#1 Top 40 New Testament Passage: The Gospel (John 3:16)
As part of my personal journey through the season of Lent, I am going to write each day about a verse or passage of scripture in the New Testament, as part of a top 40 list. This list is personal, not the top 40 for all Christians, but my top 40. As I began scanning through the New Testament I quickly realized just how difficult developing this list will be. In the old radio days of top 40 programs counting down to the number one song in America, Casey Kasem would start his countdown with number 40 and end with number one. Since I'm still trying to decide my top 40, I'm going to start with number one.
The number one New Testament verse to remember is John 3:16.
You might say that John 3:16 is the best known verse in all the Bible. It makes national television at sporting events. Tim Tebow caused a ruckus by painting the citation on his cheeks during a televised NFL game. And you can buy apparel, coffee mugs, posters and other items that feature John 3:16.
Why all the hoopla? What's so great about this one verse that it becomes the focus of criticism and praise? Why do some Christians promote the verse at stadium gatherings? The answer is simple. John 3:16 is the gospel in one short easily memorized sentence.
The gospel is a word that means good news. The Greek word often translated as gospel is euaggelion. An anglicized version is evangelion. It's where we get the English words evangelism and evangelical. Interestingly John's account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus never uses the word gospel, and yet his book is the source of evangelical pride. In Greek the word evangelion was sometimes used to speak of good news returning from the battlefield, that the city-state had won the battle. The people need not fear the onslaught of war coming to their homes.
This begs the question, "What battle has been won on our behalf that we might celebrate the good news of victory?" John 3:16 includes a hint of death. God gave us Jesus so that we would not perish. Perish from what?
Let's consider this verse to answer that question.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath. (John 3:36)
John 3:16 is part of a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a religious leader among the Jews who sat upon the ruling council known as the Sanhedrin, of the seventy. He came at night so as not to be seen by others. Nicodemus feared some of the men who wished to see Jesus dead. He dare not be seen associating with such a controversial character as this young teacher from Nazareth. Nicodemus admitted that he realized Jesus must be from God because of the miracles he is able to perform. Rather than confirm Nicodemus' suspicions, Jesus tells him he cannot enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Nicodemus doesn't understand. How can a full growth man enter his mother's womb and be born a second time? Jesus tells him that he must be born from above, by the Spirit. All of us are born into the world through the waters of the womb, but Jesus is saying we all must be born of the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God.
What is the kingdom of God? It is a theocracy, the great vision and hope of Israel, that God will reign forever as the one true king of the Jews, through a divinely anointed servant leader from the line of King David. Through this anointed one (Messiah or Christ) the entire world will live in peace, justice and righteousness because of the universal knowledge of God. (see Isaiah 11:1-9.)
In order for God to establish this theocracy on earth, the enemies of God must be subdued. The New Testament understands there is a battle going on in the heavenlies (the spiritual realm) and in us. It is a battle between forces of evil and darkness and forces of goodness and light. It is a battle for the human soul. To enter the kingdom of God is to be reborn into a new consciousness, suddenly aware of this spiritual reality. That only happens through an act of the Holy Spirit opening our spiritual eyes to see, unplugging our spiritual ears to hear. All humanity is born deaf and blind to this spiritual kingdom. We were once children of wrath.
Why were we born children of wrath? Because we were ruled by and followed sinful and animalistic desires. We lived in ignorance of what pleases God, because we did not know God. Some choose to rebel against God, even though they know what they do is selfish and wicked. This is the life of the lost. The apostle Paul describes the life all of us once lived.
All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. (Ephesians 2:3)
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:17-19)
But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be associated with them. For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light... (Ephesians 5:3-8)
The wrath of God is coming for the disobedient. We were once like them, but because of our faith in Christ, we are saved from God's wrath. What does God's wrath entail? It means perishing. The book of Revelation calls it the second death.
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
Yes folks, John 3:16 is pointing to hell, eternal damnation, and the possibility of salvation from it through trust in the gospel message. (See Matthew 25:46, John 5:29, 2nd Thessalonians 1:9)
Paul wrote, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
Therefore God's wrath for our sins remains on us and death faces us at the time of judgment. What can we do?
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Accept the free gift! The New Testament's good news is that God loves you and sent His only Son Jesus to save you through faith in Him. How did the gift of God's only begotten save us from God's wrath?
