“This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life…” John 6:40
To look on the Son is another way of saying “believe” in him. Who is included in the everyone that John talks about here?
Sometimes we find it difficult to believe that God loves us and sent his Son for us, because our faith is shaky, our understanding is limited, and our minds and hearts are not very pure.
If you are thinking, I don’t know if this is for me, look at the word whoever. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). Whoever includes you! It is big enough for all of us to crawl inside.
Jesus Christ was given as much for you as he was for any of the Apostles or Mary, the mother of Jesus. You can say today, “I may not be Peter or Paul, and I certainly am not Mary, but Jesus Christ is the gift of God and he is given for me as much as for them.”
Christ is offered to all people everywhere, without exception or qualification. If you were brought up in a Jewish home, a Muslim home, or an atheist home, God in his great love and mercy, offers his Son, Jesus Christ, to you today!
Do you have trouble believing that Jesus Christ was given for you, too? Why or why not? What does the word “whoever” mean to you here?
