The Good News
John 3:16 - The Good News
There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world. And we all speak at least one of them. That means that all of us know that words are important. It is important to understand what words mean and when and how to use them.
I don't know if you have noticed, but as followers of Jesus, we have our own vocabulary. Christians use words when they talk to one another that you don't hear in everyday conversation. We could probably make a long list if we wanted to. But I want us to think about just one of them. That word is "gospel."
The word gospel, in its simplest form, means "good news." During the time of Jesus, it referred to an announcement, always about something important. For example, when a new Emperor came to power in Rome, the people sent out to announce it were proclaiming the "gospel" – the good news. But after Jesus died and rose from the grave, the followers of Jesus adopted that word. So, when they announced who Jesus is and what he had done, they used the word "gospel."
Mark, when he wrote his book that would become part of the New Testament, began it this way: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Then he goes on to tell us who Jesus is, what he did, and why He came to do it.
I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Because it is not uncommon to see the word gospel used to label many different things. Many of those things are good and valuable. Saving the environment, pursuing economic justice, delivering people from slavery, digging wells to provide people with safe drinking water, and preventing human trafficking. All of those are good and godly pursuits. We ought to praise God for the men and women working in those areas.
And it is true. People transformed by Jesus become agents of transformation. Throughout history, it has been Christians who have built schools, erected orphanages, and established hospitals. All of these things are a result of the gospel; they reflect its impact. They are the fruit that the gospel produces. But if we mistake these things for the gospel itself, we are in danger of being distracted and diverted from the core mission of Jesus and what ought to be the core focus of the church.
So, what is the gospel?
To answer that question, let's look at what may be the most familiar verse in the New Testament. John 3:16. To understand the context, we need to see how it fits into the entire third chapter of John, especially John 3:16-21.
What I hope to help us see is this. Lay hold of John 3:16, and we lay hold of the gospel – and we stay focused on God's mission. Move away from John 3:16, and we move away from the gospel, and we will become seriously confused about why we are here and what we ought to be doing.
Before we read chapter 3, we need to understand how it fits into John's book. John 3 fits right between John chapters 2 and 4 – between the first two miracles that Jesus performed. In John 2, Jesus turns water into wine. In John 4, Jesus heals the official's son. John reports those miracles as two signs that Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah (John 20:31). But what did this Messiah come to do? John 3 answers that question.
The chapter begins by telling us the story of a man named Nicodemus and the after-dark conversation he had with Jesus. John 3:16 drops us into the middle of that conversation. Verse 16 is the key passage. Verses 17-21 explain and expand on it.
When you read that text, you will observe several things from it.
1. God loves the world.
That is unmissable. And it is a remarkable, shocking statement.
When we read it, we might think at first, Wow! That is a lot of people to love. When I wrote this article, I checked the UN Clock, which tracks the world's population. As of the evening of November 14, 2025, there were 8,258,174,632 people in the world. But the amazing thing about John 3:16 is not the number of people that God loves. It is the kind of people that God loves. You see that in the broader context and in how John uses the word 'world'. In John 1:10, John tells us that Jesus made the world, but the world refuses to know Him. In John 7, the world hates Jesus because He testifies that their deeds are evil. John 8 calls Satan the father of lies, and John 8 tells us that the father of lies is the ruler of this world. In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples not to be surprised that the world hates them, because the world hated Him first. John 16 tells us that the world is so far gone that it takes an act of God to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. In his letters, John tells us that we are not to love the world because, at its core, it is full of lust, pride, and a hunger for possessions. It is passing away and is under the power of the evil one.
And that is reinforced by the immediate context. This world, including you and me, is so far gone that we need a new birth before we can enter the kingdom of God. And you and I are a part of that wicked world, and what we naturally deserve is not God's love, but eternal perishing. What we deserve is not God's love, but His condemnation (v.18).
