The Narrow Path Ministries

This passage came up (as it often does) in a bible study I'm in, and I never noticed something about it. In the NET translation I often use, it starts not with "So God so loved the world..." but instead "For this is the way God loved the world...." I always took this in the sense of "how much" God loved us, and not so much "how" God loved us.

Coincidentally I have also been considering the ascent/descent language in 3:13 (in another post) as it relates to Trinitarian/Incarnation theories. But, even this language is related, I think to a point more than the origins/destinations of our Christ.

So, anyway, this translation caused me to consider what the referent was to "this is the way" -- if you back up just a bit, it's clearly referring back to the passage not only about the raising of the serpent in the desert, but also leading directly from the discussion with Nicodemus about spiritually discerning the Kingdom of God. It is normal to stop at 16 and not continue to 17, but reading this entire passage together give it a much richer meaning I think than the conventional way of merely showing the extent of God's love. It shows the cross in the light of the raising up of Christ who had lowered himself in the same way the low-crawling serpent was raised up on the staff and the example and extent to which we fix our gaze on that example is how we are saved. It is an extreme example of God's love and Christ's own love, but it is also more than that. It is not just his sacrifice that saves us, but our lifting our eyes to see that example and remaining fixed upon it.

Thoughts?

...beginquote...
John 3:
12 If I have told you people[z] about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?[aa] 13 No one[ab] has ascended[ac] into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.[ad] 14 Just as[ae] Moses lifted up the serpent[af] in the wilderness,[ag] so must the Son of Man be lifted up,[ah] 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”[ai]

16 For this is the way[aj] God loved the world: He gave his one and only[ak] Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish[al] but have eternal life.[am] 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,[an] but that the world should be saved through him.
...endquote...

Darin, you wrote the following concerning John 3:16

This passage came up (as it often does) in a bible study I'm in, and I never noticed something about it. In the NET translation I often use, it starts not with "So God so loved the world..." but instead "For this is the way God loved the world...." I always took this in the sense of "how much" God loved us, and not so much "how" God loved us.

You are correct. The Greek word that some translations render as "so" is "ουτω". Lexicons give the meaning of this word as:
"in this manner"
"in such a way"
"thus"

darinhouston wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 14, 2020 2:51 pm

This passage came up (as it often does) in a bible study I'm in, and I never noticed something about it. In the NET translation I often use, it starts not with "So God so loved the world..." but instead "For this is the way God loved the world...." I always took this in the sense of "how much" God loved us, and not so much "how" God loved us.

Coincidentally I have also been considering the ascent/descent language in 3:13 (in another post) as it relates to Trinitarian/Incarnation theories. But, even this language is related, I think to a point more than the origins/destinations of our Christ.

So, anyway, this translation caused me to consider what the referent was to "this is the way" -- if you back up just a bit, it's clearly referring back to the passage not only about the raising of the serpent in the desert, but also leading directly from the discussion with Nicodemus about spiritually discerning the Kingdom of God. It is normal to stop at 16 and not continue to 17, but reading this entire passage together give it a much richer meaning I think than the conventional way of merely showing the extent of God's love.

The phrase "in this way" equally (and better so) points to that which follows, namely the giving of his only Son.

Then v17 explains the signficance of "should not perish." People could easily have seen God as just condemning everything to destruction. The actual goal basically of saving the world of preserving it, like God did at the time of Noah.