This is one of the most quoted Bible verses. For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV and Amplified)
It is beautiful, but what does it mean?
If you read the Bible from Genesis, through to Revelation, you will find woven into the story the great truth of God’s plan for the salvation of mankind.
A book could be written on this verse. I will not do that in this blog! What I will do is highlight some verses in the Bible that point to this great truth. In Genesis we read how God created the world and planted in it a beautiful garden. In that garden he placed a man and a woman. They lived in perfect harmony with God. But they sinned, they disobeyed God and ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and sin entered the world. Because of their downfall, God had to cast them out of the garden. However, God had a plan, in Genesis 3:15 he tells the serpent (satan) that an offspring of the woman will crush his head. This was fulfilled in Jesus, when he died on the cross, thus defeating satan. Later in Genesis 12:1-3 God made a covenant with Abraham in which he promised that all people on earth would be blessed through him. In 2 Samuel 5:16 God made a promise with David to establish his royal dynasty forever. This promise was fulfilled in Jesus as is seen in Luke 1:30-33 in which the angel promised Mary she was to carry a child who would be called the Son of the Most High and he would have the throne of his father David and would reign over the house of Jacob forever..
In Jeremiah 31:31-34 God told Israel they were to be expelled from the promised land because of their breach of covenant. He promised that he would forgive them and establish his relationship with them on a new basis by writing his law on their hearts (see Hebrews 10:16). This was fulfilled at Pentecost when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in every Christian (Acts 2).
Of course satan is defeated, but the time to return all who are of faith to that beautiful garden has not yet come. We wait for the final end, when satan will no longer have any influence over us. In Romans 16:20 Paul writes:
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
So trust in God, cling to faith in Him and rely on His eternal promise.