Whosoever Will

Jerry Vines

Introduction

In the 1870s archaeologists uncovered a giant, red granite obelisk in the sands of Egypt. The Egyptians named it “Cleopatra’s Needle” and gave it to Great Britain. “Cleopatra’s Needle” was erected along London’s Thames River. At the base of the shaft was a time vault. In it were placed several items of the day: coins, clothing, children’s toys, newspapers, and photographs. A committee was appointed to include the greatest single verse in the Bible. The committee unanimously chose to place into the vault John 3:16, which had been translated into the 215 known languages of the day.

John 3:16, perhaps the best known verse in the Bible, is also perhaps both the first verse we learn and the last one we forget.² This one verse has brought multitudes to Christ. Herschel Hobbs called it “the Gospel in superlatives.” Martin Luther called it “the Bible in miniature.” A. T. Robertson referred to it as “the Little Gospel.” Others have called it “the Mount Everest of Holy Scripture.” Still others have called it “the most exquisite flower in the Garden of Holy Scripture.” I like to call it “the Gospel in a nutshell.” If all the other verses in the Bible were lost but this one, we would nonetheless still have them since all the rest of the verses of the Bible are contained in John 3:16.

John 3:16 addresses a number of “isms.” The phrase “For God” responds to atheism, which claims there is no God. The phrase “so loved” responds to fatalism, which asserts God is an impersonal force. The phrase “the world” responds to nationalism, which says God loves only one group of people. The phrase “that He gave” responds to materialism, which says it is more blessed to receive than to give. The phrase “His only begotten Son” responds to Mohammedism, which says God has no Son. The phrase “that whosoever believes” responds to five-point Calvinism, which says Christ died only for the elect. The phrase “in Him” responds to pluralism, which says all religions are equal. The phrase “should not perish” responds to annihilationism, which says there is no hell. The phrase “but have everlasting life” responds to Arminianism, which says God only gives life conditionally. John 3:16 is a simple biblicism which reveals the mind, the heart, and the will of God.

F. W. Boreham called it “everybody’s text.” Here is a verse so simple a little child can understand it yet so profound that all the scholars of the ages cannot plumb its depths. Furthermore, John 3:16 can receive the designation as the inexhaustible text, as the following story illustrates. D. L. Moody met a young preacher in England named Henry Moorhead and invited him to preach at his Chicago church, should he ever come to America. To his great surprise, he received a telegram from the young man saying, “I have landed in New York. I will be coming to Chicago to preach for you.” Moody was going to be away and instructed that Moorhead be allowed to preach one night. When he returned he discovered young Moorhead had preached several nights with growing crowds and many coming to Christ. Even more surprising, Moorhead had used John 3:16 as his text each night. Even more interesting, Henry Moorhead started preaching at age 16 and continued until his death at 33. His text for every sermon he preached was John 3:16. The sermons were different, but the text was the same.

John 3:16 is indeed inexhaustible because it is about the love of God. Who can fully expound the love of God? The task of expounding the love of God can be likened to that of the noted British painter William Morris, who received a commission to paint the portrait of the gorgeous Jane Burden. After quite a while, Morris wrote on the canvas, turning it to her, “I can’t paint you, but I love you.” Such is the feeling when Christians contemplate the love of God.

F. M. Lehman likewise expresses this sentiment in his hymn, “The Love of God”: “Could we with ink the ocean fill / And were the skies of parchment made, / Were every stalk on earth a quill / And every man a scribe by trade, / To write the love of God above / Would drain the ocean dry; / Nor could the scroll contain the whole, / Tho’ stretched from sky to sky.”³ This verse may be slick from frequent usage so that without care when reading it, it will roll off the mind without lodging. Instead of approaching it with a sense of competency, A. W. Tozer provides the better way:

I think my own hesitation to preach from John 3:16 comes down to this—I appreciate it so profoundly that I am frightened by it—I am overwhelmed by John 3:16 to the point of inadequacy, almost of despair. Along with this is my knowledge that if a minister is to try to preach John 3:16, he must be endowed with great sympathy and a genuine love for God and man . . . so I approach it as one who is filled with great fear and yet great fascination. I take off my shoes, my heart shoes, at least, as I come to this declaration that God so loved the world.⁴

In this spirit, analysis of the verse in some detail—hopefully without destroying its beauty, which can occur when overanalyzing the parts of a flower—will proceed by expounding each of its four parts.

I. God’s Love Is Global

“For God so loved the world . . .” The load-bearing verb here is “loved.” The English word “love” can be used to express very different sentiments: “I love peanut butter. I love my wife. I love football.” The Greek language has several words for “love”: eros, philos, and agape. Eros, from which we get the word “erotic,” suggests a love that desires only to take. It is a sensual love. So odious is this word that it is not one time planted in the sweet soil of New Testament Scripture. Then, there is philos, which forms part of the word “Philadelphia,” the city of brotherly love. It conveys a give-and-take kind of love, a social love of mutual friendship and affection. The word here in John 3:16 is agape, spiritual love. This love is a love that desires to give. It is a love not based on the worthiness of the object but on the character of the one loving. It is a love to the highest degree. John uses agape 36 times in his Gospel.

The origin of this spiritual love is “God.” Love is traced to its source. A God who loves like this was unheard of in pagan culture. They had all kinds of gods: peaceful gods, fighting gods, lazy gods, lustful gods. There were gods galore. It was “here a god, there a god, everywhere a god, a god.” Never would it have occurred to them to say that any of these gods “loved” in this way. The use of the definite article in the Greek text gives definiteness to the term, “The God.” Which God? The only God there is! The fundamental assertion about God in the Bible is “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God is omnipresent; He is everywhere. God is omnipotent; He is all powerful. God is omniscient; He knows everything. But, supremely, God is love. First John 3:1 says, “What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” The Greek word for “what manner” can also mean “from what country.” We would say even more so, God’s love is “out of this world!”

The overflow of this love is expressed by “so loved” (houtos egapesen). The verb is a first aorist, active, indicative verb. More specifically, the verb is not an ingressive aorist, which would suggest a time when God began to love. The verb is also not a cumulative aorist, which would indicate a time when God will decide to love. The verb is, however, a constantive aorist, which emphasizes God’s eternal, constant, total love. It means God’s love in its entirety.

A young couple left their six-year-old girl with a babysitter. When they returned they found their little girl crying in her bed. “Why are you crying, darling?” “Because the babysitter said if I wasn’t good, you wouldn’t love me.” They quickly assured her that their love was unconditional. God’s love is as well, just as the hymn “Jesus Love Me” expresses: “Jesus loves me when I’m good, when I do the things I should. Jesus loves me when I’m bad, though it makes Him very sad.”⁵

In Jeremiah 31:3 God says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” The Hebrew word for “everlasting” means “beyond the vanishing point.” Young people might define it as “God’s love is out of sight.” My wife Janet used to tell our grandchildren, “I loved you before you were born.” One night she said that to Ashlyn, still a little girl. Ashlyn cupped her hands under Janet’s chin and said, “Memaw, I loved you before you were born!” There was a time when you began to love your mate or your children, but there was never a time when God began to love you. God’s love reaches to eternity past, before you were born. Before the earth was created and before the sun, the moon, and stars existed, God loved you. God’s love reaches to eternity; there will never be a time when God will cease to love you. When the heavens roll away like a scroll and the stars fall from their sockets like chunks of coal, God will still love you.

Do not overlook that little word “so” (houtos). The Bauer Arndt Gingrich Danker Greek Lexicon says it is a demonstrative adverb.⁶ Thayer calls it an adverb of degree. If the former is correct, it could be translated, “in this manner.” If Thayer is correct, it could be translated, “to such an infinite degree.” According to the MacArthur Study Bible, “so” emphasizes the intensity or greatness of His love. Perhaps we may combine both ideas by translating the verse as “God loved the world in such an intense manner.” There are volumes in that little word. God’s love is not like a trickling stream; instead it is like a flooding river. It is not like a leaky faucet; instead it is like a bottomless ocean. It is not like a flickering lightning bug; instead it is like a blinding sun. Unlike the Lanier and Allatoona Lakes, which were dangerously low a few summers ago when our area went through a severe drought, God’s love is a reservoir that never runs dry!

