H. Michael Brewer
Crescent Springs Presbyterian
29 August 2004
FOR GOD SO LOVED
John 3:16-17
John 3:16 is a verse I can’t possibly skip over if I’m going to talk about Jesus’ greatest hits. Why
is it a verse so many of us cherish? Maybe it’s because Jesus says so much in so few words. Let’s
unpack it a little.
Jesus begins by assuring us of the absolute certainty of God’s love. For God so loved, or in
common language, “Because God loved so much!” Everything we know about God and everything
we can ever know about God begins with the conviction of God’s love. Creation, providence,
revelation, redemption—these acts of God only make sense in the light of God’s love.
Some would have us believe in a God who is out to get us, a God who only holds back on the
lightning bolts and hellfire because Jesus intervened on our behalf. You’ve heard that notion, right?
God was furious with us for our sins and our rebellion, but Jesus offered himself on the cross in order
to defuse God’s anger and to convince God to give us another chance.
That’s a dramatic story; it’s got a nice flow, a fine narrative structure, but it’s not the Christian
story. In the Christian story, God loves us, has always loved us, and will never stop loving us. Love is
God’s unchanging and unchangeable nature. If I may be so bold, If God were to stop loving, God
would no longer be God, at least not the God who created all things, not the God revealed in the
Bible, not the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.
I have a friend who teaches in the philosophy department NKU. He teaches different courses, but
he always seems to work Plato into the class. I was kidding him about that, and with a sheepish grin
he shrugged and said, “Everything always comes back to Plato.” As a Christian, I have to admit that
for me everything always comes back to God’s love. That’s our beginning; that’s our goal—God’s
love.
So Jesus begins by confirming the certainty of God’s love and then he reminds us of the universal
breadth of that love. For God so loved the world. God loves the whole world. The word used for
world here is a big word. It’s not the word you’d use for land, for instance, or even for planet. This is
a bigger word, a word that embraces everything and everybody. We might even translate it as
“creation” or “universe.” What does God love? God loves all that God has created, and God created
everything!
We human beings can’t quite grasp this. Our own love is so limited. I may love your children, but I
love mine more. In marrying Jan I promised to forsake all others. There is, at best, a hierarchy to
human love. We simply love some people more than others. And, at worst, the hierarchy turns into a
membership list: “I love these people; and I do not love those people. You are on my list. But sorry,
you didn’t make the cut. I’ll call you if I have any openings.”
I’m not saying that’s how it should be. I’m certain that in heaven we will learn to love on a much
higher level. But in the here-and-now, partial and preferential love seems to be the best most of us
can accomplish, and if we not careful, we will project that same limit upon God, and we’ll start
thinking that God loves as imperfectly as we do. We’ll assume that God has more love for Americans
than Iraqis, that God naturally loves a good family man more than a adulterer, that God feels more
warmth toward an impoverished single mom than toward a billionaire corporate raider. We’re willing
for God to love Muslims more than atheists, but we really want God to love Christians more than
Muslims.
But it doesn’t work that way. Mind you, some lives please God much more than other lives do.
Some ways of living give far more glory to God than others. But if we’re going to talk about love, we
have to understand that God loves the whole world, every nation, every race, every faith, every single
person. God’s love reaches as eagerly into a prison as into a church. God’s love longs as fervently for
the prostitute as for the Sunday School teacher. God’s love beckons the junkie and the senator with
equal tenderness.
When Gig Henderson served on the Session, there was a question he often asked the candidates
for confirmation. If you were the only person on earth, would God have still sent Jesus Christ to die
on the cross for you alone? The answer, of course, is a resounding Yes! I don’t know where Gig got
the question, but it always reminded me of what the great theologian Augustine said: “God loves each
of us as if there were only one of us to love.”
What next? The certainty of God’s love! The breadth of God’s love! And then Jesus reveals the
unimaginable depths of God’s love. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son. The
magnitude of God’s love is matched only by the magnitude of the gift God gave us in the name of
love. God loves everything there is to love, and God has given us all there is to give. God has given us
the most precious thing God could give—Jesus Christ, God’s own Son.
We read the story of Abraham laying his son Isaac on the altar, ready to offer his only child to
God, and we are humbled by how much Abraham loves God. But remember, Abraham didn’t have
to follow through. He didn’t really have to give up his son. God takes the next step. God surrenders
the beloved Son into the hands of sinners and allows him to die on the cross for our sake.
What would it cost you to willingly give up the person you love most in the world to a terrible
death? That’s what it cost God to love you and me. That’s what it cost God to love you and me from
the depths of the divine heart. Jesus Christ on the cross is the unassailable sign and seal of a love
beyond measuring, a love without limits, a love that will go the distance and keep going, a love that
does not count the cost of our redemption. Having seen how much God loves us, we cannot doubt
that God will be there for us no matter what. Writing to the Roman Christians, Paul puts it this way,
“Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us
Christ, also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32 NLT).
The certainty of God’s love! The breadth of God’s love! The depths of God’s love! And finally
the results of that love. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. God’s love made manifest in Jesus confronts
us with a choice—a stark, absolute choice between living eternally or perishing. Let’s be very clear
what God is hoping for. God wants us to live. God wants our company through eternity. God desires
the destruction of nothing God has made. “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the
world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” I know someone will take me to task
for this, but I’m going to say it anyway. God doesn’t send people to hell. God doesn’t want to and
God doesn’t need to, because without God we are already in hell. If we reject the love that gives us
life, of course we perish. But that’s not God’s choice; that’s ours.
You fall overboard in the middle of the ocean and you don’t know how to swim. Someone throws
you a life ring, but you slap it out of the way and you say, “I don’t want that!” What do you think
happens next? You drown! You perish! And whose choice was that? As the Letter to the Hebrews
reminds us, “How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3 NRSV). God did
not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him.
The certainty of God’s love, its depth and breadth, and the saving power of that love. Martin
Luther called this verse the gospel in miniature. I understand what he meant, but I’m going to differ.
There’s nothing miniature about this verse. This is big stuff. There’s nothing bigger than God’s love.
Soli Deo Gloria!