I just saw the video, 3:16 by Max Lucado. He goes through this verse in a devotional sense looking at each part. What an amazing verse. It sums up the essense of the Christian faith. God is justified as good and righteous because he has so loved! He has not been cruel or mean. He is not like man that oppresses and does violence. He so loves. He has responded to our unloving ways with redeeming love. Love that brings forgiveness and eternal life. He has given for us that which is most valuable, his beloved and only divine Son.
When a perfect loving being encounters unloving, uncaring beings who hurt and cause pain, it is repulsive. He has the power to instantaneously do away with his sin-laden creatures. But love is patient and kind. It holds back and is longsuffering. Instead of reacting to the unholy with immediate destruction, he has given his only Son. The Holy meets the unholy and responds with giving love!
"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son" (John 3:17)
What else is left for the one whom God has offered forgiveness and eternal life, giving his Son, yet who rejects this undeserved love? In the final judgement, God will be justified because he gave all in love yet was still rejected. He continues to call out to his enemies to be reconciled. But what remedy is left for those who refuse? God's enemies continually accuse him of cruelity because of the wrath to come. But it is not God who is cruel. For God is loving and gracious toward his enemies; it is they who are cruel and unloving. And love must conquer the enemies of love as is just and fitting.
But what a great and marvelous joy to have one's eyes opened to the beauty and goodness of our great Father in the face of Christ! His love endures forever to those who receive it freely by faith!
John
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