Early in the last century Hans Egede, a Danish missionary, responded to what is called the Great Commission, the "Go ye" of Matthew 28:1919Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (Matthew 28:19). He left his native land to preach the gospel to the Eskimos of Greenland. He labored and toiled for years, preaching "hellfire and damnation," and seeking to instruct them in the truths of Christianity.
Though he preached his heart out, as he said, yet he saw no apparent results from his arduous and self-denying efforts. Eventually he became discouraged and depressed by the indifference of the people. He decided to leave the country. The text he selected to use for his farewell sermon was from the words, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain." Isa. 49:44Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. (Isaiah 49:4). Even this brought no response.
Egede was succeeded at the station by Mr. Beck, another Moravian missionary. On his arrival he began to tell the poor pagans of God's wondrous love to guilty sinners as revealed at Calvary's cross. When Kajarnak, the Eskimo chief, a wicked old murderer, heard the missionary reading the blessed and glorious words of John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16), he exclaimed, "Read it again!"
Beck read the "wonderful words of life" again and again, and Kajarnak burst into tears and wept like a child. God's holiness and righteousness did not move him; the terrors of law and hell made no impression on him. But the matchless grace of God in giving His only begotten Son to die that he, a poor heathen, might be eternally saved completely broke the stony heart of the murderous Eskimo chief.
Thousands on earth praise God for John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). Tens of thousands will do so in the glory. And yet how hard for the unsaved to grasp the saving truth enfolded in the words of this "miniature gospel," as Luther delighted to call it. Every word in it is full of the deepest significance.
"For God so loved the world." Then God loves you, O unsaved fellow traveler to eternity. However careless and indifferent you may be to your eternal interests, God loves you. He hates your sin with a perfect hatred, but loves you with an unmeasured wealth of love. He proved it in that "He gave His only begotten Son."
Loving and giving are inseparable; and the love of God for lost mankind was so great that He would redeem him even at so great a cost. That is love that "passeth knowledge."
Why did God give His Son to die? That you, my lost friend, "should not perish, but have everlasting life." Sinners are perishing, fast perishing in their sins; yet it is not the will of God "that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Pet. 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).