In this wonderful verse of scripture (John 3:16), which has rightly been called the heart of the gospel, are contained the revelation of the gospel's fundamental truths.

      In the first declaration here made to us, we have a revelation of God. And what we are told here of God is perfectly astounding. In fact, from the standpoint of man's reason it is wholly incredible. If we had been told that God had stooped to notice the world of mankind--that would have been astonishing enough. If it had been said that He regarded us and that His good-will and mercy was upon us as it is upon all His works--that would have been a revelation to call forth man's wonder and praise. But when we are told that God loved us, and so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son for us--if we try to grasp that thought in its fullness of meaning, our minds are overwhelmed. Is it conceivable that the Creator of the universe should love us? Then we need not stumble at the miracles--over Joshua's making the sun stand still, or the "whale's" swallowing Jonah--those things are nothing in comparison. Here is something far and away, more important and impossible on the face of it. How can it be? Yet here it is calmly stated that God so loved us!

      At one period of his life, Daniel Webster took great delight in the study of Astronomy. But he confessed that the more he learned of the marvels of the starry heavens and the vastness of space--the smaller and lonelier he felt himself to be--alone and lost in an infinite and terrible universe. And whither could he turn for comfort and assurance (he said) but to the 23rd Psalm and to John 3:16? But how can it be true that this God, the Maker and Creator of this mighty universe, loved us? "Lift up your eyes on high," said the prophet, "and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them [1] all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking." (Isa. 40:26) Or, again, "Yea, my hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spread out the heavens: when I call unto them they stand up together." (Isa. 48:13) And this is the God of whom it is declared that He loved us--and that He so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son! Our minds go blank at the thought. And who could say why He so loved us? Let no one fancy that there was in us something attractive or loveable--some charm or grace or goodness of ours that called forth His love. The old Book forestalls this idea. There was sin in the world. All had sinned and had fallen short of the glory of God. And sin is abhorrent to God. It does not say by any means that God liked us; but it does say that He loved us. And that is something altogether different. And if one should suggest that God loved us for Christ's sake; the answer of the Bible is that He sent Christ for our sake. We cannot reason this out--we can only humbly and reverently bow our heads to receive a truth so marvellous and great.

      Again the measure of that love goes clean beyond the range of our thinking: God so loved the world that He gave--not sun or moon or stars; not some high angel or one of His chief creatures, but His Son, His only begotten. That language betokens a relationship nearer and dearer (though in a manner similar) than the tenderest ties of earth. And He so loved the world that He gave Him. That giving was real. It does not mean that God lent His Son to us for a little while, to be our teacher, our leader, or helper, our "way-shower." The two verses preceding John 3:16 show that He was given up unto death. "God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." (Rom. 8:32) Again our intellects fail us here: only the heart can grasp such a thought. A father and his little daughter were watching the golden evening star in the western sky, when suddenly the little girl said, "Papa, did God have a son that died in the service?" "Yes--just that," answered the father.

      In this we have not only the revelation of the [2] love of God--but the only revelation--the only real, final proof of God's love for us. "But"--someone may object--"have we not constant proof of God's love and care in the sunshine and the rain, and the flowers and the fruitful seasons, in the blessings that surround us day by day?" Yes--these things are tokens of His love and goodness. But they are not proofs. No one can know the love of God from the face of nature, nor alone by the temporal gifts bestowed upon us. "Why don't those natives look up through nature to nature's God?" said an opinionated person to a missionary. "That is precisely what they do," replied the latter: "and what do they see in nature? The bitter struggle of life in which the strong prevail and the weak succumb. They see 'nature red in tooth and claw'--the leopard pulling down the antelope, the lion pulling down the zebra. When life's burden grows heavy (and it grows very heavy in heathen lands) they look up and see the little white cloudlets blissful and oblivious floating in the blue sky, or the stars twinkling merrily in the dome of heaven. And they get their impressions of God from that--that He neither heeds nor cares for the griefs and distresses of the children of men." Surely we are thankful for the good things we possess and receive; but in themselves they furnish no final proof of the love of God. There are frightful contradictions in life. A father was putting his little son to bed, and said to him--"See, God loves you, little man: He has given you a good papa and mama who take care of you, and He gives you good things to eat; and you have a good home, and playthings, and a nice little cozy, warm, bed." "Yes," answered the little fellow; "and, daddy, you told me about some little children who have no papa and mama, and are cold and hungry--God doesn't love them, does He?" What could he say to that? If those blessings were the proof of God's love then the lack of them would prove the opposite. No, none of these good things can prove the love of God. But John says, "Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him." (I John 4:9) Now if He did THAT, then He loves us. And once you know that, then in all the good [3] things we enjoy, and also in hard and bitter things that come--we shall be able to see His love. This then is the revelation of God we find in John 3:16--that He has so loved us as to give and give up--His only begotten Son.

