What does it mean that he who does not believe is condemned already (John 3:18)?

But, further, the Lord says to Nicodemus, — "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned; but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:17-18). Now nothing can be plainer than this. The man who has not truly and really believed in the Son of God, who has not, in other words, been "born again," and turned to God through faith in Jesus, is "already condemned." He is not on trial, and the state of his soul an open question. The trial is over. The judge has spoken. The verdict is given. The unbeliever is "condemned already." The only thing future, is the execution of the sentence, — death; and "after this the judgment," — the lake of fire for ever, "the second death."

Thus, as His stooping to become man exposed Him to unbelief, it is as Son of man that He will judge His despisers, which clearly does not apply to the believer, whose joy is even now and ever to honour Him as the Father. And as in this later chapter of John the believer is declared to have life eternal, and not to come into judgment, but to have passed out of death into life, so here "He that believeth not hath been already judged, because he hath not believed on the name of the Only-begotten Son of God." For John presents the Lord as declaring all decided by the test of His own Person received in faith or unbelievingly rejected. Good or evil in all other respects turns on this, as He shows soon after. There is no such touchstone, not even the law of God, weighty and incisive as it is. Hence we see the fallacy of the older divines, who drag in the law here as everywhere, and thus make it only a question of moral condemnation; whereas the very point of instruction is that it is Christ Himself believed or disbelieved, though no doubt conduct follows accordingly.

But here it is not death for not doing God's commandments, but the unbeliever already judged by Him Who sees the end from the beginning, and pronounces on all persons and things as they are before God. Only One can avail him who is dead in trespasses and sins; in nowise the law, which can simply condemn him whose walk is opposed to itself, but the Son, Who is life and gives life to the believer. But the unbeliever refuses the Son of God: carelessly or deliberately, in haughty pride or in cowardly clinging to other trusts, pleasures, or interests, it is only a difference of form or degree. For he has not believed on the name of the Only-begotten Son of God, Whose name is not hidden but preached. There is the fullest declaration of what He is, and is to sinners: so that all excuse is vain and can only add sin to sin. His very name implies, yea asserts, that He is the Saviour, a Divine Saviour, yet a Man, and so for men. Nor can it be truthfully urged that there is any doubt as to God's feeling and mind; for it had just been said that God sent Him into the world to this end, whatever must be the character of His coming another day, when He will reckon with those who would have none of Him. But what is it to God that wretched, guilty, ruined sinners should despise and reject Him Who is at once the only Saviour of man, and the Only-begotten Son of God! When those who most need mercy least feel it, when they in their utter degradation refuse the Highest, Who comes down to them in the fullest love to bless, what remains but judgment for those who thus render God's grace null as to themselves, heightened as it is by the glory of Him Who in love came for their sakes, and deepened by the humiliation in which He deigned to come?

I am aware that the Puritan divines drag in the law even here, and will have it that Christ, in illustrating the certainty of salvation for those that believe in Him, shows on the contrary the condemnation of unbelievers to be twofold, one by the law and the other by the Gospel. Their idea is that the unbelievers are here declared to be condemned already by the sentence of the law, which they still lie under, and have it confirmed by the Gospel, since they do not by faith lay hold on the offered and only remedy in Christ.

The responsibility of man (verses 18-21). John 3:18. If the first part of the chapter presents the sovereignty of God, the verses that follow bring before us the responsibility of man. God, in His love, has sent His Son into the world, not to condemn, but that the world through Him might be saved. If verse 17 tells us we can be saved only "through Him", the following verses tell us that those who reject Him are "condemned already". Men have not to wait until the judgment day to hear their condemnation on account of their evil deeds. If they reject Christ, whatever else they may have done, they are condemned already.

The passage makes it clear that there can be no judgment for the believer in Christ; otherwise it would deny the efficacy of the work of Christ when lifted up on the Cross. It makes it equally clear that the one who rejects Christ is condemned already. The blessing or the judgment turns upon the attitude of men to Christ, and not simply on the evil they have done.

It is really very simple as to John 3:17-19, 36. Read in the N.Tr. or Revised Version, "is not judged"; all possible ground of judgment taken away from the believer: the unbeliever is "judged already," his whole condition determined ipso facto by his rejection of the Son of God: and the wrath, instead of the favour of God upon him, has become his condition, only to be reversed by his coming to terms with the Son of God before it is too late, else that wrath upon him becomes his fixed abiding condition to an Eternity without end.

The force of "the wrath of God abideth on him" is that he has deserved it; and that if he rejects Christ, he lies under it still. But we must not forget that this wrath applies to all sins and uncleanness, not merely to unbelief: "for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience." In this last verse of the chapter "the wrath of God abideth" if they do not bow to Christ's authority; it is not, disobey Him in the details of precept, or anything of that sort; the "believeth not" means "is not subject to" Him. In "He that believeth not is judged already," it takes him as not believing. If he has been inattentive, it is not condemnation that he cannot escape from as yet. John is not speaking about attention or inattention, but about not believing or being subject to Christ

The only other place is in John 3: 18, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because He hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." Here the terrible state and guilt of the unbeliever, hating the light and loving darkness, is brought out emphatically by his refusal to put faith in the name of the only-begotten Son of God come in grace as the Father's love gift to a lost world, and he therefore is justly condemned.

Turning again to John 3:18, and remembering that the "name of the Only-begotten Son of God" denotes all that He is as the Declarer of God's love, being the Son of His love, we see more clearly what terrible guilt is involved in man's refusal to believe. The refusal of the Son decides the unbeliever's position. “He that believeth not is judged already." He has rejected “God in Christ." “He has not believed on the name of the Only-begotten Son of God."

God’s object in sending His Son was not to condemn the world, but to save the world. Alas! on account of the rejection of God’s Son, the world has come under judgment, as has also each individual in the world that refuses to believe in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God. The light of the knowledge of God has come in God’s Son, but men prefer to remain in ignorance of God rather than have the Son and the heavenly blessings that are in Him.

Though the object of the coming of the Son was not to condemn the world, but to bring it salvation, yet the result of the world’s rejection of the Son was its condemnation, even as the Lord said, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:17-19). The same light that revealed God in all His love, revealed man in all the evil of his heart. The presence of the Son exposed all the hatred towards God that was pent up in the human heart.

But God gave His only-begotten Son, and that brings everything to a test. He was not sent to judge, but save, and he that believeth not is judged already because he has not believed. "And this is the judgment that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." He came into the world to die, and verses 16, 17 refer to Him as the lifted-up Son of man. I should not say in the same absolute way now, that God loves the world. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. But this has not stopped His grace, but laid the ground for the testimony of it in the whole creation under heaven by His ambassadors. I suppose it is the characteristic of God, and no time is in the statement. Still there is the accepted time and the day of salvation, though that depends on resurrection. It is in full view of the cross that the Lord said, "God so loved the world." God is now beseeching men to be reconciled, He is acting on that ground now. He gave His Son, and that is done and finished; but it is on that He is now acting.