God cannot require for justification (whether initial or "final") both a faith that works and a faith that does not work or is apart from works. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. Scripture is, or may be, before man always. Now it is that the great question is decided; now it is that a man receives or refuses Christ. Hence the Son, being in this ineffable nearness of love, has declared not God only, but the Father. " Undeniably, these words of the Lord are truths. But here it was not God's purpose to record it. 24 "Faithis a work of God in the sense it is that which God has ordered man to do"Guy N. Woods (1989), A Commentary on The Gospel of John (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company), p. 125. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. John 7:38; John 7:38) And then we have the comment of the Holy Ghost: "(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)" There is, first, the thirsty soul coming to Jesus and drinking; then there is the power of the Spirit flowing forth from the inner man of the believer in refreshment to others. The Father and the Son were at work. Life resurrection will display how little they had to be ashamed of, who believed the record given of His Son; the resurrection of judgment will make but too plain, to those who despised the Lord, both His honour and their sin and shame. He had no need that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 1:11-12; John 1:11-12) It was not a question now of Jehovah and His servants. The Lord Jesus Didn't Bestow the Way of Eternal Life Upon Man. At once their malice drops the beneficent power of God in the case, provoked at the fancied wrong done to the seventh day. Of course it is the revelation of Christ; but here He was simply revealing the sources of this indispensable new birth. So in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, who would pretend to such a power? ( ) flesh, and dwelt among us." John 3:36 Translation & Meaning. Indeed, Jesus is God the Son, son of God the Father. Man is morally judged. Resurrection will be the proof; the two-fold rising of the dead, not one, but two resurrections. This brings all to a point; for the woman says, "I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things." In short, the riches of God's grace are here according to the glory of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Ghost. Christ was the true sanctuary, not that on which man had laboured so long in Jerusalem. The unbelieving and disobedient, instead of having eternal life, shall not have life: shall not even see it (compare see the kingdom of God, John 3:3). Does anyone else find it odd that John Fetterman is hospitalized with Clinical Depression and is Co-Sponsoring Bills in the Senate? If we give it careful thought, we can . Here was a meeting, indeed, between such an one and Him, the Son, true God and eternal life. Therefore, it seems to me, He adds verse 24. Nor would the rejected Christ, the Son of man; for if lifted up on the cross, instead of having the throne of David, the result would be not merely earthly blessing for His people according to prophecy, but eternal life for the believer, whoever. Nicodemus remonstrates but is spurned; all retire to their home Jesus, who had none, to the mount of Olives. ", John the Baptist was the earthly witness that God usedto present His dearly beloved Son to the world. Both and are used in the New Testament for wrath or anger, and without any commonly observed distinction. The contrasts are as strong, at least, as the resemblance with the healing of the centurion's servant in Matthew 13:1-58 and Luke 7:1-50, which some ancients and moderns have confounded with this, as they did Mary's anointing of Jesus with the sinful woman's in Luke 7:1-50. And as he was by nature a child of wrath, Ephesians 2:3, subject and exposed to the wrath of God, so that wrath abideth on him: being justified by faith, he hath peace with God, Romans 5:1. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary3:22-36 John was fully satisfied with the place and work assigned him; but Jesus came on a more important work. hath everlasting life; he has it in Christ his head, in whom he believes; he has a right unto it through the justifying righteousness of Christ, and a meetness for it by his grace; he has it in faith and hope; he has the beginning of it in the knowledge of Christ, and communion with him; he has some foretastes of it in his present experience; and he has the earnest and pledge of it in his heart, even the blessed Spirit, who works him up for this selfsame thing: and he that believeth not the Son; that does not believe Christ to be the Son of God, or Jesus to be the Messiah; or rejects him as the Saviour; who lives and dies in a state of impenitence and unbelief: shall not see life; eternal life; he shall not enter into it, and enjoy it; he shall die the second death. How were they not enjoyed in despised Samaria those two days with the Son of God among them! For the astonishing thought is, not merely that Jesus receives the Holy Ghost without measure, but that God gives the Spirit also, and not by measure, through Him to others. To this last the Lord attaches the deepest importance. The Lord, it is true, could and did go farther than the prophets: even if He taught on the same theme, He could speak with conscious divine dignity and knowledge (not merely what was assigned to an instrument or messenger). The rejection of Christ is the contempt of God Himself, in that of which He is most jealous, the honour of the Saviour, His Son. "The law was given by Moses." Published by at February 16, 2022. The wrath of God abideth on him.Once only in the four Gospels does this term, so full of tremendous meaning, meet us, and that in the Gospel of fullest love, and in a context which speaks of the Fathers love to the Son, and of eternal life, which is the portion of all who believe on the Son. The anger of God for sin. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. No doubt Jesus Himself had the Holy Ghost given to Him, as it was meet that He in all things should have the pre-eminence; but it shows yet more both the personal glory of Christ and the efficacy of His work, that He now gives the same Spirit to those who receive His testimony, and set to their seal that God is true. It is here we learn in what condition of His person God was to be revealed and the work done; not what He was in nature, but what He became. Just as in John 4:1-54, so here it is a question of power in the Holy Ghost, and not simply of Christ's person. John 3:36 New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (NASB95) 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life ; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life , but the wrath of God abides on him." But there was this difference from the former occasion, that, at the marriage in Cana (John 2:1-25), the change of the water into wine was clearly millennial in its typical aspect. John 4:1-54 presents the Lord Jesus outside Jerusalem outside the people of promise among Samaritans, with whom Jews had no intercourse. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But the Lord reproaches him, the master of Israel, with not knowing these things: that is, as a teacher, with Israel for his scholar, he ought to have known them objectively, at least, if not consciously. (See on [1777]Joh 3:18 and [1778]Joh 5:24).shall not see lifeThe contrast here is striking: The one has already a life that will endure for everthe other not only has it not now, but shall never have itnever see it.abideth on himIt was on Him before, and not being removed in the only possible way, by "believing on the Son," it necessarily remaineth on him! His was an errand incomparably deeper, more worthy of God, and suitable to One "full of grace and truth." But how precious the grace, in presence of their hatred and proud self-complacency! The Lord Jesus did, without question, take humanity in His person into that glory which He so well knew as the Son of the Father. It becomes a question of man's own condition, and how he stands in relation to the kingdom of God. Obey certainly was the meaning of pisteuo in John 3:36 (see page 448). It is not here spoken of as coming upon them, or as passing from them. Were the Jews zealously keeping the sabbath? As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. But even this sufficed not: the Son of man must be lifted up. He also knew that Jesus would increase in honour and influence, for of his government and peace there would be no end, while he himself would be less followed. Life is in the Son, and He who has the Son has life and there is no condemnation to those that have placed their faith in Him. But he that receiveth not the gospel published by him who is the Son of God, and doth not embrace him as his Saviour, and yield obedience to him, shall not be saved. Here again, apart from this divine insight, the change or gift of the name marks His glory. Such is the miserable condition of the sinner! It is our evangelist's way of indicating His Galilean sojourn; and this miracle is the particular subject that John was led by the Holy Ghost to take up. For if, on the one side, God has taken care to let us see already the glory of the Son, and the grace of which He was full, on the other side, all shines out the more marvellously when we know how He dealt with a woman of Samaria, sinful and degraded. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. While almost all entity Here there could not be more, and He would not give less: even "grace upon grace." No mere man, nor angel, not the highest, the archangel, but the Son. Even now faith knows, that instead of sin being the great object before God, ever since the cross He has had before His eyes that sacrifice which put away sin. John 3:17; John 3:17) This decides all before the execution of judgment, Every man's lot is made manifest by his attitude toward God's testimony concerning His Son. Shall not see life is contrasted with the present possession of the believer. 81-82) indicates, there are three possibilities: (1) Jesus, (2) John the Baptist, (3) John the Evangelist. The disciples of John dispute with a Jew about purification; but John himself renders a bright witness to the glory of the Lord Jesus. From the very first, man, being a sinner, was wholly lost. JOHN DEERE #M47886 LOT OF 2 WALK BEHIND MOWER WHEEL CAPS J215. Thus we have traced, first, hearts not only attracted to Him, but fresh souls called to follow Him; then, in type, the call of Israel by-and-by; finally, the disappearance of the sign of moral purifying for the joy of the new covenant, when Messiah's time comes to bless the needy earth; but along with this the execution of judgment in Jerusalem, and its long defiled temple. It must be so. So rich and transparently divine was the grace: not some souls, more meritorious than the rest, rewarded according to a graduated scale of honour, but "of his fulness have all we received." It was impossible that there should not be righteous dealing with human evil against God, in its sources and its streams. (John 12:48). Observe, that blessed as the light is, being God's moral nature, truth is more than this, and is introduced by grace. This, of course, supposes the setting aside of Jerusalem, its people and house, as they now are, and is justified by the great fact of Christ's death and resurrection, which is the key to all, though not yet intelligible even to the disciples. It is not a question of the law, but of hearing Christ's word, and believing Him who sent Christ: he that does so has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life. It was much, yet was it little of the glory that was His; but at least it was real; and to the one that has shall be given. Governmental healing even from Him might only end in "some worse thing" coming. John 1:35-40) Our Lord acts as One fully conscious of His glory, as indeed He ever was. The Word, in order to accomplish these infinite things, "was made. But He, being God, was manifesting and, on the contrary, maintaining the divine glory here below. (36) Here too we have, in the words of John, thoughts which we have found already (John 3:15-16), and shall find again (), in the words of Christ Himself.He that believeth not the Son. 2. Afterwards, John the Baptist explains why he's content to see his own ministry fade into the background. Yet, this obe- dience salvation formula is identically repeated in John 3:16. John was not yet cast into prison. His opposition to sin, and its terrible effects in this world and the next. 'Already' indicates that when you arrived on this planet, you were already an unbeliever, your sentence was then passed by God the Judge. The effect is thus final, even as His person, witness, and glory are divine. So, when someone testifies to . Matthew, Mark, and Luke start, as far as regards the public labours of the Lord, with John cast into prison. (John 3:36 DBY), he who is believing in the Son, hath life age-during; and he who is not believing the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God doth remain upon him. What is there in God more truly divine than grace and truth? These are the final words of John the Baptist 170 in the Gospel of John. Eternal lifeis onlyreceivedby faith in His cruel death and His glorious Resurrection. Here, accordingly, it is not so much the means by which life is communicated, as the revelation of the full blessing of grace and communion with the Father and His Son by the Holy Ghost, in whom we are blessed. (John 3:36 KJV), He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. It is not now the revelation of God meeting man either in essential nature, or as manifested in flesh; nor is it the course of dispensational dealing presented in a parenthetic as well as mysterious form, beginning with John the Baptist's testimony, and going down to the millennium in the Son, full of grace and truth. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." If it was addressed first to Jewish-Christians (or, just as easily, to Christian-Jews - that is the earl. The looking for signs and wonders is rebuked; but mortality is arrested. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Before the manner of His manifestation comes before us in verse 14, we have the secret explained why some, and not all, received Christ. A greater work was in hand; and this, as the rest of the chapter shows us, not a Messiah lifted up, but the true bread given He who comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world; a dying, not a reigning, Son of man. Unless a man or woman is born of the Spirit, born from above, they cannot be saved, because they are attempting to reach God the wrong way. (Ver. Just as distinct and beyond comparison is His testimony who, coming from heaven and above all, testifies what He saw and heard, however it might be rejected. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." John gives us this point of contact with them, though in an incident peculiar to himself. (John 2:1-25) The change of water into wine manifested His glory as the beginning of signs; and He gave another in this early purging of the temple of Jerusalem. Home COMMENTARY What is the meaning of John 3:36? (Verses John 3:1-6), But the Lord goes farther, and bids Nicodemus not wonder at His insisting on this need. Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 44:3, Isaiah 59:21, Ezekiel 36:25-27 ought to have made the Lord's meaning plain to an intelligent Jew. It is not John's business here to call attention to His Messiahship, not even when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask, Who art thou? He who believes is within the circle of the life of God, which is essentially eternal. "There are three who give testimony in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one." It was worldliness in its worst shape, even to the point of turning the glory of Christ to a present account. God the Father forms a new family in, by, and for Christ. He speaks of Himself as the Son of man in death; for there could be no eating of His flesh, no drinking of His blood, as a living man. The first . Thus, in fact, we have the Lord