The object of God’s love is “the world.” In Greek the word is kosmos and is an accusative, masculine, singular direct object. The word occurs 78 times in the Gospel of John and 24 times in 1, 2, and 3 John—over half of its 185 occurrences in the New Testament. Sometimes it refers to a world system organized in antagonism to God, but most often the word refers to the realm where human beings live. Sometimes the emphasis is on the human realm itself; most often it refers to the people who live in that realm. A. T. Robertson says it means “the whole human race.”⁷ It refers to the sum total of all people. The verse provides no hint here that “world” refers only to the world of the elect. God does not love just the elect; God loves everyone. God does not love just Christians; God loves all people. God does not just love Americans; God loves all nations. God does not love just white people; God loves all races. As in the song sung in Sunday school, God’s love is all-embracing: “Jesus loves the little children, / all the children of the world. / Red and yellow, black and white, / they are precious in His sight. / Jesus loves the little children of the world.”⁸ Is there any child in the world, who attends church, who cannot correctly sing that song or “Jesus Loves Me”? Here is a question for us: If God does not love all the people of the world, why did God create them? In April 2008 the world population reached 6.6 billion. Put all those people in a line and walk them before God. John 3:16 teaches that God would say “I love you” to each one.

What kind of world does God love? In 1 John 5:19, “the whole world lieth in the wickedness.” This world is like a precious vessel sunk in a putrid stream. Romans 3:19 teaches that the whole world is guilty before God. Learning about this world comes from observation, by reading the daily newspaper, and by watching the evening news on television: a drunken dad burns off the fingers of his little child, and a live-in boyfriend rapes a six-month-old baby, giving the child AIDS. Learning about this world also comes from the human heart, for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9). The great evangelist Jesse Hendley said, “Only God could love a human being.” Only God could love a world of such ugliness, perverseness, and shame. How can God love a sinful world like ours? God’s love is not conditioned by the worthiness of its object.

Move this thought closer to you. Perhaps the thought that God loves the world does not move you. Move a little closer by remembering that “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Eph 5:25). Move a little closer by remembering that “[He] loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20). I remember singing this old hymn at my boyhood church: “I am so glad that our Father in heaven / Tells of His love in the book He has giv’n; / Wonderful things in the Bible I see; / This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.”⁹ My young heart would overflow as we sang the refrain, “I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me.” He loves you, Bill, Emily, Jason, Jessica. He loves each one individually, personally. He loves you as if there were no one else in the world. Augustine said, “God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.” I have a friend who had a lady in his church who had ten children. He asked her: “You have so many children. Do you ever neglect any?” The mother replied, “Oh no, I never forget a one of them, ’cause they’re all precious to me.” My friend learned something about a mother’s heart. A mother’s heart does not operate by the laws of division—one mother’s heart divided ten ways. A mother’s heart operates by the laws of multiplication—one mother’s heart multiplied ten ways. Compute that to God’s heart. God does not operate by laws of division, with one heart divided many ways, but by laws of multiplication, with one heart multiplied 6.6 billion ways.

A world outside our churches needs to know about this incredible global love. A young college girl approached me during the invitation after a message on the love of God. With tears glistening in her eyes, she asked, “Are you telling me God really loves me?” I responded, “God really loves you.” Why church? Why church planting? Why denominations? Why evangelism? Why missions? “For God so loved the world.” Whomever you see or meet wherever you go, remember that this is a person loved by God.

II. God’s Love Is Sacrificial

“That he gave his only begotten Son.” “That” is hoste, a consecutive conjunction introducing a result clause. God so intensely loved the world with the result that He gave His Son. Love always gives. It is the nature of fire to burn and of light to shine. It is the nature of love to give. A person can give and not love; a person cannot love and not give.

Love is a decision. Of course, there is an emotional element to love. I used to tell our young people in Jacksonville, “Love’s a very funny thing. It’s shaped just like a lizard. It wraps its tail around your throat and goes right through your gizzard!” But, primarily, love is a decision. When you marry, you decide to love someone whose hair may fall out, who snores at night, whose teeth must be replaced, who bites his/her toenails in bed, who brings emotional baggage and irritating traits into a relationship. Love is a decision.

