John 3:16 — God So Loved the World

What it means

These words come within Jesus' night conversation with Nicodemus, where He teaches that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again of the Spirit (John 3:3-8). To explain how new life comes, Jesus points to Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness: just as that, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15). Verse 16 then unveils the motive behind it all, the love of God for a perishing world, expressed in the costly gift of His one and only Son. Salvation here is not earned but received by faith, and the alternative to belief is to perish, making this both the tenderest promise and the most sober warning. God sent the Son not to condemn the world but to save it through Him (John 3:17).