God So Loved

Will Reagan's “God So Loved” begins with an invitation to the wise: “Whoever is wise, incline your ear / And consider the love of the Lord.” The first verse then names what that love did, “How He bore all our sins and covered our shame with the blood that He shed on the Cross.” The line “For God so loved the world” is left unfinished in the chorus, as if the listener should supply the rest.

The second verse moves from the cross to the thirsty. “Come all you weary, broken, and lame / And drink from the fountain that never runs dry” makes the gospel an open offer, and the next lines explain why: “There's no greater love than the love the Father has lavished on us.” The bridge is the confession at the center, “Death could not hold Him, the grave could not tame Him / He rose and we have risen in Him.” The refrain returns each time with a response, “You are the God who saves.”

John 3:16 gives the title, and the opening call to consider the Lord's love is Psalm 107:43. The invitation to drink freely follows Isaiah 55:1, where the thirsty are told to come to the waters.