Menno Simons (1496-1561), the Dutch Catholic priest-turned-Anabaptist theologian, was no stranger to persecution, having been declared a heretic and a price put upon his head. Authorities executed friends who were discovered to have sheltered him.  Yet, in his commentary on John 3:15-16 he grew nearly ecstatic at the extent of God’s love for us:

Menno Simons

For how could God show greater fatherly love to us than so to humble his eternal Wisdom and Truth, his pure, powerful Word, his blessed Son, by whom he created all things; who was like him in form, the image of his blessed being, who diminished himself and became less than the angels, a poor, despised, suffering mortal man or servant, who alone had to bear the trouble, labor, sin, transgression, curse, and death of the whole world. . . . And thus the innocent, the true, the wise, the righteous, the obedient, and the pure Christ Jesus had to expunge, blot out, and satisfy the guilt, falsehood, folly, unrighteousness, disobedience, and pollution of all humankind. Dearest people, have you ever heard of greater love?

John 1-12, ed. Craig S. Farmer, Reformation Commentary on Scripture, NT Vol. IV, p. 105.