Day 3 in our journey of jump start Bible verses.
Today’s verse is probably the most famous verse in the Bible:
For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
We see it all the time! John 3:16. We see it on bumper stickers, we see it on billboards, in sports stadiums, we see athletes who put it on their shoes or on their cheekbones when they are playing professional sports so they can let everyone know that they are a Jesus person. But what does that mean? What would you do to save another person’s life? Have you ever had the opportunity? Did you ever do the Heimlich maneuver on someone? Or performed CPR? Have you pulled someone out of the way of a speeding car, or dived into a pool to save someone who’s drowning? We see videos of people doing these heroic acts all the time, to rescue people so they stay alive this side of Heaven.
But what Jesus did was He rescued us, He saved us, for eternity. God so loved the world that He did not want anybody to die permanently. The salvation that God brings is not just to save us for today, not just for tomorrow, not just for this life we live in the here and now, but for all of eternity. The point is, that when Jesus saves us death becomes a doorway, instead of a dead end. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 The entire message of the Bible from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is: God saves. God saves! And He does it because He loves us, because He wants all of us to make it into Heaven. So He provides the way for that to happen. Lots more on this in the coming days, but for right now we know: God saves. God saves you and God saves me because He loves us.
Prayer: Eternal God, we thank You that You save us, that you sent Your Son to sacrifice His life so that we can live forever with You in eternity. We may not understand that completely, but we ask that You open up these eternal truths to us so that we can one day stand in Your presence. And we thank you so much for the gift of salvation. And we ask in the name of Jesus, Your Son. Amen.