About this sermon
1. Christ is God’s unique Son (v. 16).
2. Christ is God’s pre-existent, eternal Son (v. 16).
3. Christ is the divine Son of God (v. 16).
Sermon transcript
of the Faith series. Today we’ll be considering a passage from, a familiar passage from the Gospel of John, John chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. We’ll especially focus on that very familiar verse, verse 16. So let us hear God’s Word, John chapter 3 beginning at verse 13. And as you’re turning there, just a reminder that this passage takes place in the context of our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus. Let us hear God’s holy word. Jesus says, “‘No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.’ And 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, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Dear friends, please remain standing. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the proclamation of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, your word is deep and rich and powerful. We thank you, Lord, for this word. for it is indeed sharp as a two-edged sword. We pray that your word would have its intended effect today. We pray that you would make our hearts good soil to receive the seed of your word.
And we pray that by the power and blessing of your spirit, your word would indeed take deep root in our hearts and bear much spiritual fruit unto holiness and sanctification in our lives. We would ask that you would set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word. And we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would be present in the preaching of your word this day for our blessing and for your glory. We ask these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. As you see in your bulletin, the title of my sermon today is His Only Begotten Son. And I encourage the children to keep track of the number of times I say the key words in my sermon today.
Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, once again this morning we continue our Foundations of Faith series. This is a Bible-based series in which we are reviewing some foundational truths, some foundational doctrines of our holy Christian faith. And in doing so, we are using the Apostles’ Creed as a guide for the truths that we are reviewing, not because the Apostles’ Creed is inspired or somehow equal to the Bible. It’s not. It’s a human composition. But it is a creed that lays before us some very basic and vital biblical doctrines. It summarizes Bible doctrine in a wonderful way. This morning we find ourselves in the second section, the second credo of the creed. And in this second credo, or this I believe statement of the creed, we as God’s people confess together with the historic church, we confess, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord.
Dear ones, This morning we’re going to turn our attention to what God’s Word, the Bible, means when it speaks of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as the only begotten Son of God, or as it is sometimes translated, the one and only Son of God. And what better place to turn for considering this important question than to that very familiar, that much beloved Bible verse, John 3.16. John 3.16, which I’m sure many of you could recite it from memory, this verse that says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. in the English Standard Version from which I’ll be preaching today. It is translated His Only Son. Translations like the King James Version and the New King James Version translated as His Only Begotten Son.
Translations like the New International Version translated as His One and Only Son. However it is translated, all of these translations are attempting to translate the Greek term monogony, and I’ll be speaking about the significance and meaning of that term in a little bit. But dear ones, our passage for this morning, John 3.16, has rightly been described as the gospel in a nutshell. It is indeed a passage of scripture that encapsulates the good news about Jesus Christ. and it indeed is the gospel in a nutshell. John 3.16 gloriously proclaims in summary form what our holy God has done to rescue us sinners from perishing in our sins under his righteous wrath. Namely, God gave his one and only son for us. And it also declares how we may receive God’s gift of eternal life, namely by believing in His only Son.
What this familiar passage declares is that receiving the gift of salvation, which is described here as the gift of eternal life, eternal life and salvation are two different ways of speaking about the same basic reality. Receiving this gift of eternal life is in some sense conditioned upon believing in Jesus Christ as the only begotten or the one and only Son of God. Indeed, the Apostle John makes it clear that his main purpose in penning his gospel account is to lead his readers to faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, or perhaps also to confirm his readers in the faith that they already had in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this in John’s purpose statement. I’d have you keep your finger in John chapter 3 and turn towards the end of John’s gospel to John chapter 20 and let me read verses 30 and 31 of John chapter 20, where John, as he’s wrapping up his gospel account, he’s getting towards the end of his gospel account, he finally gives us his purpose statement, why he wrote this gospel.
