John 3:16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Are you a gift giver? Or do you prefer to receive gifts? We commonly use gifts as a way to show our love for someone, yet I think we often take for granted that love itself is a gift from God. God’s faithful and just love is embodied through the ultimate Gift—Jesus Christ our Savior. In John 3:16, the word “gave” demonstrates God sacrificially giving His love to a whole planet of people who don’t deserve a thing. In today’s post, I want to spend time reflecting on what the New Testament has to say regarding this incomparable gift of God’s love. Viewing His love as a gift should shape our heart responses to Him and His Word, which then goes on to impact every other area of our lives.

The essence of a gift is that it is not earned or deserved—we use gifts as an act of love to show others what they mean to us relationally. Because God is love, He has made a way for us to escape our sin and guilt—through faith in Jesus alone. God’s love is a gift because it shows His desire to have a relationship with us.

Ephesians 2:8-9For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

1 John 4:9-10This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Romans 5:8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God’s love was purely demonstrated through the gift of Jesus Christ and salvation by faith in Him alone. It is up to us to either accept this gift with a heart of gratitude or to toss it aside because it doesn’t match our desires. Anyone who claims they can work their way to heaven or believe in another god is blatantly dismissing the one true act of love—Jesus’ sacrifice for us. It’s like a child who opens a present just to throw it away and complain it’s not what they wanted.

The choice to receive and believe God’s gift of love or to reject it is the difference between judgement and condemnation that comes with our sin nature, versus grace and righteousness that comes from our new life in Christ:

Romans 5:15-17 NLTBut there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

While the curse of sin came to all through one man, the gift of God’s love and freedom from sin came through the One Man, Jesus. From the beginning of His Word, God promised His people that He would make His love known someday through faithfully coming down to live among us and facing the justice that we deserve. The Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. God sent His one and only Son to live a perfect life for us so that He could suffer and die as the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Philippians 2:6-7Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Both of these passages refer to Jesus, God Himself, setting aside His heavenly glory to be born into a sin-cursed world. He did this to show how much He loves us, how He wants us to choose a restored relationship with Him. Can you even imagine a more perfect, wonderful, or undeserved gift than our Savior? I know I can’t. When I meditate on these beautiful truths describing God’s love, my heart is moved towards loving God in return and towards loving others like I’ve been loved. And boy do I need those heart reminders!

I pray that these Scriptures have increased the joy and gratitude in your heart for your Savior and Lord, the only Gift that we’ll ever need and never deserve. I pray you will also experience the gift of His love more deeply each time you reflect on what He has done for us in passages like we read today. Next time, I plan to look at another aspect of God’s love for us to consider found in the New Testament, and I can’t wait to study and share that with you. Until then, thank you again for listening or reading to Speaking Truth!

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