John 3:13-21
God So LOVES the World
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
The word Hesed (also known as Chesed) is a Hebrew word that is in the Old Testament about two hundred and fifty times...Hesed is a characteristic of God...And as I learn about the word Hesed, I think of the verses in John's Gospel...For God so LOVED the world that He gave his One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life...For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him...
The word Hesed describes God's mercy, His forgiveness, His compassion, His faithfulness, and His Complete LOVE...The word's definition includes kindness, loyalty, mercy, devotion, a Steadfast LOVE...In the different translations in the English Bible the word is often translated into the words loving kindness...But I believe, Hesed is more...And I believe we lose some things of Hesed in the translation...It is a word full of Grace and Truth...
The One full of Grace and Truth and Full of Complete, Unshakable Steadfast LOVE was Jesus, the Son of God...In the gospel as we read about Jesus, we see this Hesed come to life...We can see better its Complete Meaning as we read about Jesus and His Teachings and deeds...Hesed describes all the positive love words of kindness, loyalty, compassion, mercy, devotion, forgiveness, faithfulness, hope, and the completeness of LOVE...Jesus has all these characteristics and shows us LOVE beyond expectation and far better than the normal love of mankind...Even when we hung Him from the cross, He showed us Grace and Truth...We saw Hesed when He asked God to forgive us from hanging Him to the cross to die...The LOVE, this Grace, this All Encompassing Hesed comes as a Personal Characteristic of God and His Son, and we see it as Jesus died on the cross as the final sacrifice for mankind, forgiving mankind of our sins...And not only does God forgive us of our sins, everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life through Him...This is LOVE, this is Hesed...