For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16 

God has a grand purpose in His gift of Christ to us.  Christ declares it in our text: ‘that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’  God’s grand purpose is to save us.  Because of the sin of our first parents, we are sinners by nature.  Because of our natural depravity, we are sinners by choice.  Apart from the intervention of God, this will not end well for us.  If God allows us to go on in our natural state and condition, we will endure the eternal punishment which is unavoidable for breakers of the Law of God.  God has not left us to this end.  Because He would save whosoever believes in Him, He has sent Christ into the world to live perfectly and by that life, satisfy the Law in precept.  By His substitutionary death, Christ has satisfied the Law in penalty.  Therefore, whosoever believes in Him has eternal life.  This is the grand purpose of this wonderful gift.  We receive it freely, but it has cost God dearly.  If you have not embraced this gift, ‘now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.’  God’s grand purpose is for you to have everlasting life. 

Our Great God and Our Savior, 
We rejoice in the saving life and death of Christ. 
We praise You that by these things, 
He has satisfied the Law for us in every respect. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16 

What is the highest motive for anything that anyone does?  We have some motivation for everything we do.  These motives may be simple to complex and they may be good or not so good.  When we do anything ourselves, we want to examine our own motives carefully.  When we begin to consider the summary statement which Christ made to Nicodemus regarding God’s gift of ‘His only begotten Son; we hear Christ identifying the Father’s motive when He says, ‘For God so loved the world.’  This is His declaration of what is the highest motive for anything that anyone can do.  Every other motive that anyone can have pales in contrast to this highest of motives.  Love as a motive brings to pass the greatest of sacrifices.  Love motivated God the Father to send Christ into the world.  Love motivated Christ to endure His life of humiliation, which culminated in His substitutionary sacrifice.  If we learn anything from God the Father, and from Christ, we should learn that if we would imitate them, we must consider love to be the highest motive for anything that we do.  Besides that, we ought also to continually marvel at the love which God has demonstrated in His sending of Christ into the world for us.  

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You show us by Your own great example, 
what love is. 
We praise You that because You have loved us, 
we love You and grow in that love from day-to-day.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16 

The love which God exhibits is vital, active, and powerful.  It is effective in every way.  Christ was in conversation with Nicodemus, who was a member of the separatist group which taught religion to the people of Israel.  They considered themselves to be greater in their spiritual, moral, and ethical behavior to the common people.  They were educated and educators in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as all the commentaries upon those Scriptures.  Christ shocked Nicodemus, who seems to have been a genuine enquirer, by saying, ‘you must be born again,’ indicating his need for spiritual transformation.  In the midst of His expounding of truth to Nicodemus, Christ uttered the words of our text.  This is a summary statement of the practical effects of the love of God.  He begins this statement with, ‘For God so loved the world,’ or ‘For God in this way loved the world.’  What follows will be the articulation of what that love has produced in real time.  It shows that the highest form of love is more than mere theorizing or profession ‘God in this way loved the world that He gave…’  This is vital, active, and powerful love. 

Our Glorious Living God, 
we rejoice at Your wondrous love. 
We praise You that we see  
the most powerful manifestation of it, 
in the person and work of Christ. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16 

We consider things that are one-of-a-kind to be priceless.  DaVinci’s ‘Mona Lisa,’ Michelangelo’s ‘David,’ and Beethoven’s 3^rd Symphony, all fall into the category of things we would count as priceless because of their quality and uniqueness.  In our text, Christ is referring to the gift which God has bestowed upon us as ‘His only begotten Son.’  Regardless of whatever else it may mean, the term at the minimum must mean ‘only-one-of-a-kind.’  In giving Christ to us, God has bestowed upon us the most priceless gift in cosmic history.  No other gift which He could bestow upon us rivals the gift of His Son.  Apart from Christ, no other gift which we have received from God ranks higher in value because so many of the other gifts we have proceed upon the basis of this one great Gift.  Therefore, Christ has priceless value and we value Him as priceless in our eyes.  He is, as Paul declares Him, ‘God’s unspeakable gift.’  Because He is, He is worthy as the primary subject of our thinking, teaching and preaching.  Every other subject pales in contrast to the teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ.  For this reason, we make much of Him.  He is ‘the only begotten Son’ and Our Redeemer. 

Our Gracious God and our Heavenly Father, 
we rejoice in the priceless gift of Your Son. 
We praise You that He has done all things well, 
and that we are complete in Him. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16 

God has a grand purpose in His gift of Christ to us.  Christ declares it in our text: ‘that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’  God’s grand purpose is to save us.  Because of the sin of our first parents, we are sinners by nature.  Because of our natural depravity, we are sinners by choice.  Apart from the intervention of God, this will not end well for us.  If God allows us to go on in our natural state and condition, we will endure the eternal punishment which is unavoidable for breakers of the Law of God.  God has not left us to this end.  Because He would save whosoever believes in Him, He has sent Christ into the world to live perfectly and by that life, satisfy the Law in precept.  By His substitutionary death, Christ has satisfied the Law in penalty.  Therefore, whosoever believes in Him has eternal life.  This is the grand purpose of this wonderful gift.  We receive it freely, but it has cost God dearly.  If you have not embraced this gift, ‘now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.’  God’s grand purpose is for you to have everlasting life. 

Our Great God and Our Savior, 
We rejoice in the saving life and death of Christ. 
We praise You that by these things, 
He has satisfied the Law for us in every respect. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning