Born Again (39)

John 3:16 (E)

We can reinforce our point with yet another example. John 12:32 says, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." The word "draw" refers to a powerful and effective action from God by which he inwardly drives a person to come to Christ. If "all" must mean all human persons in all of history, then this must mean that all human persons in all of history will become Christians, or at least all those who live after Christ had been "lifted up." But then this promise or prediction would have failed even before the Acts of the Apostles.

And even if we weaken the verb "draw" to something like a gentle nudge, it is doubtful that all human persons after the crucifixion have been thus nudged to come to Christ, as many have died never having heard of him, and many who have heard were repulsed by the message of the cross. Add to this the fact that God deliberately withholds understanding and repentance from many, and even harden their hearts (Romans 9:18, 11:7), it is impossible to interpret "all" here as referring to all human persons in all of history, or even just in all the years after the crucifixion.

The meaning of the verse is clear if we will demonstrate even a little respect toward God and Scripture, and not abuse the text as our opponents do. Just a few verses earlier (v. 20-22), John writes that some Greeks had expressed an interest in seeing Jesus. This provides the context for us to understand "all men," that Jesus is again referring to the fact that the gospel will transcend racial, cultural, and national boundaries to reach all kinds of people.

This is repeated especially to counteract the stubborn notion that the Jews are automatically entitled to salvation just because they are the natural descendents of Abraham. This is the consistent and emphatic message of John and the other New Testament writers. Matthew, for example, cites Jesus as saying, "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 8:11).

When Jesus says that, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself," he is foreshadowing his later command to the disciples to no longer preach only to the people of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6), but to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). As he says in Luke 24:46-47, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." This is just another way of saying what we find in John 12:32. First, Christ will "suffer" ("when I am lifted up"), and then the gospel will be preached "to all nations" ("will draw all men").

This commission to perform worldwide ministry is repeated in Acts 1:8, and its fulfillment began just a number of days later in Acts 2, even before the disciples scattered away from Jerusalem. "God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven" (v. 5) gathered there on the day of Pentecost. Under Peter's preaching, thousands of them believed (v. 41), we assume that they brought the gospel back to where they lived.

We can make our point yet another way from Acts 2, since Peter cites Joel's prophecy, saying, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people" (v. 17). Again, this cannot refer to all human individuals without exception, but consistent with what is obviously one of the main thrusts of Acts 1 and 2, the term refers to people of "every nation" (v. 5). As Peter says in verse 39, "The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call."

Salvation is indeed for "all," but all of what? Peter says it is for all "whom the Lord our God will call." God is the one who chooses those who would be saved – indeed he will save all those whom he has chosen, and he has chosen not every individual in man's history, but people of all nations, even those who are far off, even as far as "the ends of the earth" (1:8). By extending the universal terms to include all human persons, our opponents have distorted all such verses, and obscured their important message.

Then, it is also likely that John is using the word "world" in John 3:16 to denote a humanity that is hostile to God, so that he loves even those who are now opposed to him, and he sends Christ to save them. This is consistent with what John teaches elsewhere, as when he writes in 1 John 4:10, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (also v. 19).

The same idea appears in Paul, who writes, "Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:3-5). Again, that this could be John's meaning neither proves nor disproves the doctrines of divine election and definite atonement. The verse does not directly address them.

(to be continued)