Why does God love this corrupt fallen world? Is it true that God hates the sin, but loves the sinner? Does God love everyone exactly the same. Listen in as Pastor Brian seeks to answer these questions from the Bible’s most well known text.
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The Design: God’s Love
John 3:16
Starting this morning and continuing for the following four Sundays, we will be studying this great, great text of Scripture – John 3:16. Martin Luther called John 3:16 “The Bible In Miniature.” It’s easy to see why he would call it that. John 3:16 begins with God. “For God so loved the world…” Well the Bible begins with God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John 3:16 ends with men either perishing or receiving eternal life. Well the Bible ends with these awesome realities. In Revelation 20-22 we read of all those whose names were not found written in the Book of Life were thrown into the lake of fire. At the same time, all those whose names were written in the Book of Life are admitted into the New Jerusalem, the city where God dwells forever. Then again, right in the middle of John 3:16 we have God giving His Son in sacrifice for sin. And isn’t it an interesting coincidence that right in the middle of our Bibles, we have the Son of God given up to death to pay for man’s sin, separating the Old Testament from the New Testament. John 3:16 truly is the Bible in Miniature.
It has also been called “The Gospel In A Nutshell” because all of the great leading truths connected with the Gospel are found here in seed form. The great forest of divine truth comes out of the seed of this one little verse. In this verse we find such theologically rich words as God, Love, World, Son, Believes, Perish, Eternal Life. Truly, the entire message of the Bible is simply an amplification and expansion on the truths we find in this one single verse.
Therefore, it’s easy to see why this verse of Scripture is the most famous and well-known verse in the entire Bible. Not only that, but it is easily the most famous sentence that has ever been penned. You can’t hardly go to a professional sporting event without seeing someone displaying John 3:16 on a large poster. If you ever go to In-N-Out Burger, you will discover this verse on the bottom rim of their paper cups. Professional football quarterback, Tim Tebow, is known for having this verse printed on his eye black during games. I’ve recently been spotting John 3:16 written all over the streets and curbs of Rancho, especially along Sunrise Blvd. It is probably true that if someone only learns one verse of Scripture, it will be this one. This was probably the first verse of Scripture that I ever learned.
So, what is the message of John 3:16? It is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you were to take the entire Bible and boil it down to its irreducible minimum, you would have the Gospel (the good news of what God has done in Christ to save sinners). And, if you boiled the gospel down to just one verse, it would be John 3:16.
So, for the next five Sundays, we’re going to take a break from our sermon series in Luke, and I’m going to preach on John 3:16. We’re going to look at The Design, The Donation, The Duty, The Destiny, and The Danger. The Design – God’s Love. The Donation – God’s Son. The Duty – Man’s Faith. The Destiny – Eternal Life. The Danger – Perishing. So, join me as we look together at the great great verse of Scripture and discover in it The Design. I’m going to be asking three questions this morning: Who did God love? Why did God love them? How did God love them?
1. Who Did God Love?
Maybe you’re thinking, “That’s insulting! Who do you think I am, some sort of illiterate country bumpkin? It’s says right there, “God so loved the world.” Yes, you are absolutely right. However, what was Jesus referring to when He spoke of “the world”? This is where things can get heated right off the back. You see friends, there has been no end of controversy over those two little words. On the one hand, the Arminian says that “the world” refers each and every individual of Adam’s race without exception. I remember working in a little drive by Copy shack when the individual driving up started witnessing to my co-worker. He handed her a tract with John 3:16 on it. Then he told her to cross out “the world” and write her own name in there. That’s the Arminian answer to the question, “Who is the world?” The Calvinist, on the other hand, usually says that “the world” refers to the elect scattered throughout the world, in every tribe, people and nation of the world. The Calvinist says that it is not talking about the entire collective human race as individuals, but the entire elect as individuals. They say that Jesus was telling Nicodemus not that God just loved the Jews, but that He loved elect Jews and Gentiles in every place of the globe. “OK”, you’re thinking, “so who’s right?” Is it the Arminian who believes it refers to all of Adam’s race without exception or is it the Calvinist who believes it is all the elect? I don’t think that either one of those answers is completely correct.
Both the Calvinist and the Arminian are thinking in terms of how many – either all without exception or the elect of God. However, when John writes of the world in his gospel, he often is not thinking of how many, but what kind. In other words, when John writes about the world, he’s not thinking of how Big the world is, but how Bad the world is.
Let’s take a look at some passages to see this. Let’s begin by looking at the immediate context. In verse 17 John says, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” Well, if the world needed to be saved, then the world was ruined, and in danger of being utterly destroyed. Look at verse 19-20, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” What do verses 19 and 20 teach us about the world? They teach that the world loves darkness (a symbolic image for sin and evil). Not only does the world love sin, but verse 20 says it hates the Light. “Light” in John is a symbolic image for Jesus Christ. John 1:9 says, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” So, what does Jesus in this very context of John 3:16 teach us about the world? He teaches that the world is ruined and needs to be saved, loves sin, and hates Jesus Christ.
Does John give us any other information on “the world” in the rest of his gospel? Yes it does.
John 14:17, “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
1 John 5:19, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
According to these texts, the world hates Jesus, can’t receive the Spirit, and doesn’t know the Spirit.
So, when Jesus said, “For God so loved the world”, this should have produced a shock and a gasp from those who heard it. The reason people are not surprised and shocked today when we tell them that God loves the world is because they don’t know or believe the Bible. People today simply assume and expect God to love them. People today have no problem believing God exercises His love, but they have a very difficult time believing God will exercise His justice. In the 18th century, people by and large believed in God’s justice, and therefore sometimes found it difficult to believe that God loved them. But today, everything’s changed. Bumper stickers galore shout, “Smile God loves you!” That’s what God is good at doing, right? They reason, “Why wouldn’t God love me? I’m so cute and cuddly. Heaven just wouldn’t be heaven without me, right?” No, I’m sorry, my friend, but you are not so cute and cuddly to God.
When God looks down on the world, what does He see? He sees a race of men in rebellion to their Creator. He sees a world of mankind who are condemned, lost, ruined, wretched, and under His wrath. He doesn’t see cute and cuddly. He sees ugly and repulsive! This world is diametrically opposed to everything God is. God is holy. This world is evil. This world is unrighteous. God is righteous. This world loves sin, and God loves holiness.
What John 3:16 is saying is that God loves this rebellious human race, not angels, not birds, not fish, not cattle. God loves fallen mankind. And wonder of wonder, He doesn’t love man as His friend, but man as His sworn enemy! He loves man who hates Him.
2. Why Did God Love Them?
When you think about it, there doesn’t seem to be any good reason why God would love this fallen world. The world loves that which God hates, and it hates that which God loves. The world is not attractive to God, but repugnant. It is not beautiful, but grotesque in His sight. So, why, pray tell, would God love the world? Well, let’s go to Scripture to find out.
1 John 4:8,16, “God is love.”
God doesn’t just have love. God is love. It is God’s intrinsic nature. In fact, many theologians believe that since God is love, this is a proof that God must exist in Trinity. If God is love, then He must have always loved. However, before creation who would God have loved? He must have loved the other Persons of the Trinity. But, that’s another discussion for another day. Let’s take a look at Deuteronomy 7:6-8.
Deut. 7:6-8, “ For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” Now, notice several things in this passage. Why did God love Israel? Was it because they were so mighty, and so strong, and so great? No, they were the fewest of all peoples. Why then? The answer God gives is that He loved them because He loved them. Period. You say, “Lord, what are you talking about? That doesn’t make any sense.” No, actually, it makes a great deal of sense. With God, love is not primarily a feeling, but an action, a choice of His will. Did you see how through that passage God said that He set his love on them. We talk about “falling in love.” That’s because we tend to think of love primarily as a feeling or an emotion. We were just walking along, minding our own business, when all of a sudden we fell into love, just we would fall into a well. Our will and choice had nothing to do with it. We were just overcome with love and this sentimental romantic feeling swallowed us up before we knew what was happening to us. Friends, that’s not Biblical love. That may be Hollywood love, but it’s not the love God has in Himself. God loves, because He chooses to love.
God’s love and our love are very different from each other. We love when we come into contact with someone that is lovely. God loves when He chooses to act in kindness to the unlovely!
In Don Carson’s book, “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God” he gives this illustration.
Picture Charles and Susan walking down a beach hand in hand at the end of the academic year. The pressure of the semester has dissipated in the warm evening breeze. They have kicked off their sandals, and the wet sand squishes between their toes. Charles turns to Susan, and gazes deeply into her large, hazel eyes, and says, “Susan, I love you. I really do.” What does he mean?
Well, in this day and age he may mean nothing more than that he feels like testosterone on legs and wants to go to bed with her forthwith. But if we assume he has even a modicum of decency, let alone Christian virtue, the least he means is something like this: “Susan, you mean everything to me. I can’t live without you. Your smile smites me from fifty yards. Your sparkling good humor, your beautiful eyes, the scent of your hair—everything about you transfixes me. I love you!” What he most certainly does not mean is something like this: “Susan, quite frankly you have such a bad case of halitosis it would embarrass a herd of unwashed, garlic-eating elephants.
