Opening Prayer
God, pour out Your love in our hearts by Your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Text: John 3:16–21
“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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Devotion
Listen to this, all people. Listen to this, all who are unhappy and troubled: God loves you all! God, who is Lord over all, does not wish any evil on us. He loves us and wants pure good for us. Think of it: God loves the world. Listen to who it is that loves: it is the eternal, almighty God. It is He “who made whatever He pleased in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the deep.” He loves, He is love. “The sun shines, fire warms, God loves.” He covers us with goodness. He wishes us and gives us every good thing. He rejoices in our well-being and does not want us to be unhappy. And listen to who it is He loves. It is the world: all people. Not one person is excluded; God loves all. Good and evil, God-fearing and ungodly, you and I, we all can be certain that God loves us. Think about this, remember Jesus’ words clearly when you are alone, and put “me” in place of “the world”: “For God so loved me… So I am loved by God, I and all my family and all people!”
Great is God’s love, infinitely deep and high, and stronger than death. We were lost, and justice demanded that we be sentenced to death, but God loved the world, so that He gave His only-begotten Son. Nothing greater could be given. No one else is loved so much by God, He surrounds no one else so much with His eternal love. Nothing higher could He give us. When I ponder this, and the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart concerning this, it becomes clear to me that this Gospel is not from men, but from God, for it could not come about in any human thoughts. And I feel the joy of God’s love in my soul, a foretaste of eternal salvation. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Rom 8:32)? When God loves me so, who shall be able to separate me from this love?
God’s only-begotten Son was delivered to the death of the cross. According to love’s plan He had to be lifted up just like the serpent in the wilderness, and thereby justice is satisfied. God gave us His own Son as the sacrificial Lamb, and the Jewish priests offered Him for the whole world. Now love can rule. We can believe and receive it, rely on it, and enjoy it from our whole heart. And nothing else is required for our salvation. Whoever believes in the Son shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For what is eternal love other than God’s love in Christ? And that is given to us. What do we have to do then other than believe it? Yes, what else do we have to do, how can we do anything but believe it? Do we have any reason for unbelief? Isn’t love the truth? Isn’t unbelief a lie? Isn’t the Gospel the light? – Keep this text in your thoughts, and consider it in your heart, and God’s Spirit shall surely teach you to believe. What is to be believed is great, and faith itself is something great, but the Holy Spirit who works faith in us is also almighty God. – And great is what follows. “It is not about doing it so that I should get golden crowns and kingdoms, which would leave me under the dominion of sin and death, but that I should be delivered from death and hell, and be eternally saved. This gift shall extinguish the fire of hell, cast the devil underfoot, and make a terrified, troubled, and contrite heart into a joyful, living heart with eternal incorruptible life instead of eternal condemnation and death” (Luther).
Closing Prayer
Thanks, O God, for Your love! Thanks for Your unspeakable gift! Give us the Spirit’s light to know it and believe, so that we do not despise such salvation, but are saved and taste Your love in eternal life. Amen.
Hymn
Thy love, O gracious God and Lord,
All other loves excelling,
Attunes my heart to sweet accord,
And passes pow’r of telling;
For when Thy wondrous love I see,
My heart yields glad submission;
I love Thee for Thy love to me
In my poor, lost condition.
Yea, Thou hast loved our fallen race,
And rather than condemn us,
Cast out and banish from Thy face,
Thine only Son didst send us;
Who died upon the cross, that we
Should all be saved forever;
Hence Jesus also died for me,
My soul, forget it never.
Kingo: L 441:1-2 ELH 449:1-2 tr. G. A. T. Rygh;
tune: Durch Adams Fall