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John 3:16 - Why Did God Send His Son?
I've got a little gift under the Christmas tree with my name on it, from my kids. I'm looking forward, tomorrow morning, to opening that gift. When I was a kid, one night shortly before Christmas, I found a gift under the tree with my name on it, so when nobody else was around, I opened it up very carefully. I seem to remember that it was a Rubik's Cube. So I played with it for a while and then wrapped it carefully back up and put it back under the tree. Now, if I did that tonight, after our kids go to bed, how do you think they would feel? Wouldn't you agree that we don't give gifts to people we love hoping that when they open them they will put on a fake smile and lie to us about how much they wanted a new pair of socks? We give gifts, especially wrapped gifts, because we want to give pleasure to someone we love. It's even better when we can enjoy their pleasure in person and watch the look on their faces when they open their gifts, isn't it?
On the other hand, I suppose some people give gifts at Christmas time because they feel pressured into it, like they have to. Somehow it matters to us that thought goes into the gifts we receive. It matters to us that our loved on didn't just grab something off a shelf and wrap it without bothering to notice what it was. If someone begrudges giving a gift, it's not any better than giving a gift out of duty is it?
This raises a good question about Christmas. Whether we open gifts on Christmas morning following the example of the Magi from the East, or because they are supposed to remind us of God's gift to mankind in the sending of His Son, we should at least stop and spend a few minutes on Christmas Eve thinking about why God sent His Son?
What does John 3:16 tell us about why God sent His Son? Let me put it on the screen for you. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." How would you answer this question from this verse? I'm going to guess that most of us would say, "God sent His Son because that's how much He loved the world." Ever since I was a kid, however, I've had some trouble with that answer. Because it just raises more questions. Like, since Jesus came to die on the cross, and God sent Him because that's how much He loved the world, does that mean that God loves the world more than He loves His Son? Isn't that sort of like child abuse? But in fact, John 3:16 does not say that God sent His Son because of how much He loved the world. Indeed, God does love the world with a love beyond measure, but that's not why He sent His Son. I want you to take notice of that third word in the verse; the word, "so".
The word, "so" is translated from the Greek word outws, which is in turn related to the word for the pronoun, "this," and usually means, "in this manner" or, "in this way".[i] So the word "so" in John 3:16 means "like this" or "in this way". If you have an English Standard Version of the Bible with you, you might notice that there's a little footnote beside the word "world", which corresponds to an entry at the bottom of the page that gives the alternative translation, "For this is how God loved the world..." I think we've all read or heard this verse so often that we've maybe assumed we knew what it meant without even really thinking it through. But you know what? Since the verse says that God loved the world, and that His giving of His only Son was how He loved the world, we can at least be sure about this: that God put thought and care and love into the gift He gave us when He sent His Son. So let's put some thought and care into making sure we unwrap this gift and appreciate the thought the Giver put into the original and ultimate Christmas Gift.
The first thing we can unwrap from John 3:16 is that God chose a particular way to love the world: He gave His only Son. The "giving" of His Son began with Mary's conception, then with the birth of the Eternal Son of God in human flesh. But when we think about His "giving" of His Son, we also need to include the dying of the Son. God gave His Son to die. Jesus' death was not plan "B"-it was plan "A-Z". In fact, the writer of this Gospel of John, also wrote a little letter near the end of the New Testament which we call 1 John. And in that letter, in 1 John 4:9-10, he wrote, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." So we can't even talk about God's love for the world without mentioning Christmas and Easter; the birth of Christ and the death of Christ. This is how God loved the world: that He gave His Son.
The second thing we can unwrap from John 3:16 is that the way God chose to love the world, by the giving of His Son, had a purpose. The purpose is in the words, "that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." The word, "that" points to the purpose for which God gave the Son. In other words, God put thought into what His gift would say to the world: it would say He loves us. But He intended that something should happen as a result-He intended that the Gift not just sit under the tree... It has to be unwrapped. We have to believe "in Him". Not "about Him", but "in Him". Trust in Him, put confidence in Him, rely on Him-that's what "believe in Him" means. Going back to 1 John 4:9, the actual words don't just say this is how the love of God for the world "was made manifest among us"-the words don't say if it was the love of God for the world or the love of God for His Son. It does say, this is how the "love of God was made manifest among us". I'm suggesting that when God sent His Son to be born as one of us, to live among us and to die for us, He was "manifesting" or showing His loving nature-His love for Jesus, for the world, for Creation, for Himself.
Christ's coming, His first Advent, was a gift to be unwrapped by everyone every time they think of it, read of it or hear of it. Think about the words, "whoever believes in him". Picture the best gift ever sitting under the tree. There are two kinds of people who see this gift: those who "perish" and those who don't. The first kind see this gift and say, "I don't love it-I don't love Jesus, I don't want Him, I don't need Him." When they do that they reject the very love of God. It's not that they perish because of how they treat God's gift. It's that they were already going to perish. They were enemies of God. They treat the Gift, the sending of Jesus Christ, in keeping with their hatred of God (that's what it is). I would suggest there is only one right thing to do with this Gift: to "believe in Him," to trust in Him, rely on Him for forgiveness of sin, for life, for happiness, for meaning. I said that God loved the world like this: by giving His Son, but also that God manifested His loving nature like this. You see, when the world sees the birth and life, the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are expected to love Him, cherish Him, above everything else-like God does. Because when God sent His Son, it was above all else, out of love for the Son that He did it. God wants us to know what we are unwrapping, and know the thought behind it. That He loves His Son so much, He gave Him to us to share in the joy of knowing Him.
This Christmas Eve, we remember that our Heavenly Father gave us the gift of a Saviour. He shares our joy. But even better, we also praise the Father that He sent His Son to give Him a gift: a people from every nation saved in His name-and we share His joy!