Your nose is so bulbous you belong in the cartoons. Your hair is so greasy it could lubricate an eighteen-wheeler. Your knees are so disjointed you make a camel look elegant. Your personality
makes Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan look like wimps. But I love you!”
So now God comes to us and says, “I love you.” What does He mean? Does he mean something like this? “You mean everything to me. I can’t live without you. Your personality, your witty conversation, your beauty, your smile—everything about you transfixes me. Heaven would be boring without you. I love you!” That, after all, is pretty close to what some therapeutic
approaches to the love of God spell out. We must be pretty wonderful because God loves us. And dear old God is pretty vulnerable, finding himself in a dreadful state unless we say yes.
When he says he loves us, does not God rather mean something like the following? “Morally speaking, you are the people of the halitosis, the bulbous nose, the greasy hair, the disjointed
knees, the abominable personality. Your sins have made you disgustingly ugly. But I love you anyway, not because you are attractive, but because it is my nature to love.”
I believe Carson has hit the nail on the head exactly. God loves us, not because we are lovely, but because He is love. He, as an act of His will, chooses to love. God doesn’t “fall” in love. God “sets” His love on us.
All of this brings up a couple of errors that many have bought into.
The Error that Jesus Had to Persuade God to love and forgive sinners. Sometimes people think that the God in the Old Testament was so wrathful, and vindictive. He was always going around sending plagues, and judgments, and killing people. Then, along comes the Son in the New Testament who is so loving and kind. They come to the conclusion that the loving and kind Son went to the cross in order to persuade God to love and forgive sinners. Folks, nothing could be further from the truth! What does our text say? “For God so loved the world that He gave.” The cross was not the cause of God’s love. It was the effect of His love. It was God who loved this fallen race. Because of His love, He sent Christ to die for us. The Father and the Son share the exact same attributes together. Never make that mistake.
The Error that God hates sin but loves the sinner. Now, there’s an element of truth in that statement, but it’s not completely true. Why? Because the Bible says that God hates the sinner. You don’t believe me, do you? Let me show you.
Psalm 5:5, “The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.”
Psalm 11:5, “The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates.”
Psalm 7:11, “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day.”
The testimony of the Word of God is that God not only hates sin, He hates the sinner. Those verses I just read don’t say God hates wicked acts. They say He hates the wicked! Folks, it’s not sin that God is going to throw into Hell. It’s sinners! You see, you can’t really separate sin from the sinner. No, it’s not really true that God hates sin but loves the sinner. The truth is that God hates and loves the sinner at the same time. You say, “That’s impossible! How could God hate and love the same object at the same time?” I feel that way about snow. I love the snow, because it’s so white, and pretty. I also hate the snow, because it’s so cold and nasty. It’s kind of like the guy who watched his mother-in-law drive off the cliff in his brand new car. He hated it and loved it at the same time! You say, “But if God hates the sinner, how can He also love Him.” If God loved like we do, He couldn’t. But God doesn’t love like we do. We love “because” of something in the thing loved. God loves “in spite of” the thing loved. For God, love is not a sentimental feeling or a warm fuzzy emotion. To God, love is a principled action. Therefore, in spite of the fact that God hates the sinner, He also chooses to love the sinner.
3. How Did God Love Them?
That brings us to that tiny little word “so.” For God so loved the world… Often you’ll hear preachers preaching on John 3:16, and they will say, “God sooooo loved the world. He loved it so much.” Friends, that’s not the meaning of this word. The word “so” is not talking about intensity of love, but the method of love. It’s like this – “God loved the world so.” He loved it in this way. It’s not talking about how much God loved, but how God loved. Well, how did He love? God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. The word “gave” in verse 16, is replaced by the word “send” in verse 17. For God to give His Son, means that He sent Him into the world on a mission of mercy to save sinners. God gave His son over. He delivered Him. This is speaking of self-sacrifice. God took that thing that was nearest and dearest to His own heart, the supreme object of His affection, and He gave Him for this world that despised Him.
Here’s a good definition of Biblical love. It’s not original with me. I got this definition from my friend, Mark Webb, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Olive Branch, Mississippi. His definition of love is “a self-sacrificing determination to do another good.” At the expense of God’s own beloved Son, He has made a way of escape for sinners. Any sinner anywhere in this entire world who believes on Jesus Christ will not perish, but have eternal life. God loves this world enough, not just to provide this salvation, but to send His people out to publish this good news to all men. This is what we mean by the free offer of the gospel. God has provided salvation, and freely and sincerely offers salvation to all who hear the message of the gospel. That is how God loves this guilty, condemned world. He sacrifices His own Son to provide salvation, and then invites and commands and exhorts all men to come and partake of it.