And he says this, In verse 30, now Jesus did many other signs, meaning miraculous signs, miraculous signs and wonders and miracles. Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. In other words, John has been selective in his gospel about the miracles and signs of Christ that he recorded. And he says, Jesus did many other signs that have not been written in this book. But why did John write and record the particular signs that he did in his gospel. Well, verse 31, he says, but these are written, why? So that you may believe, or as it could be translated, that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ, meaning the Messiah, the anointed one, God’s promised, chosen, anointed prophet, priest, and king, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life, meaning eternal life, in his name.
These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. This is one of the reasons why the Gospel of John is a wonderful portion of scripture to give to unbelievers or those who are seeking to understand the Christian faith because In the Gospel of John, the good news about Jesus is so clearly demonstrated and explained in simple and yet profound ways in this glorious gospel. Now getting back to our passage for this morning, John 3.16 makes it clear that central to the gospel message, central to the good news about Jesus of Nazareth is the proclamation that God’s love for a lost, sinful, rebellious world was supremely expressed by the giving of His Son. What this means is that the identity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God is central to the gospel message, and therefore foundational to our holy Christian faith. by implication, to reject Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, whatever other exalted titles you may give him, to reject him as the Son of God is, in fact, to reject the Christian faith, to reject Christianity, at least in any biblical historic sense of that term.
But what does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God or the only begotten or one and only Son of God? Again, All of this raises that important question and other questions like it, questions like what did Jesus mean when he called himself the Son of God? If you’re familiar with the gospel accounts, if you’ve read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you know that one of Jesus’ favorite, rather, self-designations is the title Son of Man. In fact, he more often referred to himself as the Son of Man than he did as the Son of God. We don’t have time to get into the significance of the Son of Man title. It is a messianic title. But Jesus did occasionally also refer to himself as the Son of God. What did he mean when he describes himself as the Son of God?
And what do the biblical authors mean when they describe Jesus as the only begotten, the monogony, Son of God? What does that mean? That’s an important question because, friends, if you’ve studied church history at all, you know that in the history of the church, there were some heretics and heretical groups that arose in the church which understood Christ’s sonship to be proof that Christ is, in fact, inferior to God, they would say. They would say that the fact that the Bible describes Jesus as the Son of God clearly implies that he’s inferior to God the Father. And so, for example, an early church heresy known as Arianism, which is named after the heretic Arius, taught that the title only Son of God proved that Jesus was a created being and not divine or one with the creator.
Now Arius certainly viewed Jesus as an exalted being, in a sense even a divinized being. But in Arius’ view, Jesus was not consubstantial with the Father. In other words, he did not share in the same being or divine essence with God the Father. And one of the scripture proofs that he liked to use to prove this or to demonstrate his view were these references in the New Testament to Jesus as the Son of God. The ancient Aryans have their modern counterparts in anti-Trinitarian cult groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I imagine many of you have had a friendly neighborhood Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on your door, and they want to talk to you about God’s kingdom, and they seem to be very devout, and they like to talk about Jesus as well, but they don’t believe in the same Jesus that we, as Orthodox Bible-believing Christians, believe in.
But again, friends, were Arius and his followers correct in their understanding of Christ as the only son of God? Does the sonship of Christ mean that he is merely a creature, though perhaps a highly exalted one, or perhaps a second-tier inferior deity? Of course, as I hope to show you, the answer to these kinds of questions is a resounding, emphatic no. The Scriptures clearly reveal that Jesus is, in the words of the Nicene Creed, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance or essence with the Father by whom all things were made. Nevertheless, all of this shows how very important it is for us to have a clear understanding in our minds of what it means for Jesus of Nazareth to be identified as the only begotten Son of God.
