#142 - Joby Martin // Unraveling Scripture's Most Famous Verse: God's Ultimate Love Story

We dive deep into John 3:16, arguably America's most famous Bible verse, to uncover its profound connection to the Abraham and Isaac narrative and reveal how Jesus masterfully used this connection to teach Nicodemus about his divine mission.

• The verse appears after Jesus references the bronze serpent story from Numbers 21
• Jesus came not just to teach or perform miracles but to give his life as a sacrifice
• "For God so loved" emphasizes God's lavish, magnified love for humanity
• "Monogenous" (only begotten) means Jesus shares the same essence as God the Father
• True belief (pastuo) means trusting in Christ's work, not just acknowledging facts
• Jesus used "protologos" (first words) to connect to the Abraham/Isaac story
• Isaac carrying wood up Mount Moriah parallels Jesus carrying the cross
• The ram caught in thorns foreshadows Jesus wearing a crown of thorns
• Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son previews God's sacrifice of Jesus
• Mount Moriah ("the Lord will provide") prophetically points to God's provision of Jesus

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Daily Blade.
The Word of God is described asthe sword of the Spirit, the
primary spiritual weapon in theChristian's armor against the
forces of evil.
Your hosts are Joby Martin andKyle Thompson, and they stand
ready to equip men for the fight.
Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right day.
Four, the most famous verse,probably in all of America for
sure, and it's John 3, 16.
So you already know this one.
For God so loved the world thathe gave his only son that
whoever believes in him shouldnot perish but have everlasting
life.
Now again, this verse comesright after Jesus gives the

(00:41):
snake illustration from Numbers21, so that Nicodemus can begin
to get his head around whatJesus Christ came to do.
He did not simply come to domiracles, he did not simply come
to teach stories.
He did not simply come to giveus a moral example.
He came to give his life as aransom, as a sacrifice.
And so he says, for God soloved the world, that the reason

(01:03):
that Jesus came is not a startof new religion.
The reason that God came in theform of Jesus Christ is because
of God's love, that God'smission in the person and work
of his only begotten son, JesusChrist, is about love.
For God so loved that word, sois an amplifier, it's a
magnifier.
The God doesn't sort of love usor kind of love us, but he

(01:26):
lavishes his love on us.
I love the way John says it.
He says, oh, what manner oflove the Father has lavished
upon us that we would be calledchildren of God.
For God so loved the world thathe gave that when you love
somebody, love is our joy andthe Lord towards one another at
great expense to ourself.
So we are never more like Jesusthan when we are giving of

(01:50):
ourself.
For God so loved the world thathe gave his.
The English translates it hisonly begotten son, or his one
and only son.
The Greek literally ismonogenous.
So even if you don't know Greek, you can figure this out.
Mono means one, genus meanslike gene, it means of the same
essence.
One and only is not enough.
I have one and only, HarleyDavidson, but it is not

(02:12):
monogenous of me, it's just apossession of mine.
Jesus the Son is of the sameessence as God the Father.
And God the Father so loved theworld that he gave his
monogenes of the same as his Son.
That whoever believes andwhoever means whoever doesn't
matter what you've done or whereyou've been or how long you've

(02:34):
been doing it, or if you wereraised in church or not whoever
believes and that word believesis pastuo.
It doesn't just mean believethat.
There's.
A lot of people believe thatGod created the world and sent
his son, Jesus, to die on thecross.
Demons even believe that andshudder.
But they have not pastuo.
They have not trusted in.
They have not believed thatwhen Christ died on the cross,

(02:55):
somehow it counted for them.
But whoever believes or trustsor pastuos in Jesus should not
perish but have eternal life.
Now I told you that Jesus wasthe master teacher, that when he
lays out the gospel forNicodemus, it goes right over
his head, and so he was going touse two rabbinical tricks.
The first one it's really aremez.

(03:15):
He tells him part of a storyknowing that Nicodemus would
know all the rest of the story.
What he's about to do righthere is what's called protologos
In Greek.
It's called protologos, thefirst words, the moment that
Jesus says for God, the Fatherso loved the world, he sent his
only begotten son, thenNicodemus, who was a scholar, a

(03:37):
Hebrew scholar, and he hadmemorized literally the entire
Old Testament.
One of the things that was veryimportant is the first times
the words were used and thefirst time in the Bible.
The Bible talks about a father'slove for his son and a
sacrifice being.
There is talking about Abrahamand Isaac.
Now this is review from just afew weeks ago.
Kyle covered this already, butlet me just repeat it.

(04:00):
Okay, Again, if you look at theincident, the event of the
Bible, of Abraham being told byGod to take his son, Isaac, the
son of his love, the son of hispromise, and take him up on a
mountain to sacrifice, then whatyou see is a foreshadowing of
what Jesus is going to do.
And remember, Jesus is trying toTeach Nicodemus who Jesus is.

(04:21):
And so when Jesus says, for Godso loved the world, he gave his
only begotten son, thenNicodemus would be thinking okay
, the first time this is everused is Abraham's love for Isaac
, a father that loves his son, ason of promise, a son of his
love, a miraculous son, a son offaith.
And this son, Isaac, carriedthe wood for the sacrifice up a
mountain, and that mountain iscalled Mount Moriah, which means

(04:42):
the Lord will provide mountain,and that mountain is called
Mount Moriah, which means theLord will provide.
And this son, as Kyle coveredand I've covered before, when
Isaac goes up the mountain to besacrificed, he has to trust his
father.
He is at least a teenager.
He could be as old as 33.
Scholars kind of fight aboutthat, but whatever, His dad
would have been 100 years olderthan him.
This means that the sonwillingly laid himself down on

(05:05):
the altar at the will of thefather.
And yet the reason that Abrahamcould lift up the knife to take
his son is because he believedGod.
He trusted that God keeps hispromises.
And so he says we will goworship and we will return.
And then, sure enough, as Kylepointed out a few weeks ago,

(05:26):
that an angel of the Lord sayswhoa, whoa, whoa, Abraham, hold
up.
And then Abraham looks andthere's a ram, an adult male
lamb with his head caught insome thorns.
It is to point us to the factthat the lamb of God, Jesus, had
a crown of thorns on his head.
And God, essentially out MountMoriah, says hey, Abraham, I

(05:47):
know that you believe me.
We're not going to sacrificeyour son in a few thousand years
, We'll sacrifice mine.
And so what Jesus is saying toNicodemus is I am that
sacrificial son.
I am the lamb that will be thesubstitutionary atoning
sacrifice.
I am the one that has been sentto die in your place, and

(06:08):
whoever believes in me receiveseternal life.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Amen.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode Before you go.
If you want to help equip othermen for the fight, share this
podcast around and leave us afive-star rating and review.
Stay sharp.