Reflection for March 18

So we come to the central declaration, more central for Christian faith than even “The Word became flesh,” for that depends for its inexhaustible wealth of meaning on the actual mode of the incarnate Life. But here is the whole great truth. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that everyone that believeth on him may not perish, but have eternal life.” This is the heart of the Gospel. Not “God is Love”—a precious truth but affirming no divine act for our redemption. “God so loved that he gave”; of course the words indicate cost to the Father’s heart. “He gave”; it was an act, not only a continuing mood of generosity; it was an act at a particular time and place (William Temple, Readings in St. John’s Gospel, commenting on John 3:16).