautiful world, one in which there was free choice and that free choice led to sin.  He wants us to choose to love Him so that we can fully experience His love in return.  In order to prove His great love for us, He sent His son to die.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

I’ve heard Christians being accused of narrow-mindedness and practicing a faith that condemns others to hell.  (Which forgive my tangent – but in essence don’t all faiths do that?  If you aren’t this faith then your faith is wrong?)  But you see, in my opinion, in its truest form, Christianity is the most open and accepting of all faiths. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or who you are.  You will not be excluded because of your age, gender, ethnicity, previous choices.  It’s there.  For anyone – He sent his Son for the WORLD.  He wants you to have eternal life and accept His free gift.

Being a Christian means I have accepted that God is real, Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, He died taking our sins upon Himself and that He rose again to conquer death.  It’s a free gift that you can accept or reject.  There are not 30 steps to get there, no rituals or a list of do’s and don’ts that will get you to Heaven.  All it takes in genuine acceptance of what Christ did for the world. 

If you accept the gift, does it mean you may have to change your life? Probably.  But if your acceptance of what Christ did is genuine and you begin to seek God first and foremost, then you’ll begin to desire those changes in your life.  I’m not saying it will be easy.  I’m not saying the desires will magically go away.  But you will have support not just from God, but from those who care about you.  And you will have a God that loves you for you - all your flaws, all your hurts, all your joys and all your accomplishments. 

I’m not a scholar so it could be some of you could rip me to shreds about what I’ve said and use verses to back it up.  This is also my personal belief and you don’t have to agree but I do ask that any comments left are respectful.  This is what was placed on my heart today so I’m sharing it.  Because maybe one person out there needed to hear this.

If you have questions, check out theses books:

They are well written and compelling.  I read The Case for Christ in college and know others who have read The Case for Faith.