Read this passage, and you notice a second love is at work. There is God's love. He loves us. And what do we love? We love darkness. And why do we love darkness rather than light? Because our deeds are evil (v.19).
What a dark picture of this world. But it should not surprise us. We see it on the news. We read it throughout history. We experience it in our lives. And the shocking news is that you and I are included in that picture.
Don't forget who Jesus was talking to. Nicodemus was a highly respected religious leader. He knew the Bible as well as we do. He spoke from the Bible as often as we do. And yet, Jesus says to this man, and to us, unless we are born again, we will never see the kingdom of God. Why? Because we are all part of this world. We have all turned away from God. We are all destined to eternal perishing.
What do you see when you look at the world?
John tells us what God sees. A rebel world that loves the darkness. A wicked world that hates the light. A condemned world, spiraling toward eternal perishing. Our most significant problem is not economic, social, political, or environmental. The most critical issue facing humanity is the eternal perishing we face because of our sin.
But this dark text contains a silver lining.
How can a world that seems God forsaken have any hope at all?
2. God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son.
Love that is only spoken and never demonstrated is no love at all. But "God demonstrated His love toward us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
What the world deserved was judgment, eternal perishing, and condemnation. But God did not send Jesus into the world to punish us (v. 17). Instead, God sent His Son and placed on Him the judgment we deserve, so that we might be saved.
The only one who could rescue the world from eternal perishing is God Himself. And God did so by sending his son, Jesus.
3. God saves whoever believes.
"That whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (v. 16). God saves whoever believes! That is the gospel.
God loved the world.
God gave His son.
God saves whoever believes in Jesus.
But that message is a coin with two sides. It is both exclusive and limited. And at the same time, it is extensive and limitless.
It is exclusive and limited because we must believe in Jesus. Jesus is the only way to God. He is the only one who can give us life. He is the only one who can rescue us from eternal perishing. Nothing else. No one else.
Religion will not bring us to God. Taking part in rituals will not bring us to God. Following the rules will not bring us to God. We do not need religion, rituals, or rules. What we need is rescue.
And the good news is, "…the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world" (1 John 4:14). In all the world, in all of human history, there is only one who offers rescue from eternal perishing. That is God's son, Jesus Christ. Salvation is found nowhere else, in no one else.
So, God's salvation is exclusive and limited because it comes only to those who believe in God's Son, Jesus.
But in that same phrase is the beauty of the good news. It is extensive and limitless. That is why missionaries go all over the world, live in dangerous places, and work with difficult people. Because God saves whoever believes. God saves whoever believes. God saves someone like Nicodemus in John chapter 3 and a broken woman in John chapter 4. That is the gospel. That is the good news. God saves whoever believes in Jesus! Rich or poor. Black or white. Good or bad. Straight or gay. Conservative or liberal. Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu – God saves whoever believes!
Have you believed?
Have you turned away from every notion that, if you could just be good enough, God would accept you? Have you trusted in Jesus as the only hope you have to be rescued, to be saved from eternity away from God?
Have you believed?
In John's gospel. The word believe is more than just believing specific facts. The sun is hot. Ice is cold. The Mekong River flows to the ocean. It is more than just believing a series of facts about Jesus. It is resting all of your hope on Him. It is going "all in" on Jesus.
It is like the man who finds a treasure in a field and goes and sells all he has to buy that field. It is like the man who finds the most precious pearl and goes and sells all he has to buy it. It is putting all of your hope for eternity in Jesus alone. That is what John means when he says God saves whoever believes in Jesus.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Is that the way you understand the gospel? Is that what you know the core message of the church to be?
If we lay hold of that message, we lay hold of the gospel – and we stay focused on God's mission. Move away from John 3:16, and we move away from the gospel. And we become seriously confused about why we are here and what we ought to be doing.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, put it this way. "The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons…are simply a waste of time."
To save humanity from eternal perishing. That is what Christ came to do. That is the message that the risen Christ commanded us to take to the world.
