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Wednesday, April 14, 1999
John 3:16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life." --The Message Here are some quick definitions:
Eternal -- without interruption or end, unaffected by time. So we can only understand this word at all as something we haven't experienced, outside of our experience, outside of time. No wonder the newer translation/paraphrase by Eugene Peterson seeks something more:
Whole -- sound, healthy, restored, healed. Those words I can understand. I've felt healing and had both good and bad experiences which lasted a long time. And these words give me at least a fingertip grip on "eternal" and "everlasting." Another take on "eternal": Patch Adams' credo, "Look beyond the problem to the solution!" Beyond -- on the far side of, outside the limits. . . This verse gives me permission to be restored, healed, sound, healthy. I can look beyond my problems, and the solution is clear and within reach. When I stretch up and out and beyond myself, Jesus waits for me to believe. That's the tough part. Believe -- to accept as true or real, to trust, to have confidence. I'm glad I learned this verse as a kid. "Believing" comes naturally for kids. And I will allow myself to be "reborn" again today, to become a child again today, so that it will come naturally again. |
I memorized this verse of the Bible before any other, when I was a very young child. So to get a new feel for it, today I looked at John 3:16 in seven different translations. Six are nearly identical, except the word "eternal" is sometimes written as "everlasting." The seventh was different: