“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”( John 3:16)

John 3:16 is the most frequently quoted verse in the Bible. Jesus’ words are so familiar that we run the risk of forgetting their significance. We are wise to look at the verse as if we’ve never seen it before.

In this verse, we had literally nothing to offer God, but God didn’t wait for a better deal. Because He loved, He took the initiative to give and His gift brought the cleansing of forgiveness and the promise of being with Him forever.

We can measure love by how much the lover gives, in this one verse of Scripture, we find that God gave everything. Jesus had spent all eternity in Heaven being worshiped and served by a host of angels, but He stepped out of Heaven to earth for one purpose; not to live, but to die. And because He died for us, we don’t have to experience the excruciating separation from Him for eternity that the Bible calls Hell.

Look at the words in the verse as if it’s the first time you ever saw them. He loved, He gave, He forgives and He rescues. That’s the gospel in a nutshell. We are not saved by a feeling, but by trusting God and accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior.