Frontline Devotion for Thursday, March 23, 2006 by Rev. John L. Kallerson

John 3: 14-21

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

When was the first time you heard this passage?  Can you remember anything about that moment? Did the world stop for you? I would surmise that most people cannot remember the first moment they heard it but as they grow in faith they come to realize its importance to the Church and themselves.  It is the one passage that even non-Christians can probably quote from memory. Martin Luther called it “the Gospel in miniature;” others have called it the mini-Gospel.

I would simply state that it is the single most important verse in scripture…in my humble opinion. It is so simple to read this passage since it only takes a few seconds but it truly takes a lifetime to live with it.

God loves the world (read humanity for today’s sake but you understand God created everything), the world that God created and loves so much that he allowed freedom of choice to be central to our identity. The world choose to “do its own thing” and has lived with terrible consequences ever since. In this world God chooses to be active and eventually sends His own son into the midst of humanity and the creative order. We have eternal salvation because of what God has done.

This is what we hunger to hear this Lenten season; God has done this for us. Did the world stop for you yet? As incredible as it sounds and as much as we know we do not measure up, whatever that may mean to you, God has already done this through the power of His love. In sending His Son to live with us, suffer as we suffer, laugh as we laugh, cry as we cry, and love as we love; we receive the ultimate gift—eternal life.

We are simply asked to believe God’s word. We do not have to earn God’s love, simply believe in it. There is the problem for most people. How can you simply believe in something, which sounds too good to be true? I was once asked, if a man walked up and put a set of keys to a brand new Mercedes (he would have said truck if he really knew me) in my hand and said it was all mine, what would I do? Would I throw them in his face? Would I drop them on the ground for someone else to take? Would I carry them around in my pocket and never look at the car?  Or would I simply say thank you and accept the gift? This is our dilemma put in different terms.

It is easier to believe in God when everything is going our way but it becomes much harder when life seems so unfair. The gift for this day is that we do have a choice. I pray that over the course of our lives we may all come to know God and His world better. We may never memorize all of scripture or understand every doctrine of the faith. But maybe we can remember the simplest and most profound promise ever made and in doing so we will believe in God who wants us to spend eternity learning and living love to it’s fullest.

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