Saved
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
You’ve probably heard this verse of the bible before (John 3:16), so let’s just take a look more closely at this one verse that speaks of the most important a person can have–a relationship with God Himself.
For God so loved the world… This phrase tells us something about God, that He is a God of love–even towards this world, which (in case you haven’t noticed) is NOT exactly a place of love. Despite some very nice things about the world we live in, there are some terrible, sad things. What did this love that God has for the world cause Him to do?
…the he gave his one and only Son… Because God loves the world, He gave his Son Jesus to the world. This phrase tells us something about the reason that Jesus came here, two-thousand years ago–He was sent, was given to the world for a purpose. That purpose has to do with the fact of God’s love for the world…
…that whoever believes in him… We are told that to be saved we must believe in the Son who was sent by the Father as a result of the Father’s love for the world. The main idea of this word is to trust in Him. We don’t trust things we don’t believe in, do we? What is it that we trust about Jesus Christ? Simply, that He is God’s provision to bring salvation to the world, specifically, to each person in the world who believes in Him. The book of John goes on to tell of the death of Jesus Christ in the place of sinners. To believe in Jesus is to believe that He died for your sins on the cross.
… shall not perish… In a sense, we are born to die. We do perish, don’t we? Death is our constant companion; the death of our good parts, of our bodies, and the persistent possibility and experience of failure and sin. We begin to perish when we are born, continue to perish throughout life, and one day, finally, physically, we die.
…but have eternal life. A person can be delivered from the perishing! A person can have an experience of eternal life that begins at the point of belief in Jesus Christ, and continues on through this earthly life and into an eternal life in heaven. The awful reality of our own failure and sin, and the certainty of its judgement before a holy God can be avoided by us because of the Son, who died (was given) to perish in our place by bearing the penalty of our sins. We can find life, today!
Complete forgiveness of our sins, and absolute certainty of eternal life can be received today, whenever a person, any person, believes in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. It doesn’t mean that a person will suddenly stop sinning, or will never have any troubles, struggles, or and failures again–it simply means they are now saved from the experience of facing the judgement of God for their sins and failures, because Jesus Christ did that for them when He died on the cross, in their place.
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