Essence Of The Gospel
For Women By Women
Submitted by Jo Mock
May 23, 2025
Joh 3:16 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.
This verse is probably the most well known and memorized verse of all times. Every child in churches and children’s ministries can quote John 3:16.
This verse, in a few words, encapsulates the very essence of the gospel.
Every living soul has or will face the fact that, because of sin, their punishment is to perish eternally from the presence of God, plunging into the flames of everlasting fire! Their only hope lies in the words of this verse.
Recently, I thought of how this verse proves again the reality of God, and how the life of Jesus proved the truth of this verse. No one but God Himself can truthfully make the claim to love the whole world.
I think of the sea of humanity we rub shoulders with daily. The homeless we see on the street corner. The immoral lifestyle of so many. The evil wickedness we hear in the news every day.
You can think of someone right now that you find hard to like, much less love. Yet God does.
Jesus was the perfect example of this supernatural love by dying on a cruel cross for the sin of all mankind, but also by His life. From the moment of His birth, His face was set like a flint toward the cross.
But along the way, He walked this earth seeking those to pour out His love and salvation upon. Many were the outcasts, the unlovely and despised. He reached out to lepers, dumb, blind, lame, tax collectors and an immoral woman at a well. Yet, He loved each of them, demonstrating John 3:16 in the flesh. No one was beneath His love or out of His reach. He went out of his way to find them.
One day in 1964, He found a little girl in Arkansas just as sinful as those we read about in the Bible. This little girl wasn’t involved in gross sin, but in her heart the same potential existed.
Then, Jesus came by and knocked at her heart’s door, loving her, and inviting her to know the love of God. I was that little 8 year old girl that Jesus loved enough to die for, and then come to me with the gift of salvation. I’m so thankful that God so loved even me.
Consider: All go to hell unsaved. But none go to hell unloved.
