“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NASB1995)

Let’s break this down biblically. Who is God? He is Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit, our triune God. He always was and he always will be. And Jesus Christ always was God, and he was with God in the beginning, and all things which were made were made by him. Jesus is our creator God. And Jesus Christ left his throne in heaven, came to earth, was born as a human baby to a virgin woman (Mary), but was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so he was not born with a sin nature as we are. And all the time Jesus lived on the earth he was God incarnate (God made flesh) who lived among the people.

[Genesis 1:26; Genesis 3:22; John 1:1-36; John 8:24,58; John 10:30-33; John 20:28-29; Romans 9:5; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8-9; 1 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Peter 1:1]

God so loved.. This word “love” means “to prefer,” “to choose,” “to prefer to love,” which is centered in moral preference and in what God prefers, which is all that is holy, just, morally pure, righteous, godly, honest, faithful, and obedient to his commands. This is the kind of love he had/has for the people of the world, that they/we would, by faith in Jesus Christ, live holy lives, pleasing to God, living morally pure and upright lives for the glory of God. From the source of this love he sent Jesus Christ to put our sins to death with him so by faith in him we will now die to sin and obey our Lord.

God gave us his only begotten Son (conceived of the Holy Spirit, birthed of a virgin woman), in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension back to heaven, where he then sent the Holy Spirit to indwell his followers, that whoever believes in him… that whoever (actively, ongoing) believing in him…which is continuous, active faith, ongoing to the very end… a faith which means to be persuaded, i.e. to be persuaded by God. And God persuades us as to his righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die to sin and to now walk in obedience to our Lord, empowered by God.

So God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – loved us humans enough to send himself, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, in order that he would put our sins to death with him so that, by obedient (ongoing) faith in our Lord, and in the teachings of his word, via submission to him as Lord, we would now die with Christ to sin, and be raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as servants of the Lord in holy living in walks of obedience to him and to his commands. This is what it means to believe in Jesus, to have our lives belonging to God.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Acts 26:18]

Unless You Are Born Again

Based off John 3:1-21
An Original Work / November 3, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Nicodemus came to Jesus.
He acknowledged God was with Him.
Jesus said, “You can’t see heaven
Unless you are born again.”

“How can a man be born when he’s old?
Can he enter into his mother’s womb?”
Jesus answered, “Flesh is flesh,
So of the Spirit, you must be.”

Jesus said to Nicodemus,
“You’re a teacher, and yet you don’t
Understand of what I tell you,
Because you will not believe.

“For God so loved the world that He gave
His one and His only Son for your sin.
So, whoever believes in Him
Has eternal life in heav’n.

“Light has come into the world,
But human beings love the darkness,
Because their deeds are so evil,
So in truth, they stand condemned.

“Everyone who practices evil
Fears that the Light will expose his sin.
Yet, whoever lives his life by the Light
Does so through his God.”

Whoever Believes in Him
An Original Work / February 13, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love