SYNOPSIS: John 3:16 is the whole Bible in just one verse. There’s not a simpler, yet more profound truth in the Bible than this: God loved the whole world so much that he gave his Son to die for it. But that is not just some moving statement of God’s universal love; it is also a profound declaration of his personal love for you. Said another way, God loves each and every one of us as if there were only one of us.
Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // 1 John 3:1
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us it that it did not know him.
The man who penned this heartwarming verse arguably understood the love of God better than any other human being. It was John the beloved, the Apostle of love. Of course, he was also the author of the most well-known, well-loved verse in the entire Bible—John 3:16,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
That is the whole Bible in just one verse. There’s not a simpler, yet more profound truth in the Bible than this: God loved the whole world so much that he gave his Son to die for it. But that is not just some moving statement of God’s universal love; it is also a profound declaration of his personal love for you. St. Augustine, the 4th century North African Bishop, one of the most influential figures in church history, purportedly said it this way,
“God loves each and every one of us as if there were only one of us.”
Did you realize that if you were the only person on this planet, God would’ve loved you so much that he still would have given Jesus to die for your sins? There would still be John 3:16 if you were the sole human being ever created. Max Lucado wrote an entire book just on that one verse called “3:16”. Here is how he put it,
“If God had a wallet, your photo would be in it.”
I don’t know if you really get this or not—and I pray that somehow, somewhere it becomes reality to you, perhaps even before you finish reading this blog, or maybe as you memorize and reflect on this verse. But the truth is, God has a crazy, inexplicable, unreasonable love for you! He really does.
Karl Barth was one of the most brilliant and complex theologians of the twentieth century, writing volume after volume on the meaning of life and faith. A reporter once asked Dr. Barth if he could summarize what he had said in all those volumes. Barth thought for a moment and then said:
“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
That’s the whole of God’s truth in a single phrase. Lean into that today—you are the object of his lavish love; you are Abba’s favored child. That is what you are!