What If?預覽

What If God So Loved The World?

If you were God, and you loved the world, how would you make that known? If people had sinned against you, but you still loved them and wanted to redeem them, how would you do it? To maintain your holiness and love, you can’t pretend that evil, wickedness, and sin don’t matter. You would have to deal with that if you wanted to bring people into a right relationship with you. So how would you do it?

In the well-known verses of John 3:16-18, we see how God has done that very thing. If God really loved the entire world (meaning all those in the world), you might think his love would be available to everyone. This is exactly what God does through Jesus.

It does not matter where you live, how much money you make, what you look like, or what has been done to you. Through Christ, God has made it possible for anyone to experience his love if they want it.

In fact, if God so loved the world, even though it was costly to him, you might imagine he would still be glad to do so. This is exactly what Hebrews 12:2 tells us. It is not that Jesus was glad to experience physical torture, and even worse, separation from God the Father, with whom he enjoyed eternal fellowship. But he counted it as joy because of what it meant. And because he took our guilt and shame and defeated darkness, we can partake in God’s kingdom.

Many of us have heard that Jesus loves us and died for us, but did you know that he was glad to do it? That is what Hebrews 12:2 tells us.

In fact, if God so loved the world, you would think he would invite us to be with him. That is what he has done through Jesus. God, through Christ redeems us, and he is the one who invites us in. It is not our effort, good works, or promises to be better in the future. It is God who takes the first step towards us.

Knowing that we have all sinned and done things even we would admit are wrong, in order for us to enter into God’s perfect presence, he has to do something with our brokenness. Meaning that if God so loved the world, he would do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. With joy and delight and love, he would make possible what is impossible for us to do.

He would do what Luke 2:1-20 tells us. He would come to save those who could not save themselves. If God really loved the world, I’m not sure you could come up with a better way to show, demonstrate, and reveal this love than what Jesus did and how Jesus did it.

God so loves the world that he came, he came for everyone who would accept him, and he came for you.

Going Deeper

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