Max Lucado
is quoted as saying, “If our greatest need had been information,
God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had
been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need
had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need
was forgiveness, God sent us a Saviour.”[1] This is what God did: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV). [Emphasis
mine]
Notice the surrounding context:
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 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.
So the word “gave” refers to both vv 14-15 in that he was given to be “lifted up” and
refers to verse 17, he was given in the sense of the incarnation. The term “lifted up looks up to Calvary’s
cross and yet even beyond to Christ’s exaltation. “Jesus is predicting his
death on the cross as both his exaltation to glory and the basis of salvation
for sinners.”[2]
This text
assumes that God could have left the world in its present condition: perishing.
But he intervened and “gave” His Son to save everyone who would believe. “It’s
just as amazing — only a million times more so — as if you should say to your
son, “There is something I want you to do for me: I have some enemies that
deserve to perish, and I want you to go and die in their place, so that they
can have eternal life.” Whatever else you know about God, make sure you know he
is like that.”[3]
God is the initiator.
This verse speaks of our response, but the emphasis is that God took the
initative. Think of it: We could not love
God unless he first loved us. If he hadn’t made the first move we would have no
relationship. There would be no forgiveness, no righteousness, no adoption, no
future, no hope, unless “God gave.”
In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C.S.
Lewis describes a time in his early atheist life when he understood existence
through the lens of the playwright. It was clear to him that, “if Shakespeare
and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare's doing. Hamlet could
initiate nothing.”[4]
The amazingness of grace is just that. If God and man were ever to meet, God had to
initiate. He did. He gave.
Thank you Father that
your love for us was so intense and so intentional that you took the
initiative, you moved first to save those who would believe in you. You could have walked by, but you didn’t. All glory and thanks go to you. Thank you Lord.
[1] https://www.quotes.net/quote/38331
[2] Osborne, G. R. (2018). John: Verse by
Verse. (J. Reimer, E. Ritzema, D. Thevenaz, & R. Brant,
Eds.) (p. 83). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3] https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/god-so-loved-the-world-part-1
[4] C.S.
Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (New York:
Harcourt, Brace, 1956), 223-224.
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