God loves you (John 3;16-18)

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him.  But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.

I like these verses in this chapter 3 of John.  The whole chapter would be good for anyone to read.  It's a dialogue with Nicodemus, one of the religious leader of that time who was curious about who Jesus was.  One of the most important verse in the Gospel, if not the whole Bible is John 3:16 and yet it still needs to be meditated upon for insight.

Questions like:  1) What is God's love?

                           2) How can he be mad at me if he loves me?

                           3) What did it mean to God to give his only Son in order to love the world?

First of all, God's love is very beautiful and pure.  So much so that it is misunderstood.

God's love is practical, he thought,"How can I love the world in a constructive and positive way and he went ahead and gave them,(the whole world, past, present and future generations) His Only Son.  He willingly gave them his Son, His Son came to the Earth voluntarily knowing he would be crucified from the beginning.  God didn't send his Son and then found out it was a mistake when he saw what they did to him.  The world in response to his wonderful love for them, brutalised him, wounded him and killed him and even though he willingly came, the whole world, past, present and future generations is held responsible for the Cross.

Secondly,  The wrath of God, this feeling that you have that God is mad with you is a separation that you experience from him before your salvation.  Once you have accepted and believed and keep believing in the Son of God it will go away.  You will be forgiven of your sins and you will have a relationship with him.  Because the verse 7 in this same chapter Jesus says: "Don't be surprised at my statement that you must be born again..."

Through this wrath, he loves you because it's written and what is written with God is a promise.  This wrath though remains with you if you don't believe until judgment day when there will be a separation made with the "sheep" (those that have trusted Jesus) and the "goats"(those that have not trusted in Jesus)

I like to make this very clear that it is your faith that make you right with God and not your good works at the religious ceremonies.

Thirdly, his only Son meant the world to him, literally.  Just imagine a father giving his son away to a good cause only to have him back bruised and abused in the process.  The Father received his Son back in the hope that the whole world would be saved but now only a small portion of those past, present and future generations will be saved and yet God still gives daily of his love to us not expecting anything in return.  That is what God's love means for you and me, a sacrificial love.  He is worthy also of our love in return.  Think of the risk the Father took when he gave us his Son.  The return could have been "nothing".

He just did it for you and the whole world many times over.

Have a great day!