Why?

John 3:16

In 2005, I moved to Brandon, Florida, just outside of Tampa. I turned on the news because I wanted to see what was going on in the area. The tops stories were shooting, shooting, and then one I have never forgotten. A grandfather and grandmother were on the run from authorities in a motor home. They were wanted for child abuse. They had locked their grandchildren in closets, beat them, and even pulled their finger nails out with pliers. I made up my mind right then that I was not going to watch the Tampa news again. Every time we turn around there is some kind of terrible atrocity that has taken place against someone. Violence and hate dominate the news cycle.

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”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

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As I was reading this, I got stuck on the first six words: "For God so loved the world". My initial thought was "Why?". Knowing all that we do to each other, why would God love the people here? Don't misunderstand, I am grateful for His love. While grateful, I don't understand why He loved us in the first place.

The word "world" is not speaking of the planet Earth. It is speaking of humanity. To be more specific, it is speaking of the lost world. It could just as easily have been written, "For God so loved the people who were on their way to Hell...". If you are a Christian, obviously you know this fact., but don't let it slip past you. So often when we look at the beginning of this verse we personalize it. We think, "God loved me so much that He sent His Son", or we think "God knew that we would accept His Son as our Savior, and that is why He loved us". That is not what the verse says. It says "God loved lost people so much....".

God loves the people beating this person on the streets in the picture above. God loves the person getting beat. God loves those grandchildren who were tortured in the introduction. God loves the grandparents in the introduction. God does love you, and He loves all the people who hurt you. His love and the blood of His Son were sufficient to save Adolf Hitler (though there is no indication that he repented prior to his suicide). God's love and the blood of Jesus were sufficient to save Osama bin Laden. God's love and the blood of Jesus were sufficient to save Judas Iscariot, but none of these men repented of their sins.

Hell will be filled with people that God loved. Hell will be filled with people that God sent His Son to die for. If God loves us that much when we are sinners on the road to Hell, how much more when we are His sons and daughters? Can you imagine? I guess that is why I got bogged down on the first six words of this verse. It was the fact that He, a holy and righteous God, loved unrepentant sinners so much that He paid the ultimate price for our redemption. He paid that price knowing that many would reject Him. He paid that price knowing that many would spit in His face and accuse Him of being hateful, bigoted, outdated, mythological, and all kinds of blasphemous degradations.

Most of us are not like those grandparents in the introduction. I honestly do not know what happened to them. I really did turn the tv off, and do not remember watching the Tampa news again after that. However, while we may be tempted to believe that they deserve to go to Hell for what they did, remember that the consequence of any sin is Hell. We were/are all deserving of Hell. The only hope any of us have is redemption through Jesus Christ. After redemption, we are no less deserving of Hell, but we are free from the consequence of Hell. If God loved us enough to save us, we should love all people enough to tell them about this love too!

Father, all sin is vile and repugnant to You. In spite of this, You love us. You love us so much that You gave a price for our forgiveness that we could not pay ourselves. Thank You for being love. Thank You for loving me. Change my heart to be more like Yours. Help me to love even the ones that I do not want to love.