setting aside what was merely Messianic by the grand truths of the incarnation, and, above all, of the atonement, with which man must have vital association: he must eat yea, eat and drink. They entered not into His words more than His grace, but thought and spoke, like the Samaritan woman, about things of this life. The close of the chapter shows us the Lord in Galilee. John 7:6-8) They belonged to the world. It is now eternal reality, and the name of Jesus Christ is that which puts all things to a final test. He was God. He is a divine person; His manhood brought no attainder to His rights as God. And herein is that true saying, One soweth, and another reapeth. And He did accept that place thoroughly, and in all its consequences. In our text, John hits it once more (and it won't be the last time! John practiced law for 40 years and he now monitors local politics. The Son had not come to execute the judgments of the law they knew, nor even to promulgate a new and higher law. This is the more striking, because, as we have seen, the world and Israel, rejecting Him, are also themselves, as such, rejected from the first. It was no longer a moot-point whether God could trust man; for, indeed, He could not. 22-24); (2) John's disciples are jealous (vss. 27-30); and (4) the superiority of the Savior (vss. If He spoke the truth, they were blasphemers. This is confirmed further by John the Baptist's statement in John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not (apeitheo) the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." The word "apeitheo" is understood by all good translators and commentators to mean obedience. Alas! With regard to John 3:31-36, the question arises as to who was the speaker. Further, if Jesus had made such a statement, He would have contradicted numerous other Bible passages that make it clear that salvation is by faith (John 3:16; John 3:36; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. But they learn that it was his divine Physician who had not only healed, but so directed him. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son," etc. How was this? The sacrificial death of Him who is God goes far beyond the thought of Israel. John the Baptist tells his disciples that Jesus has come from Heaven and will teach of the things of Heaven, because He has firsthand knowledge of Heaven and of God. The divinity of the Son is in this chapter proved as clearly as in 1 John v. 7. God never left Himself without witness; He did not even among the Gentiles, surely yet less in Israel. The wrath of God. How withering the words! Here there is no John proclaiming Jesus as the One who was about to introduce the kingdom of heaven. The question really is, whether man would trust God. It finds, of course, a present application, and links itself with that activity of grace in which God is now sending out the gospel to any sinner and every sinner. "Master, eat," said they. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them" What Does John 3:36 Mean? This is indispensable; for God is a Spirit, and so it cannot but be. The word here translated believeth not, is apeiywn, which often signifieth, one that is not obedient. ): Hell will "abide" on the person who does not believe in the Son. The first four chapters of John precede in point of time the notices of His ministry in the other gospels. He is ever God; He is the Son; He quickens and raises from the dead. Art thou Elias? But see the blessed fruit of receiving it. One needs no more than to read, as believers, these wonderful expressions of the Holy Ghost, where we cannot but feel that we are on ground wholly different from that of the other gospels. Very remarkable are the following words of the Jews (b) concerning the Messiah, whom they call the latter Redeemer: "whosoever believes in him "shall" live; but he that believes not in him shall go to the nations of the world, and they shall kill him.''. Christ did not wait till the time was fully come for the old things to pass away, and all to be made new. Such is God's vindication of His outraged rights; and the judgment will be proportionate to the glory that has been set at nought. The evangelist has used this encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus to bring forth some important points. Observe, it is not (as is often very erroneously said or sung) a question of sins, but of the "sin" of the world. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." Warning: spoilers for the Season 1 finale of 1923, "Nothing Left to Lose" beyond this point. What more glorious proof than that the Holy Ghost is given not a certain defined power or gift, but the Holy Ghost Himself; for God gives not the Spirit by measure! He gave them title to take the place of children of God, even to those that believe on His name. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL
The man could not tell the Jews the name of his benefactor. He is under the eternal sentence of death. that we may give an answer to them that sent us. It was not so. This is the same idea explained in Scriptures such as John 3:18-19, Romans 1:20, and Romans 3:11. Here the unlimited scene is in view; not Israel, but the world. (Comp. If His time was not yet come, their time was always ready. We have now the Word made flesh, called Jesus Christ this person, this complex person, that was manifest in the world; and it is He that brought it all in. Here He is not portrayed as the Son of man who must be lifted up, but as the Son of God who was given. Then, resuming the strain of verse John 1:14, we are told, in verseJohn 1:16; John 1:16, that "of his fulness have all we received." For them, Israel, or the world, all is over. All is in the character of the Son of man. Nay, therefore it was they, reasoning, denied Him to be God. obedience to the faith, Romans 1:5.). What Does It Really Mean That Your Body Is a Temple? He that believeth not the Son.Better, he that obeyeth not the Son. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary36. Bridgeway Bible Commentary. 1. And they do. Nor will the full force of this expression be witnessed till the glorious result of His blood shedding sweep away the last trace of sin in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The Lord Jesus presents Himself as putting an end to all this now for the Christian, though, of course, every word God has promised, as well as threatened, remains to be accomplished in Israel by-and-by; for Scripture cannot be broken; and what the mouth of the Lord has said awaits its fulfilment in its due sphere and season. It is not a message or a sign, however significant at the moment, which passes away as soon as heard or seen. (VerseJohn 4:1; John 4:1) It was strange to her that a Jew should thus humble himself: what would it have been, had she seen in Him Jesus the Son of God? abideth on himIt was on Him before, and not being removed in the only possible way, by "believing on the Son," it necessarily remaineth on him! Shall not see life - Shall neither enjoy true life or happiness here nor in the world to come. 1John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Two resurrections, one of life, and another of judgment, would be the manifestation of faith and unbelief, or rather, of those who believe, and of those who reject the Son. And worship is viewed both in moral nature and in the joy of communion doubly. Verse John 3:36. Man was judged: another Man was there, the Lord from heaven, soon to stand in resurrection. Thus solemnly does the meek Lord Jesus unfold these two truths. Without sign, prodigy, or miracle, in this village of Samaria Jesus was heard, known, confessed as truly the Saviour of the world ("the Christ" being absent in the best authorities, ver. Hence, to such an one, eternal life is not merely something future. Here, then, we have a remarkable display of that which preceded His Galilean ministry, or public manifestation. Hath everlasting life. One must be born again for God's kingdom a Jew for what was promised him, like another. There is no more powerful way to deliver this message than to let John 3:16 speak for itself. Burge favors the third view. Heavenly Father, thank you that You loved me so much that while I was still under Your wrath and dead in my trespasses and sins, Christ died for me. He holds a seat on the Answer (1 of 13): John's Gospel is complex. And in fact, the original hearer apparently . Still, such is the effect on man under law, that he could not take advantage of an adequate remedy. John 3:19; John 3:19) Other things, the merest trifles, may serve to indicate a man's condition; but a new responsibility is created by this infinite display of divine goodness in Christ, and the evidence is decisive and final, that the unbeliever is already judged before God. Quite the contrary! It is the necessary aspect of love and holiness toward those who reject love, and wilfully sin. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." As there is an absolute necessity on God's part that man should be thus born anew, so He lets him know there is an active grace of the Spirit, as the wind blows where it will, unknown and uncontrolled by man, for every one that is born of the Spirit, who is sovereign in operation. It is not simply the new birth such as a saint might, and always must, have had, in order to vital relations with God at any time. No charge could be remoter from the truth. Thus we feed on Him and drink into Him, as man, unto life everlasting life in Him. And in this He is sovereign. None the less did the result of His death proclaim His Deity. But when the Lord speaks of His cross, and not God's judicial requirements only, but the gift of Himself in His true personal glory as the occasion for the grace of God to display itself to the utmost, then, and not till then, do we hear of eternal life, and this connected with both these points of view. His opposition to sin, and its terrible effects in this world and the next. How can such have relationship with God? He that comes from above from heaven is above all. In vain did any come to the Baptist to report the widening circle around Christ. For this is the work of God as well asthe command of God to all who are dead in their trespasses and sins: Believe in Him Whom He has sent, believe in Christ's finished work for the forgiveness sins and life everlasting. John pointed people to the Lord Jesus, for Christ Himself was sent to bear heavenly witness of the invisible God Who "loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.". How truly it is man under law! (ver. It will abide or dwell there as its appropriate habitation. (Ver. This last is the figure of a truth deeper than incarnation, and clearly means communion with His death. First, Jesus is visited at night by a Pharisee, Nicodemus, who is curious about His teachings.