Articles

God’s Love

John 3:16 is arguably the most well-known verse in the entire Bible. Even someone that has never been to a church service has still, more than likely, heard of this verse. We all know it…

But have you ever just sat and thought about it? Have you truly thought about what it means?

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

You may find this verse very abstract, not personal, because you don’t hear your name in it.  You hear, ‘the world’. But it’s there.

You’re part of the world, aren’t you?

You could even legitimately substitute your own name for ‘world.’

‘God so loved _________ that he gave his only Son.’

It’s not only the most important thing ever said, but it’s also the biggest.

God’s love is so big, that it’s unlike anything else. It’s greater in scope than everything contained in the universe. It is the source of all things. And the source must always be greater than its output.

God’s love is bigger than anything human minds can comprehend. It’s bigger than a hundred billion galaxies; bigger than sextillion stars!

Let’s break that number down a little bit, just to get a better understanding of what we’re actually talking about.

This post was written on February 27, 2015. Keeping that in mind, let’s start with the number one million. That’s kind of something we can wrap our heads around as a starting point.

One million seconds ago was about eleven and a half days ago.

One billion seconds ago puts us at May of…1983.

One trillion seconds ago? 31,688 years ago.

Now for the big one…

One sextilion seconds ago was 31 trillion years ago.

Simply put, sextillion is not a small number. And God’s love is bigger than sextillion stars! And no, we’re not talking about the little twinkle lights you see up in the sky. We’re talking about massive, ferocious, gigantic stars!

We’ll just reference one. It’s called Canis Majoris. If the earth were a golf ball, Canis Majoris would be the height of Mount Everest! That’s just one of sextillion stars and God’s love is bigger than it all. God’s love is immeasurably big; impossible to calculate.

Now picture your name in that sentence one more time.

‘God so loved ______ that he gave his only Son.’

I have two sons, and I love our sons more than I love my own life. I would never give my sons up for anybody. I might give myself up for somebody else, but never my sons.

With what kind of love does God love you, that he would give you what he loves most? That he would give you his only Son, whom he loves infinitely?

And he’s loved you this way infinitely long before you were born. And he’ll maintain this steady love for you infinitely forward, endlessly, for all eternity.

That is an infinite love, compounded by infinity.

Will you believe in him, and share his infinite life?