Bible Verses No. 3

Written at O'Hare about an hour before boarding the plane to London...

John 3:16 -- For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall never die but have eternal life.

In Trads II (Christian Traditions II, part 2 of a required 2-part course for THEO majors at ND), at the start of the course, Professor Randall Zachman asked us to summarize the Gospel of Jesus with a single phrase or sentence. After a handful of volunteers all failed to provide the answer he was looking for, Zachman gave us, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand". I thought it over for a moment and accepted it as a pretty good response, especially given his excellent defense of it, but I was not totally satisfied.

I have since settled on an answer that may be less precise and accurate but feels more applicable and central to me: John 3:16. The Incarnation has become increasingly more meaningful and central to my faith, starting with my reading of CS Lewis' Miracles in Prof. Cavadini's Miracles class. Lewis pegs the Incarnation as "The Grand Miracle", the miraculous action of God that most and best captures the essence of miracles.

Through the Grand Miracle, God/the Word/the Logos became flesh, and the nature of God (John 1) wondrously incarnated in man entered into this world in the most unique way. Why did God undertake this miraculous act of generosity? Simply put, it was for the sake of love, for God is love. More deeply, Christ came as perfectly innocent and born of the Virgin Mary to die an innocent death and use His sinless state to defer the reward--that He could have taken Himself--instead to all humanity. This allowed his death to serve as satisfaction for the sins of all man. And since God is boundless and timeless, the generous and loving satisfaction made by Christ could reach back into what we call the past as well as extend into the future to make His sacrifice reach all people in every place and every time. This element of Christ's action is not so explicit in this single verse of Scripture, but through its simple yet deep declaration, it proclaims the love of Christ the Son and God the Father and calls us to come to Him in loving faith so that we might have the joy of eternal salvation in the Lord.

So though the limits of this single verse do not delve deeply into the deep theology of Christ's satisfaction-making death, it gently teaches us that whoever believes in the Son that God has sent to us will not really die but have life forever. A harsher, more sin-and-evil-focused perspective, which is valid and ok but exactly where I'm at, might suggest something more like what Zachman suggested. However, I more readily look to the verses of hope that immediately call to mind the love and generosity of God that desires to call all humanity home to Himself. For here in John's more priestly and preachy Gospel, we find a teaching of love and care that lays out simply the path of acceptance and a movement toward love that comes with the joy of salvation in Him.