John 3:16 and also 17, 18, 19 and 20

Joh 3:16-20  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ESV

John 3:16 is a very popular Bible verse. People often put it on signs to display at sporting events, or have on bumper stickers. People quote it when telling others about Jesus.

The verses immediately following verse 16 are not so widely quoted. But it's important to look at them to get a more complete understanding of what Jesus was saying.

What do those verses say? They declare that whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the only Son of God. Why? Because Jesus is is the light. He is the one who make clear what is really true. But a great many people don't want what is really true. They want to believe what they want to true about themselves and others and everything else.

People love the darkness that is ignorance of and rejection of the light of who Jesus is and what He has said and done.

God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We reject that. We decide we have better things to do. We have things that we want to do and we do them rather than do what God tells us to do. And if we consider God at all we simply expect Him to go along with what we've decided to do with our lives.

God knows we're all sinners who have rejected Him. Nevertheless He made one provision for us to be accepted by Him. He sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die in our place, for our sins. Jesus and His death on the Cross is the only sacrifice that the Father accepts for our sins.

God gave us a glimpse of what righteousness would look like by giving us the Law. But all of us pick and choose the parts of His law that we agree with, and then give our own interpretation as to what they mean to us. We decide we know better than God when it comes to doing what is right based on our own evaluation of things. But none of that is acceptable to God.

Gal 2:16  yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Jesus, and His death on our behalf, is acceptable to God. Nothing else can make atonement and make things right between us and God. If there was anything else that could make things right between us and God then Jesus, the Son of God, wasted His time going to the Cross to suffer and die for our sins.

Gal 2:21  I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Christ did not die for no purpose. His death paid the price for our sins. We can either believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior who died in our place on the Cross, and thereby have eternal life, or we can reject Him and what He did, and remain condemned for all eternity.

I hope you will choose to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and will encourage others to do the same. Any who reject Jesus, who He is and what He has done, will regret it forever.

Want to Know What Eternal Life Is?

Joh 17:3  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  ESV

1Jn 5:20  And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. ESV

Have you given any thought to eternal life? Do you think it means living in heaven forever? Jesus has something to say on the matter. He referred to eternal life in the prayer that is recorded in the 17th chapter of the book of John.

The apostle John also wrote about eternal life near the end of the 5th chapter of his first letter. Neither place does it mention Heaven. Nor do these passages refer simply to living forever. If we want to understand what eternal life really is we ought to consider what God has to say about it in Scripture.

Take a look at what Jesus said. This is eternal life. That they may know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3)

Eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom God sent. Notice that it doesn't just say that eternal life is to know God. It says it is to know God and Jesus Christ whom God sent. I believe Jesus worded it that way because God is spirit and we are incapable to truly knowing God on our own. God had to come in the flesh as both the Son of God and Son of Man so He could be observed and heard and clearly written about for following generations of people like you and me.

Consider this other thing that Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:;6 (ESV)

 Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the life. To have the life that is eternal we have to have Jesus. To know what eternal life is we have to know Jesus. To truly know Jesus, He has to make Himself known to us and the principle way He does that is through what is written in Scripture.

Do you want eternal life? You can't have it apart from knowing Jesus Christ. So if you do want eternal life then look to the Bible to see what God has to say about Himself and His Son who is God in the flesh. Keep in mind that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. We may not like that to be true but we're not the one who decides what is true or fair. We're not perfect. God is.