God So Loved: Perfect Tense

Monday, February 15, 2021

John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life." This could be called the greatest sentence ever written. But it's interesting that it's in the past tense, "God loved." Why doesn't it say God loves the world? In Greek, you may not see it, but the people who wrote this and thought this wrote and thought in Hebrew Aramaic. In Hebrew, there is no real past tense. But there is the perfect tense, and that's what's used as past tense. So when we see past tense, in Hebrew, it's really perfect tense. It doesn't mean that it's finished in the past, but that it is complete, it's done; it's the absolute complete work. God's love for you doesn't need more. You can't earn it; it's done, it is finished, it's complete. Loved is the perfect tense of love. It doesn't need anything more; it's complete on the cross. God's love for you is perfect, don't take away from it, don't add to it, just receive it. For God so loved you, perfect tense.rn

From Message #664 - The Great Sentence