By Samuel Rice
“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 NKJV
God’s Choice
God has made a choice! He has chosen to love you as His special object. This love was not forced out of Him. It was His free choice. But what kind of love is it? It is in perfection, without measure or limit!
God’s Object
Whom does He love? “The world” – every human being that has ever lived or will live. It does not matter who you are or what you have done. Your feelings and circumstances do not matter. He is reaching out to you with His love. He really loves you.
But you may say, “I have rejected God in the past and I have rebelled against His absolute standards. I have refused His love and grace again and again.” Listen! No matter the sin, the evil, the willfulness or the unrighteousness in our lives, God still loves you very much.
God’s Gift
How can I be sure that He loves me? God gave His Son! The Lord Jesus has always been supremely special to God the Father. Love at its best has been their eternal, mutual delight. But as God looked He could see no such relationship with us; the receiving and returning of His love was not there. God could have accepted the distance and allowed us to suffer the ultimate consequence of our attitude and actions; but no! He chose to send His Son to bring about a happy relationship between God and us.
The Lord Jesus came to reach us, suffer for us and accept complete responsibility for all our sins and sinfulness. On the cross He bore the just consequences for all that was lacking in me. God’s love desired the best for me and was willing to pay its full price, giving all that it could. God gave Himself in the person of His Son, who had become man. The Lord Jesus gave all that He could: He gave His life. God the Father and God the Son held nothing back, showing how much They love us.
Your Choice
God gave His Son that we might believe His love for us. He chose to reach out to us in the greatest possible expression of love, perfectly demonstrating all that was in His heart. He wants us to accept His love and believe in His Son.
Are you willing to believe that God loves you no matter what? Are you willing to receive His gift of love and allow Him to claim you as His very own, fulfilling all His desires for you? True love always seeks the best for the one it loves. His desire is that you might have everlasting life – life at its very best and eternally enjoyed. However, love leaves it entirely up to the one it loves to accept and return it. God has left the choice to you.
No Choice
To refuse His love is to refuse the very best that God could offer you. It is to reject His goodness, grace and love, to walk away from His forgiveness to face all the righteous consequences of your sin and sins. It is to choose an eternal distance between yourself and God. It is to perish. In this you would leave God with no choice!
Instead, turn to Him now and tell Him that you accept His love with all that it desires. His love wants you to turn from all that is unlike His mind. This is repentance. His love wants you by faith to accept His eternal fellowship of love. Accept it now!