John 3:17-18 (A)

Verse 17 closely follows verse 16, and continues to describe Jesus' mission, for which God has sent him to accomplish: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

To accurately understand this verse, we must first remember that it continues from verse 16, and should not be read apart from it. Verse 16 in turn follows verse 15, and should not be read apart from it. So, going back to verse 15, there it is said that Jesus would be "lifted up," and elsewhere John explains that this refers to "the kind of death he was going to die" (12:33). That is, verse 15 refers to the crucifixion, a central event in Christ's work of atonement. Although verse 16 most likely begins John's commentary, it is nevertheless a commentary on verse 15, and it does not change the subject but rather extends it. So it says that, out of love, God sends his Son to perform the work of atonement on the cross.

Keeping this in mind as we read verse 17, it makes perfect sense to say that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." The present focus is the atonement, and of course the atonement is not mainly to condemn the world, but to save those for whom Christ dies, for whom he makes this atonement.

Because of this context, there is a particular sense in which God did not send his Son to condemn the world. The next verse says, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." Why, of course! Do you see it? We are able to understand all of this in precisely the sense in which it is intended as long as we keep in mind Christ's redemptive work as the background. He came to heal the sick, raise the dead, and save the sinners. He did not need to do the opposite – people were already sick, already dying, and already condemned.

Now consider John 9:39, where Jesus says, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." Some people might find a verse like this puzzling in light of what we have just read in John 3:17, but the difficulty is easily resolved because we have taken the time to observe the precise sense in which 3:17 asserts what it does. When we then take similar care to read John 9:39, we immediately notice that the two verses are in fact talking about different things, or "judgment" in different senses.

The word "judgment" does not have to mean condemnation, but among other things, it can mean distinction or separation. This is what we find in John 9:39, as the kind of "judgment" that Jesus has in mind here is such that "the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

At the background of this verse is the moving account of how Jesus healed a man born blind. The Pharisees were jealous and hostile, but when questioned by them, the man was grateful and loyal to the one who healed him. The Pharisees threw him out, but Jesus found him and asked, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The man asked, "Who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him." Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. What a beautiful picture of conversion! Can you see the Spirit of God working in him? No man, Paul writes, can say that Jesus is Lord unless by the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, the Pharisees were hardened, and Jesus said to them, "Your guilt remains."

Wherever Jesus went and whatever he did, he caused a distinction to be made among men, and a separation between the believing and the unbelieving, the elect and the non-elect. Simeon had predicted, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed" (Luke 2:34-35). And Jesus himself declared, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34).

But this is different from the emphasis in John 3:17. There the judgment is not a distinction made between people as they exhibit sharply different reactions to the words and works of Christ – that does not come up until verse 19. Rather, "to judge" in John 3:17 is contrasted against "to save," and this is why some versions use "to condemn" to translate the verb: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

(to be continued)

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