This post is part of a 40-Day Prayer Journey through the season of Lent. Click here to learn more and read other posts in the series.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
In grade school, I went to a spring training game on a field trip.
I can’t remember which teams were playing, but I remember that some of the players came up to sign autographs for us. We had our yellow “Emmanuel Lutheran Church & School” T-shirts on, setting us apart from the rest of the crowd. As one of the players was signing autographs, he read our shirts and withheld the ball he was signing.
“I’ll sign this,” he said, “if you can tell me a Bible verse—and it can’t be John 3:16.”
I honestly can’t remember what we said. I do remember being thrown off by the player’s request—probably because I was going to say John 3:16. It’s a go-to passage, familiar to Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s the gospel in a nutshell. It simply describes who God is, how he views us, and what he did to save us from our sins.
Who did Jesus originally say these well-known words to? Nicodemus—a Pharisee who knew God’s Word in and out, backwards and forwards, from right to left and left to right. And yet he needed this clear and pointed reminder of what God’s Word was all about—why God gave it to his people in the first place.
God loved the world that he created so much that he sent his one and only Son Jesus to suffer and die the death we deserve for our sins. Why? So that whoever believes in him and what he has done for us will not die but have eternal life.
That’s the whole focus—that’s why Jesus came. To give us eternal life, to open heaven’s doors so that we can be with him forever.
Looking back, I think that baseball player was trying to get us to think more deeply about the message we share—the good news we share when people ask us about the hope that we have. It can be easy to rattle off a passage, but it’s more difficult to slow down and think about what that passage actually means for us—and for the people we’re talking to.
The people we meet and interact with in life are those for whom Jesus came to live, die, and rise again—to give them eternal life. That isn’t news we hurriedly rattle off. We take our time, we show that we care about the person we’re talking to, and we show that we care deeply about the good news we’re sharing.
Eternal life with God in heaven is our goal—and telling others about what Jesus has done for them is what we do on our way home to heaven.
Today as you pray, thank God for his gift of eternal life through Jesus. Pray that God’s people, including you and me, would continue to boldly share the good news of that amazing gift with all people.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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