God loved the world definitely. “He gave.” The verb is edoken, an aorist active indicative. Again, it is a constantive aorist, emphasizing the totality and definiteness of the giving. It includes the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ. First John 4:10 says God “sent his Son,” another aorist indicating a definite decision. The word there, apostello, means “to send off or away on a mission.” God sent His Son tenderly, wonderfully, lovingly on a mission. I sometimes imagine that God, knowing mankind would sin and need a Savior, surveyed the farthest reaches of heaven. He looked at the cherubim and seraphim. None of them would do. He looked at the archangels and angels. None was good enough. His holy gaze fell upon the Son. In the counsels of the Godhead, it was agreed that the Son would come to be the Savior of the world. Imagine how it was when Jesus left heaven. The angels must have cried, “Don’t go down there, Jesus; they will misunderstand and mistreat You.” But down He came. As He passed by Jupiter, it said, “Don’t go down there, Jesus; they will slap You and beat You.” But down, down He came. As He passed by the sun, the sun cried out, “Don’t go down there, Jesus; they will thrust a spear in Your side, crush a crown of thorns on Your head, and drive nails into Your hands.” But down, down, down He came—all the way from the glory place to the gory place. “Out of the Ivory Palaces, into a world of woe. Only His great, eternal love, made our Saviour go.”¹⁰ He came down to this godless globe, to be born in a smelly manger, live in a hick town, work as a carpenter, be rejected by the world, and be nailed to a cross. God gave Him definitely.

God also gave Him uniquely. The phrase “only begotten” (monogenes) is interesting and is built on two words: monos, which forms part of our words “monopoly” and “monorail,” and genos, from which we get the words “genetics” and “genes.” It is best translated “unique” or “one of a kind.” John uses it five times in his writings (1:14,18; 3:16,18; 1 John 4:9). It is used in other places to refer to the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:12); Jairus’s only daughter (Luke 8:42); the demon-possessed son (Luke 7:38); and Isaac (Heb 11:17). Isaac is called Abraham’s “only begotten son,” not his only biological son but his uniquely, miraculously born son. Jesus is God’s Son in a sense no one else can ever be. He is God’s unique Son.

A mystery surrounded Jesus’ birth. When I was pastor in Mobile, Alabama, Dr. Mitchell, a gynecologist, was a member of my church. At the time he had delivered over 16,000 babies. I invited him out to lunch and asked him to explain biological birth. When he finished, I was aware that biological birth is a miracle but that no one was ever born as was Jesus. First Timothy 3:16 begins, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” When Jesus was born, God was born. The Infinite became an infant, the Creator became a creature, and God was in a cradle. Who can understand that?! The eternal God confined Himself to the narrow dimensions of a woman’s womb and a single sperm cell. R. G. Lee used to say, “Jesus was the only One ever born who had a heavenly Father, but no heavenly mother; an earthly mother, but no earthly father. The only One ever born older than His mother and as old as His Father!”

When Jesus was born, there was a “must” about it. Does the virgin birth not matter? It is absolutely essential. Had Jesus not been born of a virgin, He would have had a sinful nature. Thus, He could not have lived a sinless life. Had Jesus not lived a sinless life, His death would not have been a perfect sacrifice for sin. By the virgin birth God short-circuited the sin cycle so that Jesus was never tainted by original sin. The same Holy Spirit, who impregnated the earth and brought forth beauty, impregnated the womb of Mary and brought forth deity.

There was also a magnificence about it. If slick Madison Avenue marketing experts had planned it, how different it would have been! They would have placed Him with a celebrity couple in a Trump Towers condo, but God placed Him with a carpenter and humble Jewish girl. They would have placed Him on the soft satin pillows of a king’s palace, but God placed Him on the coarse straw of an animal stable. They would have announced Him to kings and scholars, but God announced Him to common shepherds. Yet the magi came to worship Him; a king feared Him; angels praised Him; and the Father was pleased with Him!

God gave His Son incredibly. The word order and the definite article are significant: “The Son the only begotten He gave.” Just think of it! He gave His Son—His unique Son. What an incredible sacrifice! Romans 8:32 says God “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” God not only gave His Son to the world; He gave Him for the world. Oh, what He gave Him up to!

He gave Him up to scourging. The TV miniseries Roots helped me realize the severity of scourging. More recently The Passion of the Christ brought it vividly home to me. Jesus was not beaten with the Jewish 39 stripes: 13 on each shoulder and 13 on the small of the back. He was beaten with the Roman halfway death. So severe was it that men went raving mad under it; some died. It was all prophesied: “I gave my back to the smiters” (Isa 50:6); “the plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows” (Ps 129:3). It was administered by a Roman lictor, a trained soldier. He used a flagellum, a whip made of wood with strips of leather. Attached were pieces of polished bone and steel. In the hands of the lictor, it became a whistling monster. Imagine the ripping of flesh, the splattering of blood. See the exposed, quivering veins.

