Scripture is, or may be, before man always. Hence the Son, being in this ineffable nearness of love, has declared not God only, but the Father. 33. First, a new nature is insisted on the Holy Ghost's quickening of each soul who is vitally related to God's kingdom; next, the Spirit of God takes an active part not as source or character only, but acting sovereignly, which opens the way not only for a Jew, but for "every one." (Verse John 7:39), Nothing can be simpler than this. The Jews, then, who could not help, and pitied not their fellow in his long infirmity and disappointment, are scandalized to see him, safe and sound, carrying his couch on that day. Here the Lord was really owned by the multitudes as the great Prophet that should come; and this in consequence of His works, especially that one which Scripture itself had connected with the Son of David. (John 3:31) Referring to Jesus, John declares, "The one who comes from above is above allThe one who comes from heaven is above all" (verse 31). (Ver. At least, so say many Christians. The Lord meets him at once with the strongest assertion of the absolute necessity that a man should be born anew in order to see the kingdom of God. Was this false and blasphemous in their eyes? To the Pharisees, indeed, his words as to the Lord are curt: nor does he tell them of the divine ground of His glory, as he had before and does after. It would not suit God, if it would suit man, that He, seeing all, should just pronounce on man's corruption, and then forthwith let him off with a bare pardon. Jesus in John 8:51 says "whoever . So in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, who would pretend to such a power? Thus it is not the Spirit of God simply giving a new nature; neither is it the Holy Ghost given as the power of worship and communion with His God and Father. Here, then, we have a remarkable display of that which preceded His Galilean ministry, or public manifestation. (Verses John 4:20-30), The disciples marvelled that He spoke with the woman. It will "abide" or "dwell" there as its appropriate habitation. Note on John 6:56.). The great fact of the incarnation is brought before us "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father"). Therefore, it seems to me, He adds verse 24. The issue of all is, that the will of man is the real cause and spring of enmity. 2. (Read John 3:22-36) John was fully satisfied with the place and work assigned him; but Jesus came on a more important work. 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. But if the Spirit speaks of the Son of God, the law dwindles at once into the smallest possible proportions: everything yields to the honour the Father puts oil the Son. For if the Son (cast out, we may say, in principle from Judaism) visited Samaria, and deigned to talk with one of the most worthless of that worthless race, it could not be a mere rehearsal of what others did. (not ) also appears in the phrase the wrath to come (Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:16, etc.). All is in the character of the Son of man. It is a present possession. There is no changing or bettering the old man; and, thanks be to God, the new does not degenerate or pass away. How striking the omission! Hell will "abide" on the person who does not believe in the Son. Glory would be displayed in its day. (ver. Why should He not show Himself to the world? Hence the Lord, while fully owning the labours of all preceding labourers, has before His eyes the whole boundless expanse of grace, the mighty harvest which His apostles were to reap in due time. But this is the command of God, That men should believe on his Son, 1Jo 3:23. But here these streams of the Spirit are substituted for the feast of tabernacles, which cannot be accomplished till Christ come from heaven and show Himself to the world; for this time was not yet come. They should have understood more about Him those that were specially favoured. Here again, apart from this divine insight, the change or gift of the name marks His glory. 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. ( ) flesh, and dwelt among us." How withering the words! There is the nicest care to maintain His personal glory, no matter what the subject may be. Verse John 3:36. (John 3:36 KJV). The wrath of God - The anger of God for sin. The anger of God for sin. The original Greek word, apeithn, means "rejecting belief," "refusing obedience," or "refusing to be convinced.". Partner with StudyLight.org as God uses us to make a difference for those displaced by Russia's war on Ukraine. He acts as such. The verb means to persuade, to cause belief, to induce one to do something by persuading, and so runs into the meaning of to obey, properly as the result of persuasion. The divinity of the Son is in this chapter proved as clearly as in 1 John v. 7. John, therefore, who had been the honoured witness before of God's call, "the voice," etc., does now by the outpouring of his heart's delight, as well as testimony, turn over, so to say, his disciples to Jesus. For nothing can be more observable than the way in which He becomes the centre round whom those that belong to God are gathered. What a witness all this to His person! Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. I apprehend the words the Authorised Version gives in italics should disappear. Here there could not be more, and He would not give less: even "grace upon grace." It is thus strikingly an anticipation of the result in glory. The result immediately follows. 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. 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. "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." The first four chapters of John precede in point of time the notices of His ministry in the other gospels. Whoever lives a life of faith in the Son will experience the fullness . This chapter contains the most recognizable verse in the entire Bible, John 3:16. So, when someone testifies to . Verse 3:36 comes after the Nicodemus story. If you've never seen it before, or if you haven't realized what the specific location of it is, this is the verse under that we talk about when we mention John 3:16. This is grace and truth. The man could not tell the Jews the name of his benefactor. 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. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. Though He could not, would not deny Himself (and He was the Son, and Word, and God), yet had He taken the place of a man, of a servant. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? This is the same idea explained in Scriptures such as John 3:18-19, Romans 1:20, and Romans 3:11. Man, dead in sins, was the object of His grace; but then man's state was such, that it would have been derogatory to God had that life been communicated without the cross of Christ: the Son of man lifted up on it was the One in whom God dealt judicially with the evil estate of man, for the, full consequences of which He made Himself responsible. Today, the phrase "born again" can have any one of a host of meanings. But there is also a fearful positive contrast. Salem Media Group. He regularly attends Shreveport City Council and Caddo Parish Commission meetings. (Ver. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life". They knew what they worshipped, but not the Father, nor were they "true." In the five porches, then, of this pool lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. It implies, also, that it will continue to remain on him. How little they conceived of what was then said and done! The commandment doth not only respect love, but faith in the first place; for faith worketh by love; so as there is an apeiyeia, a disobedience in the understanding, as well as in the conversation; and he that so believeth not, as to obey, shall never come into heaven, which felicity is here expressed by seeing life; as not seeing death is not dying, so not seeing life is dying. It is not only the nature, but the model and fulness of the blessing in the Son, who declared the Father. Piety here is the same that it will be there, except that it will be expanded, matured, purified, made more glorious. (Ver. Man, under law, proved powerless; and the greater the need, the less the ability to avail himself of such merciful intervention as God still, from time to time, kept up throughout the legal system. . But the Spirit would not confine His operations to such bounds, but go out freely like the wind. Natural birth had nothing to do with this new thing; it was a new nature altogether in those who received Him: "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This He does in verses 16-19. 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." But how precious the grace, in presence of their hatred and proud self-complacency! As the new birth for the kingdom of God, so the cross is absolutely necessary for eternal life. Compare the future tense with the present "hath eternal life," and the simple life with the fully developed idea eternal life. What is there in God more truly divine than grace and truth? He lives continually in an economy which is alienated from God, and which, in itself, must be habitually the subject of God's displeasure and indignation. The person of the Son was there the object of divine and overflowing joy even then, although, of course, in the full sense of the word, the Holy Ghost might not be given to be the power of it for some time later; but still the object of worship was there revealing the Father; butJohn 7:1-53; John 7:1-53 supposes Him to be gone up to heaven, before He from heaven communicates the Holy Ghost, who should be (not here, as Israel had a rock with water to drink of in the wilderness outside themselves, nor even as a fountain springing up within the believer, but) as rivers flowing out. It was sabbath-day. (VersesJohn 3:7-8; John 3:7-8), It is hardly necessary to furnish detailed disproof of the crude, ill-considered notion (originated by the fathers), that baptism is in question. He hath it. There is the need of another nature, and the only way in which this nature is communicated is by being born of water and the Spirit the employment of the word of God in the quickening energy of the Holy Ghost. (Ver. (Psalms 132:1-18) Then they wanted to make Him a king. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL 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. Why is John 3:16 the most famous verse in the Bible? All this clearly goes down to millennial days. (John 3:34-36) The price for rejecting the true testimony regarding Jesus. (Ver. Thus we have here the other side of the truth: not merely what God is in life and light, in grace and truth, as revealed in Christ coming down to man; but man is now judged in the very root of his nature, and proved to be entirely incapable, in his best state, of seeing or entering the kingdom of God. "He came unto his own [things], and his own [people] received him not. Life out of death was wanted by man, such as he is; and this the Father is giving in the Son. The Light, on coming into the world, lightens every man with the fulness of evidence which was in Him, and at once discovers the true state as truly as it will be revealed in the last day when He judges all, as we find it intimated in the gospel afterwards. Still the Lord refused the crown then: it was not the time or state for His reign. 1John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. for he knew He was the Christ. 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. 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. John 3:16 gives us the glorious hope of eternal life in heaven through the love of God and death of Jesus Christ. I pray that I might live for Him. 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. 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. 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. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." In love, God sent his Son to die for all in order to forgive and accept all, in Christ. Here was a meeting, indeed, between such an one and Him, the Son, true God and eternal life. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 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. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL But this, however worthy of God, and indispensable for man, could not of itself give an adequate expression of what God is; because in this alone, neither His own love nor the glory of His Son finds due display. Indeed, it is the total eclipse, not merely of law and remedial mercies, but even of promised Messianic glory, by everlasting life and resurrection at the last day. Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. Since God is the one who grants that we believe (Phil. Here was One on earth who knew all secrets. Yet, this obe- dience salvation formula is identically repeated in John 3:16. And herein is that true saying, One soweth, and another reapeth. 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.'' Yet thousands choose to remain in this state, and to encounter alone all that is terrible in the wrath of Almighty God, rather than come to Jesus, who has borne their sins in his own body on the tree, and who is willing to bless them with the peace, and purity, and joy of immortal life. They had no common thoughts, feelings, or ways with the Father and the Son. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son," etc. Heavenly things are set in evident contradistinction, and link themselves immediately here, as everywhere, with the cross as their correlative. There is but one unfailing test the Son of God God's testimony to Him. "And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3: 36) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" The sentence has both expressed and implied meaning. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning, He that believeth on the Son Who is a proper object of faith and trust; which, if he was not truly and properly God, he would not be: and this is to be understood not of any sort of faith, a temporary, or an historical one; but of that which is the faith of God's elect, the gift of God, and the operation of his Spirit; by which a man sees the Son, goes unto him, ventures and relies upon him, and commits himself to him, and expects life and salvation from him; and who shall not be ashamed and confounded; for such an one. The incarnate Word was here full of grace and truth. John is not saying that Christ in himself is not already as great intrinsically as he could possibly be. 25-26); (3) John's joy (vss. it was no lack of testimony; their will was for present honour, and hostile to the glory of the only God. The brethren of the Lord Jesus, who could see the astonishing power that was in Him, but whose hearts were carnal, at once discerned that it might be an uncommon good thing for them, as well as for Him, in this world. God orders matters so that a favoured teacher of men, favoured as none others were in Israel, should come to Jesus by night. This implies that he is now under the wrath of God, or under condemnation. It is not a message or a sign, however significant at the moment, which passes away as soon as heard or seen. Had it been meant, it was no wonder that Nicodemus did not know how these things could be. Alas! The ignorance of the world has been proved, the rejection of Israel is complete: then only is it that we hear of this new place of children. John 3:31-36 meaning. John the Baptist was the earthly witness that God used to present His dearly beloved Son to the world. 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. Nicodemus, not understanding in the least such a want for himself, expresses his wonder, and hears our Lord increasing in the strength of the requirement. 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. This scripture tells us about the endless affection God demonstrated by sacrificing His only begotten son . The wrath of God: "The word does not mean a sudden gust of passion or a burst of temper. God wants people to be saved . None but a divine being could thus deal with the world. He that believeth on the Son Who is a proper object of faith and trust; which, if he was not truly and properly God, he would not be: and this is to be understood not of any sort of faith, a temporary, or an historical one; but of that which is the faith of God's elect, the gift of God, and the operation of his Spirit; by which a man sees the Son, goes unto him, ventures and relies . It was an extraordinary birth; of God, not man in any sort, or measure, but a new and divine nature (2 Peter 1:1-21) imparted to the believer wholly of grace. The Lord, in the latter part of the chapter (verses John 6:27-58), contrasts the presentation of the truth of God in His person and work with all that pertained to the promises of Messiah. 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! It is not that He denies the truth of what they were thus desiring and attached to. It was impossible that there should not be righteous dealing with human evil against God, in its sources and its streams. Man is morally judged. They wonder, as they had murmured before (John 7:12-15); but Jesus shows that the desire to do God's will is the condition of spiritual understanding. (Verses John 1:41-44), On the morrow Jesus begins, directly and indirectly, to call others to follow Himself. . If, on the contrary, a soul has been taught of God the glory of the person of Him who was made flesh, he receives in all simplicity, and rejoices in, the glorious truth, that He who was made flesh was not made flesh only to this end, but rather as a step toward another and deeper work the glorifying God, and becoming our food, in death. (John 3:36 ASV), He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. Could they, then, reject the Son, and merely miss this infinite blessing of life in Him? He is under the eternal sentence of death. This testimony differs from the rest in having a more permanent character. Accordingly, if the law raised the question of righteousness in man, the cross of the Lord Jesus, typifying Him made sin, is the answer; and there has all been settled to the glory of God, the Lord Jesus having suffered all the inevitable consequences. Nay, therefore it was they, reasoning, denied Him to be God. None the less did the result of His death proclaim His Deity. Also one of the two thus drawn to Him first finds his own brother Simon (with the words, We have found the Messiah), and led him to Jesus, who forthwith gave him his new name in terms which surveyed, with equal ease and certainty, past, present, and future. Now, it is the Holy Ghost in the power that gives rivers of living water flowing out, and this bound up with, and consequent on, His being man in glory. John was a voice crying in the wilderness: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." He is ever God; He is the Son; He quickens and raises from the dead. Nothing is said about the fan in His hand; nothing of His burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. By the grace of God, John had come to know and appreciate the true identity of Jesus Christ. (Ver. The healing of the courtier's son, sick and ready to die, is witness of what the Lord was actually doing among the despised of Israel. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same . * He says, One was among them of whom they had no conscious knowledge, "that cometh after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to loose." "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. John 3:1-36 follows this up. through "sin." hath everlasting lifealready has it. If she turned aside to questions of religion, with a mixture of desire to learn what had concerned and perplexed her, and of willingness to escape such a searching of her ways and heart, He did not refrain graciously to vouchsafe the revelation of God, that earthly worship was doomed, that the Father was to be worshipped, not an Unknown. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. All disciplinary action, every probationary process, disappears. Such was the grace that God was displaying in Him, the true and full expresser of His mind. The effect is thus final, even as His person, witness, and glory are divine. 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. John 1:26-27; John 1:26-27) For himself he was not the Christ, but for Jesus he says no more. His own love and person were warrant enough for the simple to lift the veil for a season, and fill the hearts which had received Himself into the conscious enjoyment of divine grace, and of Him who revealed it to them. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? After this we have, suitably to this gospel, John's connection with the Lord Jesus. The wrath of God. For "he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. Rather, he refers to the fame and influence of Christ. The Jews, with all their privileges, were strangers here. The disciples come; the woman goes into the city, leaving her waterpot, but carrying with her the unspeakable gift of God. 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. All translations of John 3:36 imply that this rejection of Christ is a deliberate action. (VersesJohn 6:1-21; John 6:1-21). Further, John attests that he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and abiding on Him the appointed token that He it is who baptizes with the Holy Ghost even the Son of God. Verse of the Day , God, My Praise (Study In God - All I Need-19). The word here translated believeth not, is apeiywn, which often signifieth, one that is not obedient. ): (Verses John 3:1-6), But the Lord goes farther, and bids Nicodemus not wonder at His insisting on this need. This statement (verse John 1:15) is a parenthesis, though confirmatory of verse John 1:14, and connects John's testimony with this new section of Christ's manifestation in flesh; as we saw John introduced in the earlier verses, which treated abstractly of Christ's nature as the Word. He shall have no perception of life simply considered, much less of eternal life, the full and complex development of life. of Nor was it from any indistinctness in the record, or in him who gave it. The Bible says, " He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God stays on him " (John 3:36). The first . 22-24); (2) John's disciples are jealous (vss. It is His person as incarnate first, then in redemption giving His flesh to be eaten and His blood to be drank. (Verses John 5:17-18). John 1:20-25) John does not even speak of Him as one who, on His rejection as Messiah, would step into a larger glory. 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." Abideth on him. He saw him under the fig tree. 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 addition of "unto him" detracts, to my mind, from the exceeding preciousness of what seems to be, at least, left open. If we give it careful thought, we can . The disciples of John dispute with a Jew about purification; but John himself renders a bright witness to the glory of the Lord Jesus. John 1:19-37; John 1:19-37) It is here presented historically. No such sounds, no such realities were ever heard or known in Israel. Verse John 1:29 opens John's testimony to his disciples. God does not here condescend to call it His, though, of course, it was His and holy, just, and good, both in itself and in its use, if used lawfully. To this last the Lord attaches the deepest importance. (ver. Such was Jesus in person, contrasted with all who belong to the earth. But "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." 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. Not Jacob was there, but the Son of God in nothing but grace; and thus to the Samaritan woman, not to the teachers of Israel, are made those wonderful communications which unfold to us with incomparable depth and beauty the real source, power, and character of that worship which supersedes, not merely schismatic and rebellious Samaria, but Judaism at its best. Teach the Doctrine: Younger Children Jonah 1:4-17; 3:3-5 The Lord blesses me when I obey Him. Here He is not portrayed as the Son of man who must be lifted up, but as the Son of God who was given. Let them learn, then, that as Son of man (for which nature they despised Him, and denied His essential personal glory) He will judge; and this judgment will be no passing visitation, such as God has accomplished by angels or men in times past. (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. Expressly had He told the man to take up his couch and walk, as well as to rise. The Syriac and Arabic versions render it, "shall abide upon him"; so some copies. A person does not have to do anything to become lost.