Love Says It All
For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Love Went to the Extreme
No one would question the Riches of God. No one would even question the extravagance that God poured into His Creation. From the great expanse of millions of galaxies to the tiny detail of the snowflake, God Almighty has made all things beautiful and with elegance. No one but a fool would have any reservations with the words of the Psalmist who proclaimed that the heavens declare the Glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1. There is one work in which God spared no limit and went beyond magnificence to the point of extreme. When God sent His Son into the world, that was by far the most extraordinary, the most expensive, and the most extravagant Act of God for all Times. God’s Love was expressed in extreme terms. His Love demonstrated the extent that God was willing to go to save mankind from perishing.
Love went to the extreme. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. There are five extremes to be noted in the offering of God’s Greatest Gift. The first extreme is in the Word “So.” This expression of “So,” meant that God was so moved with Love that He was willing to give anything and that was exactly what He did. He spared no expense because of the overwhelming Love that The Almighty had for lost humanity. His Love was so gracious, so pure, so caring, and so mighty that it became the basis for His Divine Action. “So” means excessive. “So” embraces the boundless expectation of such Love. While gave to the extreme, He did not give in vain. God knew that what He gave and why He gave would reap the Ultimate Benefit of complete redemption.
Love went to the extreme in that God gave the irreplaceable. The Lord God could have offered anything and none of us would have realized the difference. God could have sacrificed any one or all of His Mighty Angels and no one could have successfully challenged Him. That was not the Gift that God gave. God gave His ONLY Begotten Son. He had ONLY one Son and that was the Gift that God would offer. This is indeed the most precious Gift. It was rare in that there was only One Holy Son and God was willing to give Him. Love went to the extreme.
The third extreme of God’s Love was the grant bestowed on every person on earth. All qualified for this Gift. There were no exceptions. There were no candidate qualifications. If you would read closely, there are no conditions for becoming a recipient of this Extravagant Gift. One must simply “believe.” The word “whoever” or in the King James proper, “whosoever” really implies that everyone was invited to apply for this Gift. Why would God offer this precious Gift to anybody and everybody? It was Love. The murderer, gambler, liar, and thief has the same access to His Beloved Son. The drug addict and the dealer as well as the extortionist and the swindler may all come and receive this Holy Offering of God’s Amazing Grace. Yes, God’s Love went to the extreme.
But wait there is more to this extreme Love. God not only gave His Gift to the whosoever; not only did God give His ONLY Son; not only did God “So” Love the world with this excess; but God gave it to rescue the perishing. This is amazing! Who was going to perish? Everyone was going to perish. God spared no limit because the need was so desperate and the peril was so great. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. We must understand that God had other options. He is Creator and He could have just created another world and other humans who would be less inclined to sin. But that was not what He did. He was willing to sacrifice His Greatest Gift for a world of losers. We had all lost, and we were all lost and on the quick road to perishing. God went to the extreme to save ALL the perishing souls of mankind.
Wait, there is more. God’s Gift of His ONLY Begotten Son was given with an extreme guarantee. All recipients of this Gift will receive Everlasting Life. Everlasting life means it is the life that will never end. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. I would have to say that is extreme. Please understand that this Gift did not grant eternal life to mean eternal existence. God’s Love so transforms the Believer so that their life is fit for Eternity. They are miraculously transformed into the children of God.
Love Overcame Barriers
We may not be aware of the barriers God overcame in order to deliver perishing souls. Love worked and is still working to overcome the barrier of selfish fascination. Love overcame the barrier of sin’s contamination. Love overcame the barrier of Satan’s domination. Love overcame all these things in order to keep us from perishing.
The human race was all about “selfies” long before the invention of the cell phone. Even with the knowledge that we would perish, mankind could not bring themselves to the place of repentance without God’s Love. God made a count of the righteous people in the world for all time and the number came to zero. There is no one righteous, no not one. Romans 3:10. Mankind not only failed in the effort for good, but even failed in the desire to be good. But Love conquered the hearts of many and drove them to their knees in repentance toward God. That’s Love. I knew that Mama loved me, but if I was called to eat and I didn’t answer or if I said I didn’t want what she had prepared; she would put the food back in the pot. But God’s Love kept knocking at the door of our hearts until we finally opened the door. Yes, self-fascination was conquered by God’s Love.
We also praise God for removing the barrier of sin’s contamination. Sin is so enticing but it is also deadly. Holy God cannot accept sin. It is literally impossible for anyone to justify themselves before God due to the fact that we are contaminated by sin. But Love conquered our sin when Jesus, Who knew no sin, was made sin for us so that we would become the Righteousness of God through Him. (2 Cor. 5:21) In other words, Jesus took your messy and nasty sin and gave you His Righteousness. The world (another extreme) was filled with sinners. They were all filthy, poor, wicked, unfit, evil, malicious, prideful, unthankful, indecent, conniving, miserable, offering nothing of value, worth nothing of value to anyone else but God. But Love saved anyway. That’s Love!
Love not only conquered the selfish fascination and sin’s contamination, but it also removed Satan’s domination. Satan hated God so much that he imprisoned all of the human race because they were made in the image of God. (see Genesis 1:26). Satan took away their authority that God had given them. He stole their joy and gave them misery instead. Satan seated himself as ruler of the earth and declared his dominion over all the people of the earth. Love came anyway. God did not have to send the multitude of Angels, nor did He summon the forces of the Universe to engage with Satan. God, instead, sent His Only Begotten Son. A little Baby born in a feeding trough to the town of Bethlehem in Judea. Imagine that; a Baby sent to fight a giant. No one but God would do such a thing and yet God sent His Love in that Baby, His Only Begotten Son. That’s Love.
Yes, For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. When Jesus defeated sin at the Cross, the Devil didn’t realize that he was next. First, Jesus took our sins away. Then three days later, Jesus troubled the grave. Death tried to hold Him, but it could not because the Power of the Almighty raised our Savior from the dead. Glory be to God! When Jesus rose from the dead, He took the keys of Hell and Death. (see Revelation 1:18). Through Jesus, that same Baby, God delivered us from the power of darkness (Satan’s domination) and translated us into the Kingdom of His Dear Son. Colossians 1:13. That is Love!
Now, I close by declaring that everyone and whosoever can receive and embrace God’s Love. It was given to all the people. Perishing people – going nowhere, becoming nothing, seeking their own way, destined for eternity, without love, without hope, incapable of believing until God gave something to believe in. This Love was and is and always shall be One of a Kind. For in giving Love, God gave Himself. God is Love.
Why Love? Love was totally unselfish it does not expect nor seek anything in return. Some call it Grace, others call it Mercy, some it is unconditional Love. It is one of a kind, no one else can produce it, Sinners have no riches to buy it, It is not on the market, not in a store, not an online commodity. It came from one place and one Person only. God.
Love came from Heaven even though Mary conceived it. Love landed in the manger at Bethlehem. When the Baby cried it was so loud that all the Angels of Glory stood at attention. They rejoiced with such jubilation that God sent them from their posts in Heaven to notify the shepherds that Love had landed. The shepherds got excited and they left their sheep and ran to see the Miracle of Love. Yes, even the wisemen from the east were brought to see this Holy Child, for the cry shook a star out of orbit and led them to the place where Jesus was. Love moved them because it was God’s Great Love.
What about you? Has God moved your heart so that you can see the true meaning of Christmas. Or will you allow those barriers of self, barriers of sin, and barriers of Satan to keep you from seeing the Miracle of God’s Love. Will you be like many who rejected Jesus when He came. The Bible declares that kings tried to kill it, religious leaders tried to ignore it, skeptics tried to ridicule it – but Love said it all.
Love accomplished the impossible mission of bringing everlasting life to those whom God had loved. Love acted. They hung Love on the tree thinking they would get rid of it. They buried Love in a tomb thinking they could move it out of sight. But Love was too powerful to hold in the Grave. Three days later Love came out of the Grave with all power. So when we talk about Christmas it really is a Love Story about God who cared so much, gave so much, provided so much, that His Best became our Best. His Son became our Savior. His Grace became our Hope. His Sacrifice became our Peace. Love says it all.