John 3:16 Commentary

Moreover, behind all the dealing of God with the man under judgment, there is the love of God. This is of the deepest importance to our souls. Apart from this great truth, verse 14 might leave us with the sense that God is only a Judge — it may be a Judge that has been met to the full, but still a Judge. Here we learn that the God that has dealt in judgment is a God of love. The same Cross that reveals God as a righteous Judge demonstrates the greatness of His love.

But that is the human side; and God, if that be all, is the recipient only. His righteousness is declared, true; but that is not an adequate manifestation of Himself, and God is fully manifested in the gospel. Hence the Lord goes on to that most precious, most familiar statement of it in the Bible: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

First, The atonement has the first place: "even so must the Son of man be lifted up;"

Secondly, Why was this, the death of Jesus on the cross? The answer is, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son;"

Thirdly, What was the purpose of God in Christ being so lifted up — so given? "That whosoever [or, every one] that believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Let sinners hear it. The cause was the unfathomable, eternal love of God. For God so loved. Do not suppose that God loved us because Jesus died for us — that He then began to love us. Did He love Israel in Egypt because the blood was shed, and sprinkled on the doorposts? No, the blood was sprinkled as the token of His love. His purpose was to spare them. They were sinners, and thus the lamb must be killed, and the blood must be sprinkled, to shelter them from righteous judgment. Oh, wondrous grace! Christ lifted up on the cross was the manifestation of God's eternal love to us.

Further, if it is a question of meeting righteousness, Christ is presented as the Son of Man; when it is a question of making known the love of God, Christ is presented as the only begotten Son of God. The One Who stands in man's place and bears his judgment must of necessity be a Man — the Son of man. The One Who makes manifest the heart of God must be a living Person — the only begotten Son.

It is no longer the abject and absolute need of guilty man, be he Jew or any other. There is now revealed the sovereign love of God, which confines not itself to any limits such as the law, or man under it, had contemplated, but goes out freely and fully to the world, where He was unknown and hated, and this, not in creation or providential mercies, but in such sort as to give His Son, His Only-begotten, "that every one that believeth on Him may not perish but have eternal life." It is grace to the uttermost.

Then He loved whom? the Jew? the better class among men? those that love Him? No: but the "world," and not even "the world of the elect," as some would put it, but (as what follows should make plain) the world at large, the great world of His creatures, though now estranged from Him. Loved them, then, how much? how can we find measure for this love of His? Here is the measure of it: He "so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son; that every one who believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

God had so loved the world that He had given His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should have everlasting life. On the cross we see the necessity morally of the death of the Son of man; we see the ineffable gift of the Son of God. These two truths unite in the common object of the gift of eternal life to all believers. And if it was to all believers, it was a question of man, of God, and of heaven, and went outside the promises made to the Jews, and the limits of God's dealings with that people.

Therefore when it comes into this world in the Son, it is no more for Israel than it is for the rest of mankind. It is: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." ... Where God is acting in sovereignty the creature possesses no claim, all are on the ground of pure mercy.

It is no question here of a needs be. There was no moral necessity that God should give His Son; it was His love, not obligation on His part, nor claim on man's. Whatever need there was in man's state was amply met in the cross of the Son of man, and therein was accomplished the atonement or propitiation for the sins of those who believe. But there is incomparably more in the Only-begotten Son given by the God of love, not to the elect nation, but to the world.

God has His own eternal purpose respecting us poor sinners. It was no after-thought when sin had come in, and surely no subsequent thought when Christ had died or we had believed. No, the greatest gift ever given in the countless ages of eternity, the gift of His only begotten Son, was according to purpose.

Many would not deny there is such a person as Jesus, the Son of God. The demons were compelled to own that. We do not ask, Do you believe there is such a person as Jesus, once on the cross, now at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens? but we ask, Do you believe in Him? Is He the object of your faith, and of your trust?

So, constantly, through this Gospel, faith in the person of Christ is pressed and the result of that faith is pardon and eternal life.

What then is temporal or mortal life? It is life that may cease to be. That is the life of all living creatures; as to the life even of man's body, it may cease. It may be for a day, or a month, or a year, and then cease to be. Now eternal life is the opposite of all this; it is life that cannot cease; it is not the life of a creature, it is the life of the self-existent Son of God. Not temporal, but the self-existent, eternal life. And has God so loved, that, through the lifting up of the Son on the cross, we, every one that believes in Him, should have the eternal life that cannot, that will not, cease to be — the life of the self-existent, eternal Son?

The having eternal life goes beyond the simple removal of death, and beyond the type, while it gives us the connection with the Lord's theme with Nicodemus. For, if "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," the possession of the divine nature implies of necessity eternal life. That which is divine is that which is truly "eternal:" not simply unending when begun, but which had no beginning, and thus can have no end.

Even as this aspect of the Cross goes farther than bearing sins, so the blessing for the believer goes much farther than the forgiveness of sins. It is not only the end of the life that is under judgment, but the bringing in of a new life — eternal life — a life that consists in the enjoyment of relationships with divine Persons.

Eternal life is the result of faith in Him — John 3:16; 5:24, etc. This eternal life may be looked at as the opposite of condemnation (John 3:18, 36), and therefore includes forgiveness. It is out of death, and therefore includes new birth (John 5:24). It is on the ground of His sacrificial work, and therefore includes expiation (John 6:54). It is eternal, for none can pluck the believer out of the hands of our Lord (John 10:28). It is expressed in communion and enjoyment of God, therefore it is the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.

Yes, that is the way that the most wonderful announcement from God, brought into this world by the most glorious Person who ever came into it, is being treated by many to whom it was brought. It is an oft-told story, "the old text," and treated as a fable.

We, who have believed it, must proclaim it constantly, earnestly, and without tiring, for it is God's best for men at their worst, their only hope for this life and the next. But, as we tell it we must be in the spirit of it; ten thousand times better that we hold our peace for ever, than that we take up these glowing words as though they were ordinary words.