What Was It Really About? (John 3:16)

Hey hey hey, beautiful people! Welcome to another blog post. I hope you are doing well. If you ever have any questions about my posts or have any topics you would like to see me dive into, please email me (thecdwjblog@gmail.com) or contact me over Facebook @Taleigh Reed. Thank you for reading! <3

If you grew up in church as I did, then you probably know this verse just as well as you know yourself. This is one of the most, if not the most, quoted scriptures in the Bible. We learn it in Sunday School, quote it in front of the congregation, the preacher preaches about it at least once a month, and it’s the top scripture for every altar call and every Easter. It’s the famous verse John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

As many times as I’ve read this verse, it never stuck out to me as it did a couple of weeks ago. The past couple of months we’ve been doing a deep Bible study in the book of John. When we finally made it to John 3:16, we began to question some of the things we’ve been taught, and my question was “Is John 3:16 really about the crucifixion of Jesus and the afterlife, or is that what we’ve been taught?

When we read John 3:16, we jump straight to the crucifixion of Jesus and the position you’ll have in the afterlife, but this particular verse (when left in the context) doesn’t have anything to do with the crucifixion and the afterlife. If you look at the real meaning of these words, you’ll see the true meaning of this verse. Before we get into the true meaning, I want to remind you that the Bible was not written by Merriam-Webster dictionary. The Bible was written in a time and language where words in English do not mean the same as Greek and Hebrew terms. The verse starts saying "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.....(pause)" The word "GAVE" has been taught by the American church to mean "God laid down His son's life, as a sacrifice, for the world's sins," but it doesn't say that. The first part of the verse simply says "God did not just love us, but He so loved us that He gave us Jesus."

The verse goes on to say "......that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."This verse doesn’t say anything about heaven and hell. I've begun to realize that when Jesus talks about "not perishing" and "eternal life," He's not talking about the "afterlife." The word "believe" in this verse is the Greek word "pisteuo" which means trust. The word "PERISH," in this text is the Greek word "apollumi" which means to render useless or wasted life. The word "ETERNAL" doesn't mean "afterlife." In fact, It is the Greek word "aionios" which means an age; period of time, and what period of time/age you may ask? Well, Jesus wasn't talking to us here. Jesus was talking to Nicodemus. Jesus was talking about the ending of that Jewish age. It also tells us in John 17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

I did some research on this and discovered a blog post by Keith Giles called "Why John 3:16 Isn't About Crucifixion......." these are his words explaining the time period.

"In a very practical way, John 3:16 is a verse about how those who follow the path of Jesus will escape the coming destruction of Jerusalem and live beyond that event.

Here’s the deal: Jesus showed up as the promised Messiah at a time when the Jewish people were seeking a violent, revolutionary hero who would lead the uprising against their Roman oppressors. Instead, Jesus tells them to repent of this desire for violent revolution and warns them that if they live by the sword they will all die by the sword. He teaches them to love their enemies, turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, and seek to overcome evil with good.

The promise, then, that Jesus makes is that they will have life that extends beyond the end of the age [that is, the end of the Jewish age], if they follow His teachings. If they refuse, then they will be slaughtered along with the destruction of the Temple, the end of the daily sacrifice, and the death of the Jewish Priesthood. [Which, by the way, is exactly what happened to those who rejected the message and path of Jesus].

So, the promise of John 3:16 is that those who trust in Jesus [that’s what the word “believe” really means], and put his teachings into practice, will not reap the fruit of rebellion [which is death], but survive the end of the age which Jesus promises will come within a single generation.

Forty years later, that prediction came to pass.

And, just as Jesus promised, those who followed the Way of Christ, escaped the “wrath of God” – which was simply the reaping of a harvest of rebellion against Rome – and the Christians who were in Jerusalem fled to the city of Peleg months before the Roman army surrounded the city and began to lay siege to it." (Keith Giles)

The Bible was not written to us. We can see that when Jesus is talking in many places of scripture. Every time Jesus would speak, He had an audience. If I remember correctly, none of us were alive when Jesus was walking the earth in His human body. Even though the Bible was not written to us, we can certainly glean from it. So what does this passage of scripture mean to us? How can we apply it to our lives to give us a new perception of this verse? How can we glean from it?

With the previous definitions of what the words of John 3:16 mean, and the verse John 17:3 telling us a little bit about eternal life, we can see what it means to us. To us, John 3:16 means “God has so much love for the world that He gave Love Himself, that whoever trusts in Him will not live a wasted life, in the present, knowing the Father through Jesus.” I don’t know too much about the afterlife because I’ve never been, but with a new perception of John 3:16, I know that knowing God through Jesus can affect your life on earth right now because knowing Him is a life well lived and not one that’s wasted.

How will you live?

-Taleigh E. Reed, Coffee Dates With Jesus