Eternal life depends upon understanding it correctly, biblically. And that is why we now turn our attention to what we can learn about Christ’s Sonship from our passage for today. And as we turn our attention to John 3.16, I would first of all, brothers and sisters, encourage you to see in this passage that Jesus Christ is here presented as God’s unique Son. This is the first main point in your sermon outline. Christ is God’s unique Son. For God so loved the world that he gave, who or what? His only son, or as it could be translated, his only begotten son, his one and only son, monogamne in the Greek. This term, there’s the Bible scholars and linguists debate about whether it should be translated as only begotten or one and only. but all seem to be in agreement that at the very least this term points to the uniqueness of Christ as the Son of God.
He is the unique Son of God. Now let me set this passage in its context. It’s very important for us when dealing with popular passages like John 3.16 not to yank these passages out of their context because John 3.16 is given to us within an important context. John 3.16 is found within the context of John’s record of our Lord Jesus’ famous conversation with a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus. It is in this famous account that Jesus declares to Nicodemus in chapter 3, verse 3, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” Now, how does Nicodemus respond to this amazing statement of our Lord Jesus? Well, this statement shocks and confuses Nicodemus, which leads our Lord to seek to explain to Nicodemus the mysterious and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in the gift of the new birth.
And Jesus seeks to flesh this out and explain this to Nicodemus in verses four through eight. But of course, Nicodemus still does not get it. As we see in verse 9 where Nicodemus responds to Jesus by saying, how can these things be? I don’t get it, Lord. What are you talking about? In other words, this leads the Lord Jesus to issue a gentle rebuke to Nicodemus that as teacher of Israel, not just a teacher, but the teacher of Israel, Nicodemus should have understood these things. Look at verses 9 through 12. Again, Nicodemus says in verse nine, Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, or amen, amen, which means he’s putting emphasis upon what he’s about to say.
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know. Who’s the we? Jesus and His Father. We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Now keep in mind who Nicodemus was. He’s described by Jesus as the teacher of Israel. He was a Bible scholar. He was a theologian. He was a man who was an expert, viewed as an expert in the scriptures. And yet when Jesus talks to him about the need to be born again, he’s confused. He doesn’t get it. And Jesus says, you’re the teacher of Israel and you don’t understand these things. Then in verse 13, Jesus identifies himself as the son of man who has descended from heaven.
Look at verse 13. No one has ascended into heaven, and here he’s not just speaking of the physical heavens, he’s speaking of heaven as the spiritual realm, the realm in which God dwells in his glory. No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven. Jesus here is pointing to the fact that he was sent from the Father, that he came from heaven, he has his origin from heaven. And he describes himself as the Son of Man. Now we don’t have time again to get into great detail about the title Son of Man, but I agree with those scholars who believe that when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, he wasn’t simply highlighting the fact that he has a true human nature, though certainly Jesus was truly human as well as being truly God, but he is using this Son of Man title to hearken back to the use of that title in Daniel chapter 7.
In Daniel chapter 7, in the prophecy recorded in Daniel chapter 7, the Son of Man figure in Daniel chapter 7 was a heavenly being, indeed a divine being. a being who was ultimately identified as the Messiah. And so by calling himself the Son of Man, Jesus, by implication, is sort of, not so secretly, but in a veiled way, claiming to be the promised Messiah. In any case, He speaks of his origin from heaven, his being sent from heaven as the son of man. And then to illustrate the salvation about which he’s been speaking, Jesus uses an illustration with which Nicodemus would have been very familiar as a teacher of Israel, the teacher of Israel. An illustration that was taken from the history of Israel’s time of wandering in the wilderness prior to conquering the promised land.
Again, Jesus says this, and as Moses, verse 14, 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. I read this account of Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. I read that earlier in the service. And what happened was this, if you recall from what I read. The children of Israel, as was sadly typical of them, began once again to grumble and complain in their unbelief and hardness of heart. They grumbled and complained against God, the God who had rescued them from slavery, and they grumbled against Moses, God’s servant, the mediator of the old covenant, the one who had led them out of their slavery and was leading them through the wilderness under the direction of God.
They complain against God and Moses, they complain about the diet of the manna and what does God do? As a judgment against their sin and hardness of heart and unbelief, God sends poisonous serpents into the camp and many of the Israelites are bitten by these poisonous serpents and die. And so they acknowledge their sin, they confess to Moses their sin, and ask Moses to pray for them that they might be delivered from this curse, the curse of dying from these snakebites. And the Lord directs Moses to do something kind of strange, but interesting. He tells Moses to make a bronze serpent. A bronze serpent, a symbol of the curse that had come upon the symbol of the judgment and curse that was coming upon Israel through these poisonous snakes. And what would happen if you were an Israelite who had been guilty of grumbling and complaining against God and Moses and you get bitten by one of these snakes? you are to go and look at that bronze serpent, that symbol of the curse, but also a symbol of God’s promise to heal everyone who simply looks upon it of death, to heal them from the results of this snake bite.
And you would be spared simply by looking at the serpent that had been lifted up. Well, what Jesus is saying here, in John 3.16, for God so loved the world. Now the temptation is to think, or the tendency rather, is to think of John 3.16 as speaking primarily about the magnitude, the immensity of God’s love. Many understand this to mean for God loved the world so much, But that’s not really what it’s saying. Certainly, the magnitude and immensity and infinitude of God’s love for a lost and dying world is highlighted in this passage. But in the Greek, it is literally for thus or in this way. The Greek is hutos gar. In this way, God loved the world. In this way that has been described in verses 14 and 15. In other words, just as God provided the Israelites with healing from the curse of the snake’s poison, as they simply looked in faith to the symbol of the curse, the bronze serpent, so God in love provided His Son, Jesus Christ, to be lifted up on the cross to bear the curse of sin upon himself so that whoever looks to him alone in faith for salvation from sin will not perish but have eternal life.
You see how much richer and how much deeper John 3.16 is if you read it in light of its surrounding context. Now let me just mention as an aside for those of you who are theology geeks or like to read Bible commentaries, some of you may be aware of the fact that there is scholarly debate as to whether John 3.16 is a continuation of Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus or perhaps the beginning of the Apostle John’s inspired commentary on the significance of the sending of his son, God’s sending of his son. But again, we’re not gonna get into the weeds on that one, we’re not gonna get into the minutia of the scholarly debates, but the point I wanna bring up here is that whichever may be the case, whether John 3.16 was spoken by the earthly, by Jesus in his earthly estate to Nicodemus, or whether this is the apostle John giving his commentary on the words of Christ to Nicodemus, It is still God’s Word.
It doesn’t take away from the truthfulness or authority of John 3.16. So friends, with this context in mind, we again return to the question, what does it mean for Jesus to be the only or the one and only Son of God? This can be a confusing question because the scriptures elsewhere teach that you and I as believers are children, sons and daughters of God. For example, even John himself teaches this in his gospel. Go back to chapter one and look at verses 12 and 13. In the opening prologue of John’s gospel, John writes these words. Let me start actually at verse 11. He says of Jesus, he came to his own, that would be his own people, the Jews, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
So maybe you’re scratching your head and thinking, okay, on the one hand, John 3, 16 proclaims Jesus to be the unique, the one and only, the only begotten Son of God. And yet elsewhere in scripture, we are declared brothers and sisters to be sons and daughters of God. So is this a contradiction? Again, no, dear ones. For Jesus Christ is the monogony, the one and only or unique Son of God. This means that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in a sense that is unique, in a sense that is different from the way in which we believers are sons and daughters of God. His Sonship is unique for it is an original, it is a divine Sonship. If you will, Jesus is the natural, in other words, the divine son of God, whereas you and I are adopted creaturely children of God.
His is a divine sonship. Ours is a creaturely redemptive sonship. Friends, the witness of God’s Word is that Jesus in His divine nature is the divine Son of God by eternal generation from the Father within the Godhead. Again, as this is expressed in the words of the Nicene Creed, Jesus Christ is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made. That phrase not made is a very important statement. It’s a statement against the Arians. Yes, Jesus is begotten of the Father within the divine being, but he is not created. He shares fully with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the one divine essence. So he is the unique Son of God, and we are sons and daughters of God by grace and adoption. He is the divine Son of God.
