Born Again (42)

John 3:16 (H)

Then, here is a passage that we have already cited in another context, but it is very relevant for the present discussion, and so we will read it again:

"Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God." (John 8:43-47)

In agreement with John 10 but without the metaphors, this passage tells us that a person cannot believe Jesus unless he already "belongs" to God.

Then, John 12:38-41 is even more explicit, or rather, it tells us something similar from another angle:

This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: "He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn – and I would heal them." Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.

They cannot believe, because God actively prevents them! He imposes spiritual blindness and deadness upon them, and he withholds understanding and repentance from them.

Who, then, is the "whoever" in "whoever believes"? It is the person whom God sovereignly loves, and to whom he grants understanding and repentance. Rather than teaching man's freedom in salvation, the "whoever believes" in John 3:16 effectively shuts out all mankind from salvation except to those whom God sovereignly grants faith in Jesus Christ.

Thus once we take into context the whole of John's Gospel, John 3:16 teaches the exact opposite of what our opponents assert. Rather than teaching man's freedom in salvation, it altogether destroys it. If our thinking is conformed to Scripture, and if we are speaking as Scripture speaks, then to encourage men to believe, to have faith, is not to acknowledge their spiritual freedom and ability, but it is an unabashed declaration that men cannot save themselves.

To tell them that they need faith is to tell them that "with man this is impossible." And although "with God all things are possible," he does not make it happen for everyone. Moreover, although it is true to say that they can believe only when God grants faith to them, what we have established is even stronger than that – God must not only cause them to believe, but he must first stop working against them.

The problem is that our opponents do not take into account the context of John's Gospel. And this is why I call them dishonest and irreverent. They have too little respect for God and Scripture to hear all of what is said. And if they infer from a small phrase what is not really in the phrase, then they are not paying attention even to those few words. They are trying to catch what they want to hear, distort it to fit their opinions, and then they run with it and never look back.

Those who "belong" to God, those whom God has already given to Christ – "whoever" they are, they will surely come to Christ and believe. And Jesus promises that they "shall not perish but have eternal life" (v. 16). Thus he implies that those who do not believe will perish. Verse 18 will confirm this inference, and so we will mention this again when we get there. As for "eternal life," we have already expounded on this, albeit briefly, and now we must move on.

(to be continued)