Considering Love

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” –John 3:16 (KJV)

John 3:16 is said to be the most memorized verse of Scripture in the entire Bible. We learn it as children. It remains with us for the entirety of our life. We study it, appreciate its message, accept its truth by faith, and believe it with all sincerity.

Love? How could God “so love” the world that He would give His only begotten Son to restore the broken fellowship that sin wrought?

Countless scholars have written about it in an effort to explain. Millions of preachers of the Word have expounded upon it in attempts to clarify and elucidate the message. Unnumbered teachers have thought of ways to make clear and understandable the impact of the verse’s message and the extent of God’s love it expresses. For me, a degree of understanding—enough that I could accept it on faith—came when I was told to put my name where “whosoever” is in John 3:16, and read it thus: “that if Ethelene will believe in Him she will not perish but have everlasting life.” That simple exercise opened the magnificent truth of the verse to me so that I accepted the truth of God’s love and believed.

The Greek word used for love in this verse is “agape.” In “agape” love, it does not begin in the human heart but in the heart of God. Coming from God, and undeserved, for it cannot be earned, it extends to all persons who will accept His love by faith. Agape love is evidence of and foretaste of the goal of God’s purposes for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Agape love brings restoration and redemption, and eternal life.

I read the story of the conversion of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1832-1893), noted English clergyman. On January 6, 1850 a severe snowstorm hit the city of Colchester, England. Spurgeon was a teenage boy under deep conviction. Both his grandfather and father were preachers, but somehow Spurgeon had not been able to trust in the Lord for his own salvation. On that particular Sunday, the snow was too deep for him to go to the church he normally attended. He made his way to a small chapel where a lay person was substituting for the minister who could not get through the snowstorm to meet his preaching obligation. The layperson took his text from Isaiah 45:22: “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” The layperson in his halting way said “Anyone can look to Jesus. Even a child can look. God loved us so much that we only have to look to Him for salvation. Whosoever will, may look.” Then spying Spurgeon, looking miserable on the back row of the little chapel, the man said, “Young man, all you have to do to be saved is just look to Jesus!” That was the moment of revelation for Charles Haddon Spurgeon. That day his heart was opened to the love of Jesus. In reading his biography we know how many years he diligently gave himself to loving Jesus Christ and being a marvelous preacher proclaiming Christ’s love to others. In one of his sermons on John 3:16 Spurgeon said: “How sad that anyone should perish for lack of knowledge of the love of God. Jesus is near the seeker when he is tossed upon oceans of doubt. The sinner has but to stoop down and drink and live.”

The words of Frederick M. Lehman are a poetic expression of God’s magnificent love: “The love of God is greater far, than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell.” Thank you, God, for Your immeasurable love, reaching to even me! – Ethelene Dyer Jones 02.01.2015.