John 3:16 In-Depth POST ONE

You see them with their homemade signs at football and hockey games. All those signs say is “John 3:16”, which is probably the most beloved and well known verses in the entire Bible. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

When did the Father give the Son to the world? Was it the day Jesus got baptized and started His three and a half year ministry? Was it that first Christmas when Jesus came into the world as the angels announced His birth to the shepherds? No, I submit to you that in light of what we have already seen of Jesus in the Old Testament, that He has been working to save this world from the very day it went astray. Let’s look at what happened that day from Genesis 3:15. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

This is the very first prophecy given that the Messiah would come and save the world. These words were spoken then by Jesus Himself. It was Jesus who went to the Garden that day to confront Adam and Eve. It’s been mentioned several times already that we are cut off from God the Father by sin. The Father is the highest authority in the entire universe. So He rules the universe and this world also. According to James 1:17, the Father gave us Jesus since He is the source of all that is good. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (Deuteronomy 6:4 shows there is a oneness to God yes, but there is also a hierarchy. Consider that the Spirit lives not to glorify himself but the Son in John 16:13,14 and that only the Father knows the date for the Second Coming, see Mark 13:32.)

When the Lord made humanity, it was His purpose to give us authority over this planet as is shown by Genesis 1:28 “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Our first father, Adam would have been a king over us had he not sinned. In the genealogy of Christ Luke 3:38 uses the same title for Adam as Christ Himself bears “the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

However, from the example of David, another king who symbolized the Messiah, this authority was under God. 1 Chronicles 28:6,7 says “Now He said to me, ‘It is your son Solomon who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his Father. ‘Moreover I will establish his kingdom forever, if he is steadfast to observe My commandments and My judgments, as it is this day.’” In other words, God’s blessing comes tied to obedience. When Adam and Eve sinned, they forfeited that blessing.

This explains the significance of Job 2:1, which we looked at in the chapter on life on other planets. I’ll repeat the verse here “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. These are the ‘Adams’ of the other planets. Adam himself would have had this role still had he not sinned. What he did in eating of the tree was to forfeit the world into Satan’s control. The devil now claimed the legal right to control it. That’s why the Bible calls him the “god of this world” and the “prince of the power of the air”. Jesus had to then act immediately in some fashion or Satan would have taken over.

Satan was able to claim this legal right to world domination through tempting our first parents into sin. Genesis 3 tells the story of how sin itself came into this world. I recommend you read the whole chapter. For now we’ll look at verse 17 and 21 “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it:”’ ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.’” "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. We talked already in chapter two about how their sense of their own nakedness after they sinned came from the broken connection with God. They were not ashamed beforehand to be naked and now they were. Notice it is God who clothed them. This symbolizes the provisions He was already making for their salvation. The slain lamb was to represent the innocent One who would come and offer up His own life to cover their guilt. This is what allowed Adam and Eve to live on. Otherwise the Father would have destroyed them immediately.