      But we are still perplexed. Why did He love us in such a way as that? What is the meaning of such a gift? Why was this necessary? We would certainly have understood it better if it had said that God so loved the world that He removed all suffering, all pain and tears, all sickness, and death from the earth. But no--God so loved the world, not only in such measure, but in such manner, not only so greatly, but so strangely--that He gave His only begotten Son. And why that? There must have been a reason, there must have been a necessity. Love must have an occasion... What was the occasion and reason of God's giving up His Son for us? What necessity demanded such a Sacrifice? The only possible answer is that man's condition was such that only by this he could be saved. Surely if anything less could have answered the need God would not have gone to the length of giving up His Son. The death of Christ was the supreme demonstration of God's love in the presence of man's extremest need. But if it took that to save us--then there is no more room for man's boasting. All our pride is then laid low in the dust. Then nothing I have ever done or anything that I could ever do could save me from perdition. For as Martin Luther said, "If we could have been saved at any lesser price, what needed the Son of God be given?" Then it is in vain that I compare myself with others, or please myself in thinking that I am somewhat better than someone else. If that is what was required in order that I might be saved (and that is precisely what the old Book says) then let me lay my hand on my mouth. "From this doctrine the heart that is self-righteous, hard, and proud, may turn scornfully away." But let me realize and confess my lost and sinful estate, and wonderingly and humbly come to the cross of Jesus to receive the unspeakable gift of God's redeeming love

      As we look again at our great text, we find in it also the one way of salvation. It is by faith in Jesus Christ--for "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Not then by some great thing that we have achieved, not by "works of righteousness which we did ourselves," but by believing in Him whom God has sent--in what He is (for "except ye believe that I am He," he said to the Jews, "Ye shall die in your sins") and in what He has done ("that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures")--by this is a man saved. To believe in Him is the one non-meritorious thing that a man can do. "Therefore it is of faith that it may be by grace." (Rom. 4:16) And it is only of faith. When he says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved"--it is not as though baptism were some extraneous and foreign thing super-added to faith as some may think. Baptism is the Divinely ordained expression of faith. The obedience of faith is always included in believing. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days." (Heb. 11:30) The faith is not viewed as excluding, but as including the obedience which God had set before them. But it was not the marching that overthrew the walls (though without it the walls certainly would not have fallen) but "by faith the walls of Jericho fell." Thus believing in the Lord Jesus always involves a stepping out on His word. We cannot believe on Him without turning from the ways of sin; and if we truly believe on Him we will also without hesitation or delay surrender ourselves to be identified with Him in baptism. That would seem to go without saying. But the whole is comprised in believing on Him. "He that believeth on him is not condemned: he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18)

      Finally we see here the high-lights and the [5] deep shadow of human destiny side by side. It is "have eternal life," or "perish," and no other alternative is mentioned. As in any emergency of life, he that takes a proffered help is saved, and he that refuses or ignores it is lost, so in this. Jesus is God's salvation. "And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) The road forks sharply here--to the one sides lies perdition, the other prong is life eternal; and middle way there is none. It could not have been for a small thing that God gave His Son. It could not have been to avert a slight doom that Christ died. The darkness and agony of the cross was endured by Him to redeem us from some awful destiny. We shall probably never know the whole meaning of perdition (though God's word is full of warnings about it) till the great day comes; and the song of Christ's saved ones, the saints in light, will be to the eternal praise to Him, who by giving His all, delivered us from the doom of those who perish. Choose then today and come to the love of God and to the Savior who loved you and gave Himself for you, and so you shall not have lived in vain. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but should have everlasting life."

In Zimbabwe contact: Church of Christ Mission,
N. Khumalo, P.O. Box 2032
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, or
R. L. Garrett
Box 30
Ruwa, Zimbabwe

In South Africa contact: Raglan Broderick
P.O. Box 2752,
Pietersburg 0700, North Providence

Church of Christ Mission,
P.O. Box 406
Glenmora, LA 71433 USA [6]

[TRGJ316 1-6.]

      The electronic version of R. H. Boll's The Revelation of God in John 3:16 (Ruwa, Zimbabwe: Church of Christ Mission, 1998) has been produced from a copy of the tract in the Alex V. Wilson Collection. Thanks to Mr. Wilson for supplying a loan-copy of the printed text. The essay was first published in Word and Work 37 (January 1943): 8-12. Its first appearance as a contribution to a book was in R. H. Boll's Soul-Stirring Sermons (Louisville, KY: The Word and Word, [1944]), pp. 6-10.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. Inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and typography have been retained; however, corrections have been offered for misspellings and other accidental corruptions. Emendations are as follows:

            Printed Text [ Electronic Text
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 p. 2:      us-and that [ us--and that
            "wayshower." [ "way-shower."
 p. 5:      be saved--it [ be saved"--it
            seven clays." [ seven days."
 p. 6:      one sides [ one side
            "have eternal life, [ "have eternal life,"
            South Afria [ South Africa
 

      The following apparatus details the differences in the text of "The Revelation of God in John 3:16" published as a contribution to a book in Soul-Stirring Sermons, pp. 6-10, and as a separate publication here, The Revelation of God in John 3:16 (Ruwa, Zimbabwe: Church of Christ Mission, [1998]):

 SSS  / TRGJ316   As Contribution to Book [ As Separate Publication
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 p. 6  / p. 1:    God loved us, [ God loved us,
                  far and away, [ far and away
       / p. 2:    (Isa. 40:26.) [ (Isa. 40:26)
                  (Isa. 48:13.) [ (Isa. 48:13)
                  us--and that [ us-and that
 p. 7  /          "way-shower." [ "wayshower."
                  for us all" [ for us all."
                  (Rom. 8:32). [ (Rom. 8:32)
       / p. 3:    only revelation-- [ only revelation--
 p. 8  /          (1 John 4:9.) [ (1 John 4:9)
       / p. 4:    to give--and [ to give and
                  occasion.. [ occasion...
 p. 9  / p. 5:    (Rom. 4:16.) [ (Rom. 4:16)
                  be saved"--it [ be saved--it
                  seven days."  [ seven clays."
                  (Heb. 11:30.) [ (Heb. 11:30)
                  (John 3:18.) [ (John 3:18)
       / p. 6:    "have eternal life,"[ "have eternal life,
                  (Acts 4:12.) [ (Acts 4:12)
 

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 6 January 2001.
Updated 20 June 2003.