“For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

1. God: The Bible acknowledges God’s existence, as Creator, as our Sovereign, as almighty and all knowing. It gives proof that He exists through the many supernatural signs and miracles witnessed by the biblical authors. It tells of His nature – loving, just, merciful, compassionate, long-suffering, gracious, good, kind, forgiving and more.

2. World (Mankind): God created man in His own image – with intelligence, emotions, an appreciation of beauty, and a free will, and He desires to have a relationship with each of us – communicating to us through His word, His Spirit, Jesus and nature. And we communicate with Him through prayer.

3. Loved: We may not know all the reasons God created us, but one reason is love. A major part of God’s nature is love, and He created us to love us, to demonstrate His love by loving us. He loves us unconditionally – when we are good and even when we are bad – like good parents love their children.

4. Perish (Sin and its result): When God made us with a free will, He also gave us a conscience to know right from wrong – right being what He wants us to do and wrong being what He doesn’t want us to do. But all of us sometimes do what we know or believe to be wrong – we go against what we know He wants us to do. God is not pleased when we do this just like parents are not pleased when their children do wrong. The Bible calls this wrong sin and teaches that it has a drastic result – death (we perish, we die physically and spiritually).

5. Son (Jesus): But, since God loves us, the Bible says He doesn’t want anyone to perish, but for all to have eternal life – a spiritual life that starts on earth and survives the physical death of our earthly bodies and continues into eternity with God. God knew we would all fall short and end up as sinners – even those who try hardest, so even before He created us, He had a plan to save or rescue us from our sin. He would come Himself – in the form of a being that was both God and man – conceived in Mary’s womb by His Spirit to be born of a woman –Jesus – the only begotten Son of God. God’s plan for saving us was to pay the penalty for our sins Himself. Jesus not only lived and taught us God’s will, but His main mission was to die for you and me, which He did when He was crucified on a Roman cross. He took the punishment for our sins that we might be forgiven.
(Of course, we know that Jesus didn’t stay dead – on the 3rd day – just as He said would happen – He rose from the grave. He spent the next 40 days encouraging His disciples and commissioning them to share the Gospel with the world, then ascended back to heaven to be at the right hand of the Father.)

6. Gave (Gift of everlasting life): God decided to die in our place before we were ever born, so it is not something that we have earned or deserved – it is a gift to each one of us from God. But we don’t get the gift automatically, we have to receive the gift. Picture God stretching out His hand to you with the gift in it. To get it you must reach out and receive it. So, the question is, “How do you receive His gift of forgiveness and eternal life?”

7. Believes (Faith in an attitude of repentance): The answer is found in the Bible: “Repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.” Repentance is an attitude change. It is admitting to God you have a sin problem and you want to stop sinning and start living the way God wants you to live. Faith means, in an attitude of repentance, believing in, trusting in, relying on what Jesus did for all of us, including you and me, on the cross. To believers the Bible says it was by God’s grace you have been saved through faith in what He did for you through Jesus, not as a result of your good deeds or good works. The moment you believe, you receive His gift – forgiveness, eternal life, heaven, peace with God.

8. Whosoever (Available to everyone): Now that it is clear what John 3:16 means, do you believe? Whosoever means God did this for every single human being. Why not admit to God that you too need to be rescued and believe in this wonderful thing God has done for you and receive God’s forgiveness?