Are you, dear listener, an adopted child of God through faith in Jesus, the one and only Son of God? Again, as John says in chapter one, verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Believe in this unique Son of God as your Lord and Savior, and you too, by the grace of God, will become a child of God. But not only is Christ revealed to be the unique son of God, Christ is also revealed in this passage to be God’s preexistent eternal son. This is the second main point in your outline. Christ is presented here as God’s preexistent eternal son, meaning that Jesus existed with respect to his divine nature even before he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
The eternal pre-existence of Christ as the Son of God is clearly implied by the language of John 3.16 and many other passages of scripture. And this is an important thing to understand because there are some today, even some who are otherwise Orthodox Bible-believing preachers and teachers, who teach that Jesus only became the Son in relationship to God the Father at his incarnation. And so for example, it’s my understanding that at least at one point in time, I don’t think he teaches this today, I think he’s returned to a more orthodox understanding, but some of you are familiar with the popular preacher John MacArthur. It’s my understanding that at one point at least, John MacArthur taught that before our Lord’s incarnation, Christ existed only as the eternal word, the eternal logos. And MacArthur certainly affirms the eternal full deity of Christ and that he was preexistent and eternal and divine, but what he denied was that Christ was the Son of God before his incarnation.
The title Son of God, in other words, in MacArthur’s view, was applied to Jesus only after Christ became incarnate. But friends, the language of John 3.16 clearly implies that MacArthur is wrong because it implies that Christ was the Son of God before the Father sent him. In other words, John 3.16 implies that Christ was the eternal, preexistent Son of God before the Father sent Him. Think about the language here. The statement, for God so loved the world that He gave, what or whom? Who did God give? His Son. That statement, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, would make no sense at all if the son was not the son before the father gave him. John 3.16 and passages like it do not say that God gave his eternal word, his eternal logos, who then became the son when he was conceived and born.
That’s not what it says. It says God gave his son, his preexistent eternal son. and numerous other passages of scripture confirm the truth that Jesus Christ is the eternal, preexistent Son of God. Let me just take you to two passages as we compare scripture with scripture very quickly. Turn with me if you would to 1 John 4, and let me read verse 9. 1 John 4, verse 9. Again, this is part of the Johannine Corpus, that which is written by the Apostle John. And these words should sound familiar because they kind of mirror and reflect John 3.16. It says this in 1 John 4.9, in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world. Whom did God send into the world? His word, his logos.
No, he sent his only son into the world. Of course, the eternal son of God was also the eternal word, the logos of God, as John chapter one makes clear. But here again, think about the implications of this language. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. Consider also what the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter four, verse four. Galatians chapter four, verse four. Paul writes of Jesus, he says, but when the fullness of time had come, in other words, when it was the right time in redemptive history, the old covenant had been preparing God’s people and preparing the world for the coming of the Messiah, but then came the fullness of time. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth whom?
God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law. Again, all of this supports the truth that Christ is God’s preexistent, eternal Son. We believe and affirm, and historic biblical orthodoxy has always affirmed the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christ is unique. He is the unique Son of God. He is the preexistent, eternal Son of God. And finally, beloved, Christ is God’s divine Son. Christ is the divine Son of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Our Lord’s Jewish enemies understood that his claim that God was his father, and by implication, our Lord’s claim to be the son of God, was a claim to be equal, not inferior to, but equal with God. A claim to be fully divine. This is reflected, for example, in the dialogue between Jesus and his Jewish enemies in John 10, 31 to 39.
Let me just read that very briefly. John chapter 10, verses 31, Through 39, John writes in verse 31, the Jews, here this means the unbelieving Jews, the Jewish leaders in particular who were hostile to Jesus, the Jews picked up stones, again, to stone him. By the way, stoning was the penalty under the old covenant for blasphemy. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him, it is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you being a man, make yourself God. They understood that Jesus was claiming to be God by claiming God as his father and thus claiming to be the son of God.
Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? Here he’s arguing from the lesser to the greater. I said to you, you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be broken, Do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said, I am the Son of God? If I’m not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. But how is it that Christ’s sonship indicates his full deity and thus his full equality with the Father?
How is it that this is the correct view and that the Arians and the followers of the heretic Arius were wrong in viewing the title Son of God as indicating the inferiority of Christ? Well friends, The reason being is that our Lord’s sonship to God the Father as his only begotten Son means that he shares fully in the same divine nature and attributes of God the Father. That’s what the title Son of God points to. He is the Son of God because he shares fully in the Father’s divine attributes, the Father’s divine nature. And we see this reflected on a creaturely level in terms of the relationship of human fathers to human sons. Human sons, they share the same nature and characteristics of their fathers, physically speaking, genetically speaking, and certainly oftentimes in terms of personality characteristics.
That’s just a dim, creaturely reflection of the divine relationship between God the Father and God the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Dear ones, in closing, the full deity of our Lord is one of the clearest teachings in the New Testament Scriptures. And only those who are either ignorant or confused or obtuse don’t get the message. John’s gospel is very clear on the matter of our Lord’s divine nature. In fact, John opens his gospel in the prologue with a very explicit declaration that Jesus, the eternal Logos, the divine word, is indeed God. As it says in John 1, verses 1 through 3, in the beginning was the word, reflecting the language of Genesis 1.1. In the beginning was the word, that’s the Logos, that’s Jesus, that’s Christ. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. With respect to His divine nature, Christ was always and ever shall be almighty God. And the amazing thing, if you skip down to verse 14, it says, and the word became flesh, became incarnate, took upon himself our humanity and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. And many other passages could be brought before us to affirm and support the biblical truth of the full deity of the Messiah, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Again, as our passage for today states so simply, yet so eloquently, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, his unique, one-of-a-kind, preexistent, eternal, divine Son.
What amazing love that the Father would send His beloved Son to be our Savior. As the Scottish theologian Donald MacLeod has written of this passage, and I quote Professor MacLeod, he writes, God could not have made a greater sacrifice. His love is astonishing precisely because at this point He put the world before His Son. The statement God gave the world for His Son would evoke no wonder The statement God gave his son for the world borders on the incredible. God loved the world in this way, that he gave his beloved son so that whoever believes in Him, whoever trusts in Him for salvation from sin, whoever trusts in Him as the one who was lifted up on the cross to bear the curse of God in our place and in our stead, and who three days later was raised up from the dead for our justification, whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
How about you, dear listener? Is Christ the only begotten, one and only Son of God? Is He your Savior from sin? Heed the promise as well as the warning in the closing verses of our passage. The wonderful promise, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Christ came the first time, not to judge the world, but to save His people from their sins, to save a world of sinners. But then he goes on to say, whoever believes in him is not condemned. Take to heart that word whoever. Oh, that can’t be talking about me. I mean, I’m too far gone. No, Christ came to seek and to save the lost. He laid down his life for sinners, even sinners with lots of baggage, even sinners in erratically difficult circumstances.
Christ came to save sinners. Again, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. What a wonderful promise. But then there’s also a warning. Whoever does not believe is condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Dear listener, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in Him. as your Savior from sin, and the Bible says, you will be saved. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, once again we praise you and we thank you for Christ, your eternal, one of a kind, preexistent divine son and for sending Christ to be our savior. We pray that our hearts might be filled to overflowing with gratitude for your amazing love given to us in Christ.
We praise you for the magnitude and immensity of your love for us in the Lord Jesus. In his name we pray and all of God’s people said amen. As we close our time of worship today, let’s rise and we’ll sing together number 288. We come, O Christ, to you. 288.
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