Welcome to Day 174 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about finding nourishment in the Word of God to get us through the day. In each devotional, I take a variety of scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses each) and build our understanding of what they teach via their context and connecting scripture. My goal is to help you understand how to be the type of human God created you to be. Today’s passage is John 3:16.

John 3:16

NASB	NLT	VOICE
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.	16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.	16 For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life.

You have most likely seen or heard this verse shown or said somewhere. This is the classic, most quoted Scripture in the history of the text. The message of the Gospel comes to a focus right here. God’s love reaches all people and draws them in to a relationship based on love, compassion, grace, and mercy. In this verse, we see the basis for love in all relationships. When you love someone dearly, you are willing to give them whatever they need freely, to the point of self-sacrifice. God loved us so much, that he gave the life of his only Son so that we are free from the bondage of sin and offered a place in the eternal kingdom of God.

When we share the Good News with other people, our love as we share it be like Jesus’s. We must be willing to give up what’s comfortable and secure to us so that others might join us in receiving God’s love. Some people might not be willing to join because they believe that eternal life means a continuation of their earthly. In eternal life, however, there is no death, sickness, evil, or sin. We often go through life believing that the decisions we make are it for our earthly life, and we can’t understand or comprehend something that’s eternal.

Eternal life is entirely different from the life we live now. We need to ask Jesus for the new life he offers and follow his commands in order to receive it. Then, we’ll start to evaluate everything that happens to us from an eternal perspective, and we’ll start to look at life with an eternal mindset. It’s not about living our best life in the moment. It’s about living our best life so the next generation can live theirs.

To believe is more than just giving our intellectual agreement that Jesus is God. It means we put our trust and confidence in him, that he alone can save us. He can save us from our eternal bondage to rebel against God’s teaching and doing the things that the world wants us to do. It’s putting Jesus in charge of the plans we have now for us and what those plans align for us. Believing in Jesus is more than trusting his words and reliable and relying on him for the power to change. It’s applying his words to our daily words and actions and relying on his power and trust to do the work we were created to do.

Romans 5:8

NASB	NLT	VOICE
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.	8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.	8 But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display – the Anointed One died for us.

God sent Jesus Christ to die for us, not because we acted good enough or did enough good deeds, but because he loves us so much that he wants us to spend eternal life with him. Whenever you feel uncertain about how much God loves you, remember that the love He has existed from before your relationship has been created. God loves all of his creation, no matter how far they have strayed away from their original creative purpose and plan.

1 John 4:9-10

NASB	NLT	VOICE
9 By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him.	9 God showed us how much loved us by sending his one and only sun into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.	9 Because of this, the love of God is a reality among us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we could find true life through Him.
10 In this love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.	10 This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.	10 This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Love explains the following:

WHY GOD CREATES: God creates because he loves, and he creates people to reflect that love.

WHY GOD CARES: God cares because he loves. God wants those people that are struggling within sinful behavior to go to him, so that their life can change and begin again.

WHY WE ARE FREE TO CHOOSE WHETHER WE WILL FOLLOW HIM: God wants a willing, sincere, and loving response from us. None of us can or should be forced into a relationship with God. Different Christians and religions will often twist the teaching of certain scripture or certain stories to force into their own agenda or belief structure. God wants us to come before him, humble and ready to make a change.

WHY CHRIST DIED: God’s love for us moved him to offer a solution to the problem of sin. Sending his son to earth to teach his creation how to live a godly life. Sending his son to die a sinners’ death in our place to break the chains holding us to sin and allowing us a spot in the eternal kingdom.

WHY WE RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE: God’s love shows itself to us in all parts of our life. When we slow our life down and look at the simpler things, we can find God’s beauty, grace, and mercy.

Jesus is God’s only Son. While all believers are his children of God, only Jesus lives and exists in this special relationship with God as his true Son. Through this, nothing sinful or evil can exist in God’s presence. Because of his absolute greatness, he cannot overlook, condone, or excuse sin as though it never happened. He loved us, but that love doesn’t mean he doesn’t provide consequences. If we trust in Christ, there will be no penalty for our sin. We are forgiven of any sinful doing because of the sacrifice he made on the cross.

1 John 5:13

NASB	NLT	VOICE
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.	13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.	13 I am writing all of this to you who have entrusted your lives to the Son of God – so you will realize eternal life already is yours.

Some people hope that they will receive eternal life; John says we can know that we have it. We know we have it through our relationship with and belief in God. God’s promise of eternality gives us this certainty. This truth doesn’t depend on whether we feel close to God or far away from him. Eternal life comes from facts, and facts found in Scripture

Next slice of manna: Manna for the Mind #175