Conclusion
The Unconverted – Be Shocked and Amazed at God’s love! If unconverted people knew the truth of the Bible, they would be shocked and amazed to hear John 3:16. They would respond, “Can it really be true?” Instead, no one is surprised. Everyone takes it for granted that God loves them. That’s why no one is desperate about finding the way of escape. No one sees themselves under wrath and divine judgment, headed for Hell. How can they see themselves that way, when the only thing they are ever told is that God loves them. We tell the sinner, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!” Well tell the sinner, “Smile! God loves you!” What we should be telling lost people is something like this: “God is angry with you every day that you spurn His love, and continue on in your sins, and one day He will judge and condemn you unless you turn. However, He also loved you enough to give His Son to die on a cross, so that if you would believe in Jesus Christ, your sins would be forgiven and you would have eternal life.”
When God looks down on this world, what does He feel? The warm fuzzies? No, He feels disgust, hatred and wrath. And yet, in spite of it, because He is love, He has made a gesture of love. My friend, God loved you enough to provide salvation for you. That is real love, because He didn’t have to. He didn’t provide salvation for the angels. The fallen angels are doomed without any possibility of escape. But He loved this fallen race of men. Flee to Christ! Lay down the weapons of your warfare. Surrender to His rule! Let’s say a city has rebelled against its rightful King, and committed insurrection. The King sends messengers to the city to call it to turn and surrender, but they torture and kill the messengers. So, the King comes to destroy the city and all its people. However, before He does so, He amazingly decides to offer amnesty to any and all who will surrender and come under His rule. If they will do that, all will be forgiven. Now, nobody can understand why the King would do this. And nobody can understand why God would not just overlook their crimes, but punish His Son in their place so their crimes receive full justice. God didn’t just sweep our sins under the rug. God laid our sins on Christ, and Christ paid our penalty in full. The Law is satisfied. God’s justice is satisfied. Oh my friend, if you are not a follower of Jesus, be shocked and amazed at God’s love! Flee from your sin and come to Jesus Christ in faith this morning. Believe on Him. Trust Him and you will be saved!
The Converted – You Also Be Shocked and Amazed at God’s love! Why would I tell you to be shocked and amazed at God’s love. It’s because, if you are a Christian, God has loved you in a far greater and different way than He has loved the world. You see, God loved the world enough to give up His Son to death in order to offer salvation to them. God made salvation possible for the world. That’s a wonderful kind of love. But God loves His elect, His chosen ones, in a completely different, and far deeper way. For His Elect, God not only makes salvation possible, but He makes it certain. You see, even though God has provided salvation, all men would reject it, if it weren’t for this other kind of love. If you are a born again Christian, God loved you before the foundation of the world. He set His love on you, before He made this world. He chose to send His Spirit to awaken you, to bring you to life, to open your eyes, and enable you to see the glory of Christ. For you, God not only provided salvation, but He overcame your resistance and enabled you to receive it!
You say, “Brian, what are you talking about? I thought God loved every person in the world exactly the same?” Yes, I know. I was taught that as well. However, it just doesn’t square with the Bible. Let me show you some passages. Please jot these down, and go home, and read them and meditate on them.
Rom.9:10-13, “And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” It can’t possibly be true that God loves every person exactly the same if He loved Jacob and hated Esau.
Ephesians 1:5-6, “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.”
Ephesians 5:25-26, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” Notice, this is love directed not to the world, but to the church. For the church, God did not just send Christ to make salvation possible. For the church, Christ died in such a way as to make her salvation certain. She was washed, sanctified, and cleansed. It is true that there is a sense in which I love all women. But there is another sense in which I love my wife differently, and in a greater way than any other woman. There is a sense in which you love all the kids on your block. But there is also another sense in which you love your kids differently than you love all others. God’s love for His church is far more precious and wonderful than His love for the world.
Colossians 3:12, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved…”
1 Thessalonians 1:4, “knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation.”
Well, if we call God’s love for the world His Pitying Love, what should we call this kind of love. We could give it many names. We could call it His Sovereign Love, His Electing Love, His Covenant Love, or His Saving Love. But the important thing is not what we call it. It is that we experience it! Have you experienced God’s saving love? Did His love go further than just provide salvation for you? Did His love actually reach down, and apprehend you, and awaken you, and convict you, and bring you to faith and repentance, and cause you to walk in His statutes and obey His ordinances? That’s amazing love! Be shocked and astounded, saint of the Lord. Fall on your face before such love in amazement and awe, and worship Him!
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