We like to quote that famous verse:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

It is a beautiful verse, reminding us that God loved the world. He loved the people everywhere.

Yet, in practice, we don’t always think of this in the way that is actually reads. If God so loved the world that he gave his son, we should reflect and remember the answer to this question: What was the state of the world when God did this? When God gave his son, were the people of the world good? Were they right? Were the upstanding before God?

In other words, we might ask ourselves, did the people of the world deserve for God to do this?

That is actually how we practically think about this today: I want to be a good person, we might say. Or possibly instead, knowing that I will never be perfect, I might say that I want to be a better person.

This is how we often try to justify ourselves. By being a good person, I can be worthy of one day going to heaven. However, the scandal of the reality of the situation is this: We don’t deserve it. In fact, we never have deserved God to allow us to go to heaven, and we never will. And yet the verse above is still true, that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.

How is it possible that these statements could possibly work together? How is it possible that, even when we don’t deserve it, God still gave us his son?

The answer is found in what I read in Romans 5 this morning:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

The nature of God’s love is completely different from the love that we offer as human beings. We tend to offer love to those who demonstrate love for us. We offer love to those who tend to deserve our love. But God demonstrated his love in a completely different way. He showed his love – and continues to show his love even today! – by giving his son to us even though we don’t deserve it. Even when we were sinners. Even when we were the worst people. Even when we were against God, that is the point at which God steps in and says that he loves us, and then he demonstrates his love by giving his Son, Jesus Christ, to be a sacrifice and payment for our sins.

As human beings, we have no way of truly understanding that type of love. Within our own humanly way of doing things, we have no equivalent type of love here on earth. And yet that is exactly what God did. He loved us in this way such that when we were against him, that is the point at which he came to give himself for us.

That is a love that is worth returning love back in response. That is a love that is worthy of giving ourselves completely. That is what God desires. He gave himself completely even when we were sinners, even when we were against him. Now God’s desire is that we give ourselves completely back to him in return.