p. 16 | God So Loved

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 16, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 36.

God So Loved.

Probably the most familiar text of the whole Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” And yet how little do we hear said on the real object of the love! Men dwell on the love of God,—it is wonderful; on the gift that He bestowed,—it is unspeakable; but He loved, and He gave in order that men might have; and the thing which God desires them to have is beyond all human comprehension—eternal life. We know but the mortal life here. It is as a shadow, and as a vapor, and as a dream that soon passes away. God gives through Jesus Christ, to the believer, eternal life. We begin with it here, where we hold it by faith, a life that will enable us to overcome sin and win the victory which Christ died that we might win; but under the blessed boon of immortality, it will be perpetuated to all eternity in the kingdom that shall never know death, or blight, and where “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.” Let us constantly recall the love and the gift; but let us also remember that this came that we might have that which we do not in any wise deserve, but which is infinitely precious, eternal life.