God gave Him up to crucifixion. Death by crucifixion was the cruelest punishment ever devised by the depraved minds of men. Some say the Phoenicians got the idea from seeing rats nailed to a wall. They drove Jesus to Calvary. On Skull Hill, amid the screaming and spitting, the filth and gore, they laid the bruised, battered body of the Lord. Nailing Him to the cross, they lifted Him between heaven and earth as if He were fit for neither. As the cross dropped into the hole prepared, the flesh ripped and the lungs heaved. Muscles were pulled; bones were disjointed; tendons were shred; and the heart pumped desperately. Every movement sent pain, with shoes of fire racing over our Lord’s nervous system. Oriental insects feasted on His body. The hot oriental sun beat down upon Him. The physical suffering is not enough to explain His sacrifice, for there is a spiritual aspect as well. Martin Luther was said to have spent hours contemplating the statement, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Luther was overheard to say, “God forsaken of God. Who can understand that?” “None of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed. Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through ’ere He found His sheep that were lost.”

Why such physical and spiritual misery? Why was Jesus dying? For what was He dying? The gospel makes it very clear. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). For whose sins did He die? Again, Scripture makes it very clear. “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

In light of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, the love of God for the whole world, and the sacrifice made by God’s love are beyond doubt. Our hearts can only sing, “What wondrous love is this, O my soul . . . that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.”¹¹ God does not love us because Christ died; Christ died because God loves us. Romans 5:8 says, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The word “commend” (sunistesin) means “to exhibit, to prove” and literally means “to put together.” At the cross God put it all together. He proved His love by the sacrifice of His Son.

Remember when you would get a crush on a boy or girl in grade school and wanted so much for him/her to love you? I would get a daisy and begin to pluck the petals, saying, “She loves me. She loves me not.” If the last petal was “She loves me,” she loved me! That’s the way it always came out. Why? I rigged it! On the cross God did not have to rig it. Every drop of our Savior’s blood said, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

A world outside our churches needs to know about God’s sacrificial love. Romans 3:25 says, “God hath set forth [His Son] to be a propitiation.” The word translated “set forth” is protithemi, which also means “to expose to view” and ties to the mercy seat in the Old Testament, which was closed off in a cube-shaped room. God put His love on display on a cross for the whole world to see. You cannot keep God’s love confined in a church or in a Christian’s life. Sooner or later it has to burst forth.

III. God’s Love Is Personal

“That whosoever believeth in him . . .” At this point in the verse, the subject of the verbs changes. God is the subject of “loved” and “gave.” Now the verse gets personal: you and I are the subject! We see the beautiful balance in this one verse that we find all over the Bible. Scripture gives the divine side and the human side of salvation. To overemphasize either to the exclusion of the other is to miss the complete message of the Bible. Gerald Borchert says:

God is the initiator and principal actor in salvation, and we should never think salvation originated with us. God, however, has given humanity a sense of freedom and requires us to make a choice. Accordingly, people are responsible for their believing. It is unproductive theological speculation, therefore, to minimize either the role of God or humanity in the salvation process. The Bible and John 3:16 recognize the roles of both.¹²

The final clause begins with another conjunction, hina, which is a subordinate conjunction introducing a purpose clause. What is the purpose of God’s giving His unique Son?

Look now at the word “whosoever.” The transliteration of the Greek word is pas. It is used 1,228 times in the New Testament. It is translated as “whosoever,” “all,” and “every.” It is a pronominal substantival adjective. As an adjective it modifies the participle pisteuon (translated “believes”). As a substantive it fills the noun slot; as a pronominal it functions as a pronoun. It appears with an article and participle eight times in John’s Gospel (3:8,15,16,20; 4:13; 6:40; 8:34; 18:37). Pas with the participle pisteuon occurs four times in John (3:15,16; 6:40; 12:46). Here it carries the idea of totality. Kittel says it means a totality and an inclusion of all individual parts.¹³ The Dictionary of New Testament Theology says, “Stress may be laid on each of the many individuals or parts which make up the totality.”¹⁴ Herschel Hobbs on the Southern Baptist Peace Committee, often reminding us of the use of pas in the phrase “all Scripture” in 2 Tim. 3:16, said it meant the whole of Scripture and every part of Scripture is inspired of God. Likewise, here it means God loves the whole world collectively, and He loves and will save “whosoever” individually.

