God’s Love Conquers All
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Over 50 years ago, songwriters Hal David and Burt Bacharach wrote a song recorded by Jackie de Shannon entitled, “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love”. This song was penned during the turbulent decade of the 1960’s, during which time we were experiencing the Vietnam War, the protests against the war, campus shootings, defiance of authority, and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. As far as chaos goes, one need look no further than today’s headlines. If love was in short supply back then, it certainly has not increased at all since that time. I believe that the 60’s help lay the groundwork for today’s unsettling environment. Those who were the instigators of all the anti-authority protests and the proponents of “free love”, which was basically sex with whomever one pleased outside the bounds of matrimony, are the grandparents of today’s youth.
The song apparently was written in response to the lack of love and civility among earth’s inhabitants. The song says, “Lord, we don’t need another mountain, more oceans, rivers, meadows, cornfields, wheat fields, sunbeams, and moonbeams, etc., Oh listen, Lord, if You want to know”. Another song along the same theme was recorded by the Beatles in 1967 entitled “All We Need is Love”. It was rather obvious that the youth of that decade understood that love was the answer to the chaos that raged around the world, but the type of love that they were looking for was not the sacrificial kind of love which brings about a real peace and understanding among people. While rational people claim they want love and world peace, they have overlooked, ignored, or rejected the One who is love and has the capacity to change hearts and bring about a world filled with compassion and forgiveness for one another.
The above verse is probably the most well-known and most quoted verse from scripture, but the least believed by the majority of the world’s population. If all the people who know this verse actually believed it and committed their lives to Christ, then this would be a different world. There would be a greater abundance of love, harmony, and peace, and less fighting, crime, and hate in our nation and around the globe. The kind of love that God displayed when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for the sin of mankind, is sacrificial love, a love that puts others ahead of one’s own needs and desires. God loves His Son. He could have decided that since His creation was not worth giving up His only Son, Jesus, He could have declined to send Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin and allowed all of us to suffer eternal judgment. However, because God is love, He extended His mercy and compassion upon His creation and gave us the opportunity to be made right before Him. We were all under condemnation because of our sin and will stay condemned if we do not believe in Christ (John 3:18). But if we repent of our sin and place our faith in Christ, we are no longer under condemnation, but are free from the guilt of and judgment for sin.
Why so many folks choose to believe that they can reject God’s love and the plan of salvation and attempt to stand on their own supposed merit is a mystery to me. You know what they say about the defendant who chooses to represent himself in a court of law. Why would someone choose to defend himself or herself before the righteous Judge of all the earth rather than having the best Attorney possible to represent them before the Judge? And, besides, this wonderful Attorney just happens to be the Son of the Judge. It doesn’t get any better than that!
When the singer says, “Oh listen Lord, if You want to know”, the Lord is already listening for any who will repent and believe on Christ. God is calling through the voice of the Holy Spirit the sinner to repentance. It seems that man is the one who needs to listen, and not only listen, but heed the call of salvation.