“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This verse gets quoted so often it can stop sounding like anything. So slow down on the shape of it: God loved the world — not a select portion of it, not the people who'd already responded correctly — and the response to that love was giving, not requiring.
Gave his only Son. That's the costliest kind of giving there is, and it's aimed at a very ordinary outcome for anyone who simply believes: not perishing, having life that doesn't end. No qualifying exam. No list of prerequisites. Belief, and what follows from it.
If you've heard this verse recited so many times it feels like decoration, try reading it as what it actually claims: that the reason behind everything Jesus did traces back to love for a world that hadn't earned it, offered before any of us had done anything to deserve it.
If this verse has become so familiar it's lost its weight, what would it mean to read it once more as if for the first time, with your name in the world it's talking about?
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.