The word is a welcome mat inviting the world to God. The Holy Spirit could have inspired John to say only, “the one believing.” Does it just mean that all who believe will be saved? If so, the addition of the word is meaningless. Tell the word “whosoever” to the person in the remotest jungles of Africa, on the snowcapped North Pole, in the finest mansion in your city, or in the poorest shack. This all-embracing adjective is added to emphasize there are no limits on who may believe. David Allen says, “The addition of pas before the participle generalizes it to every single person. The best translation is: ‘Anyone who believes.’ The idea is non-restrictive. The idea is anyone . . . anywhere . . . anytime.”¹⁵ To say otherwise is to make a travesty of this verse. It is the design of the sovereign God to make the salvation of all people possible and to secure the salvation of all who believe. What kind of God would not make salvation possible for all?

I’m glad it says “whosoever” rather than saying my name. I received a letter from the Rome, Georgia, water company some years ago, informing me they were going to cut off my water for an unpaid bill, even though I was not using city water. I had my own well. There was another man named Jerry Vines who was not paying his water bill. It was a case of mistaken identity. This word pas removes any question of mistaken identity.

John “Bull” Bramlett was known as the meanest man in the NFL. He was a drinker and carouser. His wife came to Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. She immediately began to pray for John. Two men from Bellevue Baptist Church visited John, sharing the gospel with him. The next day he told his assistant to hold all calls. He began to read his New Testament. Several days later he came to John 3:16. When he read “whosoever,” he said, “Whosoever? That could be me!” He knelt and received Christ as his personal Savior. If the word does not refer to every person, no person could ever know he/she is included.

It is fascinating to note how often pas occurs in passages about salvation. “He . . . should taste death for every (pas) man” (Heb. 2:9). “The Lord . . . is not willing that any should perish, but that all (pas) should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). God “will have all (pas) men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). God “is the Savior of all (pas) men, specially of those that believe” (1 Tim 4:10).

The next word is the present active participle pisteuon (“believes”). John uses the verb pisteuo 96 times, eight times in John 3. He uses the participle with pas six times (1:7; 3:15,16; 6:40; 11:48; 12:46). The best translation of the verb is “trust.” It is John’s way of conveying saving faith. Three basic ideas are involved. First is the mental aspect—confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the idea conveyed in John 20:30–31. The use of pisteuon in 3:15 seems to emphasize the mental aspect of saving faith. Second is the volitional aspect—commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. The preposition eis is used in John 3:16 and carries the idea of movement toward. Third is the emotional aspect—communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. The use of the active participle and auton here suggest a continuing relationship with a living Person.

How does this saving faith come about? A sovereign God has given every person the faculty of faith and a will to exercise it (see Rom 12:3). This does not rob God of His sovereignty. Humans exercise the faculty of faith every day. They trust that their spouse is not poisoning them, so they eat their breakfast. They trust the banker to keep their money safe so they make their deposit. They trust the pilot is capable so they board the plane. As Norman Geisler says about humans’ capacity to choose—it has been “effaced, not erased; limited, not lost; damaged, not destroyed.” God commands us to believe. In Acts 16:30–31, the Philippian jailer asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” There was nothing he could do to save himself. Christ had already done it by His death on the cross. In John 19:30, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” the work was done. The hymn “O Happy Day” conveys this same affirmation: “ ’Tis done, the great transaction’s done!”¹⁶ But Paul said to him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30–31). It would be unreasonable to command someone to do something impossible for them to do. It would be like commanding an armless man to embrace you.

When it comes to saving faith, the faculty of faith is raised to a new level by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. How does this happen? I used to take Billy Baptist with me to the annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention. The liberals never could see him. Only the conservatives could! How was Billy saved? He came to church, heard the Word preached (“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Rom 10:17), was convicted by the Holy Spirit (“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,” John 16:8), and believed the truth (“because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,” 2 Thess 2:13). And he was saved! Many people around us need to hear that if they will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved.

The result of saving life is eternal life. Attention to context makes this clear. John 3:16 begins with the explanatory conjunction gar, which ties it to the preceding verses. In the opening pericope of the chapter, we have the interview of Nicodemus with Jesus, during which the Lord told him he must be born again. The question of how rebirth can occur is raised and is followed with an illustration from the Old Testament. Numbers 21 includes the account of the snakebitten Israelites who could receive new life by looking at the brazen serpent on the pole. In the LXX the word pas is used frequently in the passage. What precedes the new life? The look of faith does! Now John 3:16 nails it. When does eternal life come? Eternal life comes upon saving faith. John 1:12 puts it this way: “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” When does regeneration come? Regeneration comes after saving faith.