There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world. And we all speak at least one of them. That means that all of us know that words are important. It is important to understand what words mean and when and how to use them.
I don't know if you have noticed, but as followers of Jesus, we have our own vocabulary. Christians use words when they talk to one another that you don't hear in everyday conversation. We could probably make a long list if we wanted to. But I want us to think about just one of them. That word is "gospel."
The word gospel, in its simplest form, means "good news." During the time of Jesus, it referred to an announcement, always about something important. For example, when a new Emperor came to power in Rome, the people sent out to announce it were proclaiming the "gospel" – the good news. But after Jesus died and rose from the grave, the followers of Jesus adopted that word. So, when they announced who Jesus is and what he had done, they used the word "gospel."
Mark, when he wrote his book that would become part of the New Testament, began it this way: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Then he goes on to tell us who Jesus is, what he did, and why He came to do it.
I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Because it is not uncommon to see the word gospel used to label many different things. Many of those things are good and valuable. Saving the environment, pursuing economic justice, delivering people from slavery, digging wells to provide people with safe drinking water, and preventing human trafficking. All of those are good and godly pursuits. We ought to praise God for the men and women working in those areas.
And it is true. People transformed by Jesus become agents of transformation. Throughout history, it has been Christians who have built schools, erected orphanages, and established hospitals. All of these things are a result of the gospel; they reflect its impact. They are the fruit that the gospel produces. But if we mistake these things for the gospel itself, we are in danger of being distracted and diverted from the core mission of Jesus and what ought to be the core focus of the church.
So, what is the gospel?
To answer that question, let's look at what may be the most familiar verse in the New Testament. John 3:16. To understand the context, we need to see how it fits into the entire third chapter of John, especially John 3:16-21.
What I hope to help us see is this. Lay hold of John 3:16, and we lay hold of the gospel – and we stay focused on God's mission. Move away from John 3:16, and we move away from the gospel, and we will become seriously confused about why we are here and what we ought to be doing.
Before we read chapter 3, we need to understand how it fits into John's book. John 3 fits right between John chapters 2 and 4 – between the first two miracles that Jesus performed. In John 2, Jesus turns water into wine. In John 4, Jesus heals the official's son. John reports those miracles as two signs that Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah (John 20:31). But what did this Messiah come to do? John 3 answers that question.
The chapter begins by telling us the story of a man named Nicodemus and the after-dark conversation he had with Jesus. John 3:16 drops us into the middle of that conversation. Verse 16 is the key passage. Verses 17-21 explain and expand on it.
When you read that text, you will observe several things from it.
1. God loves the world.
That is unmissable. And it is a remarkable, shocking statement.
When we read it, we might think at first, Wow! That is a lot of people to love. When I wrote this article, I checked the UN Clock, which tracks the world's population. As of the evening of November 14, 2025, there were 8,258,174,632 people in the world. But the amazing thing about John 3:16 is not the number of people that God loves. It is the kind of people that God loves. You see that in the broader context and in how John uses the word 'world'. In John 1:10, John tells us that Jesus made the world, but the world refuses to know Him. In John 7, the world hates Jesus because He testifies that their deeds are evil. John 8 calls Satan the father of lies, and John 8 tells us that the father of lies is the ruler of this world. In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples not to be surprised that the world hates them, because the world hated Him first. John 16 tells us that the world is so far gone that it takes an act of God to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. In his letters, John tells us that we are not to love the world because, at its core, it is full of lust, pride, and a hunger for possessions. It is passing away and is under the power of the evil one.
And that is reinforced by the immediate context. This world, including you and me, is so far gone that we need a new birth before we can enter the kingdom of God. And you and I are a part of that wicked world, and what we naturally deserve is not God's love, but eternal perishing. What we deserve is not God's love, but His condemnation (v.18).
Read this passage, and you notice a second love is at work. There is God's love. He loves us. And what do we love? We love darkness. And why do we love darkness rather than light? Because our deeds are evil (v.19).
What a dark picture of this world. But it should not surprise us. We see it on the news. We read it throughout history. We experience it in our lives. And the shocking news is that you and I are included in that picture.
Don't forget who Jesus was talking to. Nicodemus was a highly respected religious leader. He knew the Bible as well as we do. He spoke from the Bible as often as we do. And yet, Jesus says to this man, and to us, unless we are born again, we will never see the kingdom of God. Why? Because we are all part of this world. We have all turned away from God. We are all destined to eternal perishing.
What do you see when you look at the world?
John tells us what God sees. A rebel world that loves the darkness. A wicked world that hates the light. A condemned world, spiraling toward eternal perishing. Our most significant problem is not economic, social, political, or environmental. The most critical issue facing humanity is the eternal perishing we face because of our sin.
But this dark text contains a silver lining.
How can a world that seems God forsaken have any hope at all?
2. God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son.
Love that is only spoken and never demonstrated is no love at all. But "God demonstrated His love toward us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
What the world deserved was judgment, eternal perishing, and condemnation. But God did not send Jesus into the world to punish us (v. 17). Instead, God sent His Son and placed on Him the judgment we deserve, so that we might be saved.
The only one who could rescue the world from eternal perishing is God Himself. And God did so by sending his son, Jesus.
3. God saves whoever believes.
"That whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (v. 16). God saves whoever believes! That is the gospel.
God loved the world.
God gave His son.
God saves whoever believes in Jesus.
But that message is a coin with two sides. It is both exclusive and limited. And at the same time, it is extensive and limitless.
It is exclusive and limited because we must believe in Jesus. Jesus is the only way to God. He is the only one who can give us life. He is the only one who can rescue us from eternal perishing. Nothing else. No one else.
Religion will not bring us to God. Taking part in rituals will not bring us to God. Following the rules will not bring us to God. We do not need religion, rituals, or rules. What we need is rescue.
And the good news is, "…the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world" (1 John 4:14). In all the world, in all of human history, there is only one who offers rescue from eternal perishing. That is God's son, Jesus Christ. Salvation is found nowhere else, in no one else.
So, God's salvation is exclusive and limited because it comes only to those who believe in God's Son, Jesus.
But in that same phrase is the beauty of the good news. It is extensive and limitless. That is why missionaries go all over the world, live in dangerous places, and work with difficult people. Because God saves whoever believes. God saves whoever believes. God saves someone like Nicodemus in John chapter 3 and a broken woman in John chapter 4. That is the gospel. That is the good news. God saves whoever believes in Jesus! Rich or poor. Black or white. Good or bad. Straight or gay. Conservative or liberal. Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu – God saves whoever believes!
Have you believed?
Have you turned away from every notion that, if you could just be good enough, God would accept you? Have you trusted in Jesus as the only hope you have to be rescued, to be saved from eternity away from God?
Have you believed?
In John's gospel. The word believe is more than just believing specific facts. The sun is hot. Ice is cold. The Mekong River flows to the ocean. It is more than just believing a series of facts about Jesus. It is resting all of your hope on Him. It is going "all in" on Jesus.
It is like the man who finds a treasure in a field and goes and sells all he has to buy that field. It is like the man who finds the most precious pearl and goes and sells all he has to buy it. It is putting all of your hope for eternity in Jesus alone. That is what John means when he says God saves whoever believes in Jesus.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Is that the way you understand the gospel? Is that what you know the core message of the church to be?
If we lay hold of that message, we lay hold of the gospel – and we stay focused on God's mission. Move away from John 3:16, and we move away from the gospel. And we become seriously confused about why we are here and what we ought to be doing.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, put it this way. "The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons…are simply a waste of time."
To save humanity from eternal perishing. That is what Christ came to do. That is the message that the risen Christ commanded us to take to the world.
Posted in A Word From The Well
Recent
Archive
2025
August
September
October
No Comments