Jesus was crucified by nailing his hands and feet to a wooden cross. It was the brutal execution method used by the Romans for any enemies of Caesar and the authority of Rome. Jesus was seen as a political threat because the crowds claimed him to be the king of the Jews, not Herod, Caesar's appointed, nor the emperor himself. The crucifixion of Jesus was meant to put an end to a burgeoning uprising. Instead the church soon realized that Jesus' death, and subsequent resurrection from the grave, was God's victory, not Rome's! Jesus, the messiah, is the Lamb of God, the once for all sacrifice who atones for all sin for all time. The death of Jesus is the debt of our sins erased. God's wrath was superseded by God's mercy. As Abraham prophesied long ago, God will provide the lamb. (Genesis 22:8)
We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:10, 14)
The sacrifice of Jesus is pointed to in John 3:16 when the verse says God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Let's consider a few words in the verse.
agapaō = loved
kosmos = world (the entirety of the created universe)
monogenēs = only begotten (God's only child)
pisteuō = believe, to trust fully in Jesus
apollymi = perish (death)
aiōnios = everlasting (continually ongoing, eternal, having no beginning or end)
The Greek word agape, or the verb agapaō, mean a self-giving love, a sacrificial love, an offering of self to God, a humble caring for others above self. The gospel turns that word on its head. In the case of the gospel God is offering His only Son to the world as a sacrifice to free us from the power of sin and death. It is God's love that is selfless which saves us from perishing.
God selflessly loves the universe, all things seen and unseen, the cosmos! God especially loves you. Jesus speaks of God's intimate love for you. Every hair on our head is numbered! (Luke 12:7) We are worth far more than a common sparrow, and yet when a bird dies, God knows about it. (Luke 12:6) God loves you because you are made in God's own image. (Genesis 1:27) You are special to God. You have a purpose in God. Even though you have sinned, and we all sin and fall short of the perfect righteousness of God, God does not wish you to perish. (2nd Peter 3:9)
The Day of Judgment is coming, according to the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament authors. Paul wrote, "All of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil." (2nd Corinthians 5:10) The good news in the face of divine judgment is that you have a way to stand before God without fear or guilt. The way is faith in Christ. (John 14:6) For His blood shed for you on the cross washes you clean of sin. (1st John 1:7)
Once delivered from guilt and the power of sin and death, we are called to live lives worthy of Jesus. (Ephesians 4:1) We die, in a sense, to the power of sin, and rise in the power of Christ's resurrection to live under the influence of His life-giving grace. (Galatians 2:20) This is what it means to be born again, or born from above of born of the Spirit. The transforming grace of Christ empowers right living through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Everlasting life swallows up mortality. (2nd Corinthians 5:4)
You may ask yourself, "How can I be saved?" "How can I put my trust in Jesus?" The Billy Graham Crusades would lead those who hoped to receive salvation in the following prayer.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name. Amen.
Eternal life is yours as a free gift, because of God's love for you. You only need to trust in the message of the gospel and turn your life over to the leadership of Jesus. The Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, will fill you, sanctify you, and transform your life until you love like Jesus.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)
The number one New Testament verse to remember is John 3:16.
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| John 3:16 Guy |
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
(John 3:16)
 |
| NFL Tim Tebow |
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| John 3:16 Merchandise |
You might say that John 3:16 is the best known verse in all the Bible. It makes national television at sporting events. Tim Tebow caused a ruckus by painting the citation on his cheeks during a televised NFL game. And you can buy apparel, coffee mugs, posters and other items that feature John 3:16.
Why all the hoopla? What's so great about this one verse that it becomes the focus of criticism and praise? Why do some Christians promote the verse at stadium gatherings? The answer is simple. John 3:16 is the gospel in one short easily memorized sentence.
The gospel is a word that means good news. The Greek word often translated as gospel is euaggelion. An anglicized version is evangelion. It's where we get the English words evangelism and evangelical. Interestingly John's account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus never uses the word gospel, and yet his book is the source of evangelical pride. In Greek the word evangelion was sometimes used to speak of good news returning from the battlefield, that the city-state had won the battle. The people need not fear the onslaught of war coming to their homes.
This begs the question, "What battle has been won on our behalf that we might celebrate the good news of victory?" John 3:16 includes a hint of death. God gave us Jesus so that we would not perish. Perish from what?
Let's consider this verse to answer that question.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath. (John 3:36)
John 3:16 is part of a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a religious leader among the Jews who sat upon the ruling council known as the Sanhedrin, of the seventy. He came at night so as not to be seen by others. Nicodemus feared some of the men who wished to see Jesus dead. He dare not be seen associating with such a controversial character as this young teacher from Nazareth. Nicodemus admitted that he realized Jesus must be from God because of the miracles he is able to perform. Rather than confirm Nicodemus' suspicions, Jesus tells him he cannot enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Nicodemus doesn't understand. How can a full growth man enter his mother's womb and be born a second time? Jesus tells him that he must be born from above, by the Spirit. All of us are born into the world through the waters of the womb, but Jesus is saying we all must be born of the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God.
What is the kingdom of God? It is a theocracy, the great vision and hope of Israel, that God will reign forever as the one true king of the Jews, through a divinely anointed servant leader from the line of King David. Through this anointed one (Messiah or Christ) the entire world will live in peace, justice and righteousness because of the universal knowledge of God. (see Isaiah 11:1-9.)