IV. God’s Love Is Eternal

Have you noticed that John 3:16 begins and ends in eternity? It begins with a God who has no beginning and ends with a life that has no ending. Eternity! There was a time when you were not; there will never be a time when you will not be. The issue in the phrase “should not perish, but have everlasting life” is where will humans be in eternity? Perish! A noxious weed is growing in this fresh garden. Pay close attention: you can smell the fire, see the worms crawling, hear the weeping, and see the gnashing of teeth. The word “perish” encapsulates everything about hell.

Jesus had the most tender heart that ever beat in a human breast. Yet He said more about hell than any other person in the Bible. Thirteen percent of all His teaching was about judgment or hell.

The Greek word apoletai, translated “perish,” is an aorist middle subjunctive. The verbs are now in the subjunctive mood, the mood of potential or possibility. This word is used in two ways: a physical destruction (see “Lord, save us: we perish,” Matt 8:25) or a spiritual condition. A. Oepke says it refers to “an eternal plunge into hades and a hopeless destiny of death . . . an everlasting state of torment and death.”¹⁷

The idea of hell is perfectly logical. Hell can be called the garbage dump of the universe or the asylum for the spiritually insane. The use of the aorist tense indicates the final tragedy of a soul. If one is lost, that person is perishing right now. First Corinthians 1:18 uses the present tense (“them that perish”) to convey a condition that begins here and now but reaches full and terrible culmination in final condemnation. William Hull paraphrases it, “should not come to a dead end with everything utterly lost.”¹⁸ R. O. Yeager says, “The ingressive and cumulative effects of perishing are eternal. The onset of the perishable state (ingressive) results in the culmination of a total state of separation from God (culminative).”¹⁹ It is the final tragedy of the soul.

The same word used to describe eternal life is also used to describe eternal hell. Matthew 25:46 says, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” Think of it. Once they are in hell, they will always be in hell. To go into hell knowing you will never return is the tragedy of all tragedies. “Let some air in.” No air is in hell. “I need a drink of water.” No water is in hell. “Turn on some light.” No light is in hell. “Let me die.” No death occurs in hell.

Then the text says, “But!” This little word introduces a breathtaking reversal in potential and possibility. It is the adversative conjunction alla, denoting contrast. Coiled in that little word is the hinge of hope. What changes in thought from agony to ecstasy, from misery to glory, and from hell to heaven occur here!

Come a little closer. Stop, look, and listen. Stop and consider what is possible. Look and see gates of pearl and streets of gold. Listen and hear anthems of angels and shouts of saints! Note the change in the verb tense in the phrase “have everlasting life.” The verb is in the present active subjunctive tense. It means “to have now and forever.” The phrase “everlasting life” occurs 17 times in John’s Gospel. It carries the ideas of qualitative and quantitative life. The idea is of endless and never-ending life and of a difference in quality. This eternal life can be a present possession (see 1 John 5:12) and a hope (see Titus 3:7). So eternal life involves a person and a place! Believe on Him and have Jesus now and heaven someday!

Conclusion

Bennett Cert told the story of a child in an orphans’ home. Since the child was somewhat troublesome and difficult, the workers in the home looked for an excuse to move the unwanted child to another home. One day the child was seen stealing across the yard to a tree, climbing to one of the branches, and depositing a note. After the child was gone, the workers hurried to retrieve the note. They opened it and read, “If anybody finds this, I love you.”²⁰ To a world that treats God like an unwanted child in an orphans’ home, to a world that does not love Him, in John 3:16 God is saying, “If anyone finds this, I love you.”

NOTES

1. This chapter is a transcribed sermon that was preached on November 6, 2008, by Jerry Vines at the John 3:16 Conference held by Jerry Vines Ministries at the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia.

2. Unless otherwise noted, all Bible references in this chapter are from the King James Version (KJV).

3. Words from the hymn written in 1917 by F. M. Lehman, “The Love of God,” in Baptist Hymnal (ed. M. Harland; Nashville: LifeWay Worship, 2008), 111.

4. A. W. Tozer, Christ the Eternal Son (Camp Hill, PA: Wingspread Publishers, 1991), 85–86.

5. A verse from an unknown rendition of the song by A. B. Warner and W. B. Bradbury, “Jesus Loves Me” (public domain).

6. See “houtos” in Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (ed. W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich; 3rd ed.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).