Perhaps one of the most familiar and most often quoted Bible verses is John 3:16. The verse says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Consider this verse from God’s perspective. God created man in his own image and after his own likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). God is the Father of spirits (Hebrews 12:9), and to the spirits of just men made perfect; (Hebrews 12:23) the God of the spirits of all flesh (Numbers 16:22; 27:16). His love for the creatures made in his image is greater than his creatures can fathom. The Psalmist declared, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8:3-4). God’s love for man is so great that even though he is so pure and holy that he cannot look upon evil and iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13), yet he has commended his love toward a lost humanity. Paul wrote, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us?” (Romans 5:8). Many people wrongly insist that because of God’s great love he could never punish them for their sins. Be not mistaken, God will by no means clear guilty sinners. The Psalms say, “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity” and “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalm 5:5, 7:11). Moses wrote that God is “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:7). The context bears out that God is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth (Exodus 34:6). And, God will not “clear the guilty” but he will “pardon iniquity and sin” (Exodus 34:8-9).
Men trying to be holy and trying to imitate Christ find sin repulsive. Often the mistake is made of desiring the punishment of God to be brought down upon the wicked because there is no argument but that they really deserve it. James and John once thought this way as recorded in Luke 9:51-56, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.”