So…

The verse you have just read must be the most famous and most quoted verse in the Bible. I’ve seen it on T-Shirts, placards, sprayed on walls and placed on large, illuminated signs.  However, because we know it so well and many can quote it verbatim if requested (and even if not), it can often lose some of the impact it should have on our lives. In discussing this verse with a friend, he drew my attention to the simple two letter word ‘so’.  Without it, this verse would lose some of the amazing power God intended it to have on our hearts.

If I was to tell my wife I loved her, that would be powerful. If I were to tell her that I so loved her, it would carry even more impact. That is what the word ‘so’ does in this context. It emphasizes the depth, power and grace of God’s love for you and me, no matter how we might feel about ourselves.

Now, what I’ve never really done before is to put this amazing verse into its true context. When I did it shone a new light onto it that I wanted to share with you. The context of the preceding verses is Jesus’s discussion with Nicodemus ,a truth-seeking member of the Jewish ruling council. The two verses that precede John 3:16 record Jesus saying, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.”

God loves you in this way. He doesn’t do it by being some sickly sweet, gentle ‘what you do doesn’t matter’ type of God who will welcome everyone into heaven regardless of whether they believe in Him or some other god or none at all. Nor does He do it by being the sort of supreme being that may or may not love you based on how you think, speak and behave every moment of every day. No, God loves you by invading your imperfect life that is utterly incapable of lifting you up as your preferred solution to your own and the world’s problems. Instead, God comes bursting in as the real thing, as a living, breathing person who was ready and willing to die in your place.

If God comes to you so that He can be lifted up on Golgotha’s cross as the heavenly antidote to the sins of the world, you no longer need to wonder what God might be up to in your own darkest nights of the soul. Here He is. In this particular person, Jesus of Nazareth, you have the embodiment of God’s love, filled with unquenchable love for you. That means you have a God you can believe in. Jesus lays himself out in a way you can trust Him. Completely! This means that if you fully put your trust in Him, and believe He died in your place for all your sins past, present and even future, then darkness is done for, because the Word has pitched a tent among us. He dwells with you now and forever!