In order for God to establish this theocracy on earth, the enemies of God must be subdued. The New Testament understands there is a battle going on in the heavenlies (the spiritual realm) and in us. It is a battle between forces of evil and darkness and forces of goodness and light. It is a battle for the human soul. To enter the kingdom of God is to be reborn into a new consciousness, suddenly aware of this spiritual reality. That only happens through an act of the Holy Spirit opening our spiritual eyes to see, unplugging our spiritual ears to hear. All humanity is born deaf and blind to this spiritual kingdom. We were once children of wrath.
Why were we born children of wrath? Because we were ruled by and followed sinful and animalistic desires. We lived in ignorance of what pleases God, because we did not know God. Some choose to rebel against God, even though they know what they do is selfish and wicked. This is the life of the lost. The apostle Paul describes the life all of us once lived.
All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. (Ephesians 2:3)
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:17-19)
But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be associated with them. For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light... (Ephesians 5:3-8)
The wrath of God is coming for the disobedient. We were once like them, but because of our faith in Christ, we are saved from God's wrath. What does God's wrath entail? It means perishing. The book of Revelation calls it the second death.
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
Yes folks, John 3:16 is pointing to hell, eternal damnation, and the possibility of salvation from it through trust in the gospel message. (See Matthew 25:46, John 5:29, 2nd Thessalonians 1:9)
Paul wrote, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
Therefore God's wrath for our sins remains on us and death faces us at the time of judgment. What can we do?
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Accept the free gift! The New Testament's good news is that God loves you and sent His only Son Jesus to save you through faith in Him. How did the gift of God's only begotten save us from God's wrath?
Jesus was crucified by nailing his hands and feet to a wooden cross. It was the brutal execution method used by the Romans for any enemies of Caesar and the authority of Rome. Jesus was seen as a political threat because the crowds claimed him to be the king of the Jews, not Herod, Caesar's appointed, nor the emperor himself. The crucifixion of Jesus was meant to put an end to a burgeoning uprising. Instead the church soon realized that Jesus' death, and subsequent resurrection from the grave, was God's victory, not Rome's! Jesus, the messiah, is the Lamb of God, the once for all sacrifice who atones for all sin for all time. The death of Jesus is the debt of our sins erased. God's wrath was superseded by God's mercy. As Abraham prophesied long ago, God will provide the lamb. (Genesis 22:8)
We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:10, 14)
The sacrifice of Jesus is pointed to in John 3:16 when the verse says God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Let's consider a few words in the verse.
agapaō = loved
kosmos = world (the entirety of the created universe)
monogenēs = only begotten (God's only child)
pisteuō = believe, to trust fully in Jesus
apollymi = perish (death)
aiōnios = everlasting (continually ongoing, eternal, having no beginning or end)
The Greek word agape, or the verb agapaō, mean a self-giving love, a sacrificial love, an offering of self to God, a humble caring for others above self. The gospel turns that word on its head. In the case of the gospel God is offering His only Son to the world as a sacrifice to free us from the power of sin and death. It is God's love that is selfless which saves us from perishing.
God selflessly loves the universe, all things seen and unseen, the cosmos! God especially loves you. Jesus speaks of God's intimate love for you. Every hair on our head is numbered! (Luke 12:7) We are worth far more than a common sparrow, and yet when a bird dies, God knows about it. (Luke 12:6) God loves you because you are made in God's own image. (Genesis 1:27) You are special to God. You have a purpose in God. Even though you have sinned, and we all sin and fall short of the perfect righteousness of God, God does not wish you to perish. (2nd Peter 3:9)
The Day of Judgment is coming, according to the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament authors. Paul wrote, "All of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil." (2nd Corinthians 5:10) The good news in the face of divine judgment is that you have a way to stand before God without fear or guilt. The way is faith in Christ. (John 14:6) For His blood shed for you on the cross washes you clean of sin. (1st John 1:7)
Once delivered from guilt and the power of sin and death, we are called to live lives worthy of Jesus. (Ephesians 4:1) We die, in a sense, to the power of sin, and rise in the power of Christ's resurrection to live under the influence of His life-giving grace. (Galatians 2:20) This is what it means to be born again, or born from above of born of the Spirit. The transforming grace of Christ empowers right living through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Everlasting life swallows up mortality. (2nd Corinthians 5:4)
You may ask yourself, "How can I be saved?" "How can I put my trust in Jesus?" The Billy Graham Crusades would lead those who hoped to receive salvation in the following prayer.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name. Amen.
Eternal life is yours as a free gift, because of God's love for you. You only need to trust in the message of the gospel and turn your life over to the leadership of Jesus. The Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, will fill you, sanctify you, and transform your life until you love like Jesus.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)
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