Thee let old men, thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
Evermore and evermore!
Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
and unwearied praises be,
honor, glory, and dominion,
and eternal victory,
evermore and evermore!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17).
It's the first verse most children learn. It is the world's most popular Bible verse, searched more than two million times every month. The hashtag #john316 is attached to TikTok videos boasting 55.9 million views. Dozens of hymns and songs reference this verse. And still, the message is a fresh as a sunrise anytime a reader comes to it with an open heart. John 3:16 is the essence of the Incarnation and looks forward to a future free from condemnation.
For God so loved the world. Think on that for a moment. Why does God chose to love the ones who inevitably choose to love themselves first? How can He love a creature so self-centered, so self-indulgent, and so, well, sinful. From the moment in Genesis 3 when Eve and Adam willingly succumb to the serpent's deceptive words so that they might share God's power, humankind has rebelled against the very idea of submission to the Creator. Read Genesis and Exodus and Judges and the histories of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles and try to count the number of times God rescues his people only to have them turn their collective backs on him as soon as they're out of danger. And lest anyone think the Israelites were a special kind of rebellious, look at the history of the Church in the West. Crusades? Inquisitions? Indulgences? There is plenty of power-seeking rebellion there. And the modern Church is no better (some might argue it's worse with is bickering over minor issues while ignoring the harm done by people in leadership positions). Paul wrote to the Roman church:
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
He was paraphrasing the words of the psalmist:
"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:1-3).
And for good measure, the Psalmist repeats the truth of human condition in Psalm 53. So, the question remains, why does God choose to love? Not only does he choose to love, but he loves all of us, from the most devout seeker after to the most heart-hearted atheist. He loves us all. How much?
Enough to send himself in the DNA of his only birthed Son, born to an impoverished teenage virgin in a place where animals were kept. Consider the opening of John's epistle:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:1-5).
The creator who made all things. The life, the light, the source of everything we can know was in the beginning, both with God and himself, God. THAT God. That Word.
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
Why did the Word become flesh and live as one of us? Because God so loved the world. Our will, left unsupervised, leads us to destruction, maybe not in this lifetime, but this life is a blip in the scope of eternity. God's love wants us to be reconciled to him, not just now, but eternally. We time-bound mortals can't fathom eternity; we have a hard enough task trying to wrap our puny brains around the concept of earth time. By our own will, we condemn ourselves to a dark and lonely eternity. But God, who loves us in spite of ourselves, does not want us to stand condemned by our own will, but offered himself, clothed in our material form as a way to salvation (Romans 6:23).
The Incarnation made a way for the Word to live, to die, and to be raised, thus ensuring no one had to remain condemned. Read that again. No one has to remain condemned. People still choose condemnation by their own free will. People can still deny the love of God, reject his offer of salvation by Jesus, and thereby choose their own destruction. But those who believe in their hearts and tell others that Jesus is Lord, the Incarnate Creator who lived as a human, died, and was raised from the dead, they are saved, restored to relationship with the Creator, not just in earth time, but for all of eternity (Romans 10:9-10; Revelation 3:5).
"Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty'” (Revelation 1:7-8).
Knowing how much God loves us, knowing Jesus chose to set his divinity aside for a time, and knowing that we have hope, peace, and joy in his love, how can we not sing? Old, young, rich, poor, all ethnicities, all nations, all languages, we can ALL sing together:
Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
and unwearied praises be,
honor, glory, and dominion,
and eternal victory,
evermore and evermore!
Amen and Amen. Of the Father's love begotten, the Source, the Alpha and Omega, the Savior to him be unwearied praises and eternal victory! Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come!!
Resources:
All Scripture quotations from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Text edition: 2016. Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Stephanie, as a writer, I understand the importance of words and how they can convey impactful emotions, beliefs, and a worldview. Each of us is a game-changer. May your pen never run out of ink, your keyboard remains filled with inspiration, your paper never run out of space, your mind never run out of ideas, and may your heart never run out of love, compassion, and ministry. I pray that the blessings of our Christ-as-Life Christmas bring you the joy of the greatest author of eternity – God the Father. Merry Christ-as-Life!
May your Christmas be blessed and 2024 be full of grace.