The Cross as the Manifestation of God's Love

Jim ButlerJohn 3:16

John 3:16 — the most familiar verse in Scripture — is not a proof text for universal atonement but a declaration that the cross is God's appointed remedy flowing from His own gracious initiative toward a sinful world. Working through the passage in six movements, the sermon grounds God's love in the particular design of definite atonement: 'world' denotes all men without distinction, not all men without exception, and the believing one — regenerated by the Spirit before he ever looks to Christ — receives eternal life. The sermon calls both the unbeliever to flee to Christ and the Christian to return constantly to Calvary as the only sufficient display of God's immeasurable love.