John 3:17-18 (B)

Many people are eager to eliminate or explain away the teachings concerning condemnation in the Bible, and some of them would quickly seize upon a statement like "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world." They might infer from this that God has no intention to condemn anyone, or they might apply this to Christian evangelism and say that sermons that refer to the wrath of God are inconsistent with God's love and Christ's mission. Others would use verses like this to resist Christians who speak out about their sins.

We can unleash an avalanche of biblical passages that unmistakably assert God's wrath, his condemnation of the wicked, and his active punishment against unbelievers. But even if we ignore all of them for now, verse 18 is sufficient to destroy the above delusions, and false inferences and applications: "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."

In other words, it is not that God will not condemn, but that the condemnation of sinners and unbelievers is already settled, already taken care of. The atonement does not have an opposite counterpart that Jesus must perform in order to secure the condemnation of the wicked. The verse refers to those who hold to a stubborn and persistent unbelief. They are non-Christians, and they will never become Christians. These people, the verse says, are "condemned already." There is no need for God to send his Son to do something special to make it happen. It is already a certainty.

If anything, the coming of the Son of God has made the condemnation of the wicked even more clear and certain. The verse says that the unbeliever is condemned "because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." Verse 36 says, "God's wrath remains on him." The verse speaks of God's judgment against the person as a present reality, and not something that is doubtful until the future.

Rather than dampening the Bible's message of condemnation, the verse seals the condemnation of the unbeliever. At the same time, it provides us with a strong statement regarding the exclusivity of the Christian faith. A person is condemned "because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." It tells us that if you are a non-Christian, then unless you become a Christian, you are condemned already. It does not matter what you do or what you become, as long as you remain a non-Christian, you are already under condemnation.

This teaching pervades John's writings. Here are only several examples: "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him" (John 5:23); "He who hates me hates my Father as well" (John 15:23); "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist – he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also" (1 John 2:22-23).

Notice those verses from 1 John. There John writes in the same way as he does in John 3:16-21. He states both the positive and the negative aspects of an idea, as if he wishes to eliminate all excuse and confusion. I could just say, "I am a man," but I make my emphasis and intention unmistakable when I say, "I am a man; I am not a woman." The same goes with "I am a Christian" as compared to "I am a Christian; I am not a non-Christian." In this way, John writes, "No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."

No one who denies the Son has the Father. As Jesus says in John 14:6, "No one comes to the Father except through me." What am I getting at? There is no way that a person can be a non-Christian and approach the Father, but the only way to approach God is to become a Christian. In other words, no non-Christian religion can lead to God, but all non-Christians remain under God's condemnation – even if they are not atheists, but are Buddhists, Mormons, Muslims, Catholics, and so on.

You cannot disbelieve or reject Jesus Christ and still claim that you love God, or are accepted by God. You cannot say that you are not a Christian, but that you are finding God some other way – there is no other way. This is because to reject the Son is to reject the Father who sent him. Again, John writes, "We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son" (1 John 5:9-10). If you do not accept Jesus Christ, if you reject the Christian faith, then you have called God a liar, and God's wrath remains on you. But "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well" (1 John 5:1).

(to be continued)

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