God So Loved the World
God So Loved the World
Gospel Reflection for Wednesday, April 10th, 2024
Today’s Gospel is probably the most widely known passage in all of Scripture. It is quoted constantly by Christians of all denominations. At its core, this passage is the motive of the Incarnation, that is, it is why God became man.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
This singular verse contains within it the entirety of salvation history. To that end, I want to break it down into four points which illustrate the salvific will of God.
For God so loved the world… This passage begins with a declaration of the love that God has for His creature, man. Elsewhere, in his first letter, St. John teaches us that “God is Love.”1 It is not simply that God has love for His creation, instead, it is that God IS love. The essence of God is that of love and He has condescended to reach out to mankind in that love. It is important to understand that God did not have to do this. He was under no obligation to create us and even more than that, He was under no obligation to redeem us. The Incarnation of Christ is an action that flows freely from God’s great love for mankind, not a forced obligation, but a free act.
He gave His only begotten Son… St. John’s Gospel is beautifully written to communicate the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son. It begins with the prologue where we hear that the Word was in the beginning with God and that the same Word IS God.2 It continues here by acknowledging that Christ is the only begotten Son of God. This distinguishes God’s adoptive sons, man, from His begotten Son, Christ. Only Christ is begotten of the Father. Only Christ is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.3 This also speaks to the great sacrifice that the crucifixion was. Christ assumed a human nature in order to be able to die. The Father offered His only Son, the only begotten, for the redemption of mankind.
That whosoever believes in Him… Much is made of this part of the verse. Many protestant thinkers will point to this as proof of the erroneous “sola fide” principle. In reality, this verse speaks to the seed of salvation being faith. It is true that we are justified by faith but there is a distinction between initial justification through faith and continued justification through charity. Really, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity are like a staircase to God. As I quoted above, God is love, He is not faith. Faith does not make us like God, it is charity that does that. But the seed that develops into Charity begins in faith, thus, justification begins with faith. St. John is teaching us that faith in Christ is necessary for salvation. But it can only save when perfected in charity.
Should not perish but have eternal life. This last section of the verse presents the dichotomy between perishing and having eternal life. This is the most important dichotomy with regard to humanity. Truly, it can be seen as a consequence of the love of God spoken of at the beginning of this verse. God loved man and therefore He desires man to love Him. But love must be a choice, it must be a movement of our wills toward God. One does not truly love if they are forced into it and so in order to call us to love, God must also give the option to not love. That is the stark distinction between perishing and having eternal life. The Incarnation and Death of Our Blessed Lord is the single greatest example of God’s love for mankind. It is the single greatest act of Charity ever performed. So much so that the love which is displayed by Christ on the cross in His sacrifice pleases God more than our collective sin offends Him. Essentially, the love of Christ outweighs our sin. In light of such an immense act of sacrificial love, in order to reap the benefit of that act, we must return our love to God. God gave His only begotten Son so that we would have the perfect example of how to love so that we would not perish but have eternal life.
St. Thomas Aquinas beautifully sums up the motive of the Incarnation in his Summa Theologiae by giving five reasons for it.4 They line up very well with the above points:
1. Faith is made more certain by the Incarnation.
2. Hope is greatly strengthened by the Incarnation.
3. Charity is greatly enkindled by the Incarnation.
4. He set an example for mankind.
5. Through Christ’s humanity, we can come to participate fully in the Divine.
Today’s Gospel gives us a very important message: Christ became man out of love so that man could become like God and participate in His divine life.
1 John 4:8.
Cf. John 1:1-14
Cf. Nicene Creed
Cf. Summa Theologiae IIIa, q. 1, a. 2.
Andrew, I loved your reflection!!! Totally agree with you. I just think we have to be more sensitive to the words we use in light of how society uses them which is often so different from Christian usage in order to really get our message across to them.
Amen, this is so true and beautiful!!!!! I would like to nit pick a little. I think we should cease to use the word charity and simply stay with the word love. I say that because in our modern society the word charity is misunderstood and used differently from the word love. To us moderns charity means giving money or material gifts of help. We can easily be charitable, be proud of ourselves and walk away without ever giving of ourselves. Love is giving the gift of ourselves and willing the good of the other even when it costs us from our very being. Love is sacrificial, giving till it hurts, entering to the life of another and truly caring, respecting and lifting up of another into life and the joy of life.