John 3:16.
'THESE words seem to me to unfold in the fullest sense the gospel of the grace of God. They are indeed beautiful; and what makes them inexpressibly so to the heart of the believer is that they fell from the lips of that blessed One whose words were of the deepest meaning.
Think then, reader, that these words are the very Words of the Lord Jesus Christ: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In this verse we see the measure of God's love. Christ Jesus came into this world to reveal the Father; and at the opening of this gospel we have the forceful words we are now considering. Then the first aspect in which God is revealed in the gospel is love, love unconditional, unmerited and free.
Let us look for a moment or two at the way in which this love of God is manifested in the gospel. What is the measure of it? Even the giving up of His only begotten Son: “God so loved.”
If I want to see how dreadful a thing sin is in the sight of God, I must look at the cross. What was the result of God's giving His Son? Why, by wicked hands He was crucified and slain; and there, I say, we see the love of God displayed as we never see it anywhere else. The cross of Christ is the measure of God's perfect love, and of man's utter ruin.
There was no other way of saving sinners, or God would not have given up to a death of shame His well-beloved Son. So deep, dear reader, is the ruin you and I are in by nature; so far are we separated from a holy God; so far have we gone astray, that nothing less than God's gift of His Son, nothing less than the shed blood of Christ, can ever take us out of our ruined condition, or bring us nigh to God.
Even "while we were yet sinners," God gave His Son to die for us. It is love unequaled, unbounded, a divine mystery that time and eternity will never unravel, that God should choose such objects as we are, upon whom to pour forth the inexhaustible love of His heart! Will you not come and take shelter beneath God's banner, LOVE? There is room in His heart for you. Oh, come! respond to such love as this, by casting yourself at the feet of Jesus. You cannot say, This is not for me; for it is to “whosoever believeth." You have nothing whatever to do in the matter of the salvation of your soul, but to cast yourself down at the feet of the Lord Jesus, owning yourself a lost sinner, and receiving Him as your Saviour, and "everlasting life" is yours.
Time is short; eternity is near; how near to the reader of this paper we cannot tell, and the Lord Jesus is quickly coming to take all those who have believed on His name to dwell with Him forever. Then let me beseech you to decide for Christ at once. It is a question of life or death, of heaven or hell. To reject Christ is to receive just condemnation, but to receive Him is to possess eternal life, to have a hope of glory, and to have a fadeless portion with that ransomed host who shall praise the Lord forever in the realms of the blest.
Dear reader, before it is too late, embrace this message of mercy; avail yourself of the pardon which is offered you in the gospel; and then, when the Lord Jesus comes, you shall go to dwell forever with Him in the glory of God, instead of spending, as a rejecter of Christ, your eternity in the regions of woe. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
(Acts 16:31.) J. A. B.