Perhaps the biggest GIFT is a tiny word.
The most comprehensive word ever. The word “SO.”
God SO loved the world. “To such a great extent.” He SO loved the countless billions of individual persons—each one with a human lifespan and a sinful nature. Each one, who at their moment of birth, is already condemned to death. Each one with the power of choice and a WILL. He loves them SO much that He, Himself, came to give EACH ONE of them HOPE—to change each individual destiny forever.
Just as the brazen serpent was lifted up by Moses to be a cure from the deadly plague in the wilderness, SO “in like manner” the Eternal GOD came HIMSELF to be lifted up—to deliver the remedy for our sin. Once for ALL—for ALL time.
He SO loves.
Love is an action verb … and it’s also a noun. It’s the cause AND the effect. We do it all day long, everyday, for someone. Either for ourselves or for others. It can be sincere and holy as worship unto the LORD—or it can be selfish sin. Same word. Just like Jesus, we were BORN to LOVE.
He said, “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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17 KJV)
Jesus said this about HIMSELF. The God that “SO loved” is a SPIRIT who loved His creation—Man. Man, as flesh and spirit, is condemned because of sin. The only way to pay the required remittance for that sin is by a sacrifice of blood. SO … if God were to show His love for Man by offering to make that sacrifice in BLOOD, there was only one way to do it. He couldn’t condemn anyone else to do it for Him—He had to do it HIMSELF.
SO … when Jesus was speaking in the third chapter of John, HE could have used a first-person point of view. He could’ve said:
“For I, God alone, SO loved the humans of the world, that I created for Myself my own body of human flesh. I could’ve just created an adult body for Myself—to get the job of redemption over with sooner—but I chose rather to go the regular human route. I chose to have My body conceived, developed, and born from a woman—Mary. A body of flesh for My Spirit to live in. A body to grow, speak, hear, touch, live, and LOVE with as a human being. The ONLY one—and I did this for ONE purpose alone: to die. To suffer the pain and penalty of sin for the whole world of humans—ONCE for ALL. Why? SO that anyone who chooses to accept MY sacrifice for their sin, in repentance and obedience to My WORD, will not have to remain condemned and pay sin’s penalty with their own life. I’ve done it already. SO we can live in my LOVE together—FOREVER!”
That’s a lot of “SO.”
The God that “SO loved” has only ever been the ONE TRUE GOD. “Sh’ma, Yisra’el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad. Hear, Isra’el! ADONAI our GOD, ADONAI is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4 CJB)
Scripture does not teach a doctrine of a triune God. The Hebrew word “echad” is a plural word meaning ONE. It does not signify a “group God” … a “committee God” … or a divided deity. It simply indicates that God is ALL. It describes the “ALL-ness” of God—His ALL-encompassing nature. “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” (Isaiah 45:5 KJV)
The ONE GOD created the world and spoke to His creation (throughout the Old Testament) as a SPIRIT. Then, at the appointed time, Jesus—as the Flesh of God—was born in Bethlehem, of a woman, and given life by the ONE eternal SPIRIT of God. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his [Flesh] …” Hebrews 1:1-2 KJV)
JESUS is GOD Himself, robed in flesh. ONE GOD—He was never separate persons.
“Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: GOD was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16 KJV)
That’s what Christmas means: God Himself came down to us because He SO LOVED us. As Jesus, He lived, died a cruel death, and rose again because of LOVE—SO GREAT a LOVE.
“For as the heaven is high above the earth, SO great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, SO far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, SO the LORD pitieth them that fear him.” (Psalm 103:11-13 KJV)
We long to LOVE as Jesus loved—but how can we love SO much? We cannot. It’s not possible. But Jesus IN us can! GOD came to be Immanuel—GOD WITH US—so that He could be GOD IN US! That way, it’s GOD in us—His love offered, expressed, given through our hands, lips, lives—that is made known to the world. He did what He did SO that we could become His hands reaching to the lost—speaking their language, feeling their pain, filling their needs.
Every time we reach out to another human with the love of—and in the NAME of—Jesus, it is a fulfillment of the “SO.” We invoke the dual meaning of the word SO: “to such great extent” and “in like manner.” The gift of His SO amazing grace—His SO redeeming LOVE. Every time we forgive, it’s because He SO forgave … He SO pardoned … He SO loved. The “SO” of His love reaches to every living soul.
However, to be clear, His love is NOT “unconditional”—make no mistake about that—it cannot be. His love can never be separated from His holiness, His goodness, His WORD. Though not unconditional, to those who come to Him in full submission, it is SO immeasurable, inexhaustible, and infallible.
“His love has no limit,
His grace has no measure,
His pow’r has no boundary known unto men.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.”
He SO loves … YOU and me.
WHAT a GIFT. The BEST gift EVER!
