The Eschatology of John 3:16

The Eschatology of John Part 10: John 3 Part 2

Take your shoes off because we are walking on sacred ground. John 3:16 is one of the most popular passages in the Bible. It would be hard to find a Sunday school student who is not familiar with the wording of this passage in the King James Version.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

As we study this verse and its surrounding context, let’s acknowledge how our familiarity can be both positive and negative. It can be positive because our familiarity with it will mean that we can have a more intelligent discussion about it, but this familiarity can also be negative because it may hinder our ability to read it with beginner’s mind.

The way to read the Bible with as little bias as possible is not by pretending that we alone read the Bible with open hearts and open minds; instead, we approach the Bible at our best when we take a little time to name our preconceived ideas, acknowledge our own life situation, and consider how our life situation (tradition, preferred authors, preferred versions, hermeneutical framework, etc.) may impede our ability to see what the text actually says.

With this warning in mind, let’s begin.

Approaching John 3:16 with Beginner’s Mind

I’ve used the expression “beginner’s mind” twice now, so I think it’s best that I explain it. Beginner’s mind is a concept adopted from Buddhism, but I think you’ll see quickly that it was something taught by Jesus when he said that one must become like a child to enter the kingdom (Matthew 18:3).

Wikipedia defines it as “having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying, even at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.”

So let’s approach this passage with childlike wonder, innocence, and curiosity.

For

“For” lets us know that we need to consider the passage that comes before it. This passage says,

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. John 3:14–15

We briefly looked at this idea of being “lifted up” in our introduction to John, but, as way of reminder, it refers to the manner in which Jesus would die; Jesus would be lifted up from the earth on a cross.

“For” tells us the reason behind Jesus being lifted up and how this is connected to eternal life, a concept we will explore later in this article.

And what is this “for”?

God So Loved

Whatever our preferred theory of the atonement might be, one fact is inescapable: the Cross’s first and most important purpose is to reveal the eternal love of God. Jesus is lifted up for or because God so loves.

This is the first mention of love in John’s gospel, but it is the first of thirty-seven. So while John may have taken three chapters to mention love, he is just getting started.

But this love of God is related to the very theme of John, which is to inspire magnified belief in the reader (John 20:30-31). Remember that this faith is magnified because John was written to show how Jesus makes the Father known, or, as the NASB says, how Jesus explains God.

No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. John 1:18 (NRSVue)

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John 1:18 (NASB95)

I’m getting ahead of myself here, but this means that believing in Jesus produces eternal life because true faith in Jesus can’t come without the realization that God is love.

The World

“The world” here refers to every single person who has ever lived or who will ever live, and, in many cases, refers specifically to those who have disobeyed God’s will. Any attempt to make “the world” refer to something less than that totally destroys the force of this passage.

I have heard many sincere believers, for instance, say that this refers to just the Jewish world; nothing could be further from the truth.

The word kosmos is used eighty times in John. Here is a small sample of its use:

The Samaritan villagers told the first female evangelist to Samaria,

“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” John 4:42

Jesus said,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

This is significant because in Isaiah, the prophet specifically said,

he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6

In other words, Jesus isn’t just the light to the Jewish world. God says, “That’s just too easy! Watch this…”

The Pharisees said,

“You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!” John 12:19

Included in this group were some Greeks who had attended the festival. Craig Keener said,

Although these could be Jews who live in the Greek East, they are probably ethnic Greeks, God-fearers not yet fully converted to Judaism who nevertheless would come to worship at Jerusalem (cf. Acts 8:27)¹

While the word kosmos may sometimes refer to the covenantal world of God’s people, when Scripture speaks of the love of God, it would be wrong to exclude any person from that love. John would later write,

and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2

That He Gave His Only Son

Jesus is God’s gift to humanity in that we have life through the Son. Jesus is the Word of God in that Jesus is what God has to say about himself. Jesus is the ultimate disclosure of the nature of God. God’s mercy, grace, generosity, and, most of all, love could not be clearly seen, felt, and experienced apart from the gift of Jesus.

Because this is true, Jesus is the unique or special Son of God.

As we’ve mentioned, though, the particular is necessary to demonstrate a universal truth. Since Jesus has been revealed as God’s special Son, or only Son, we are invited into sonship.

Paul wrote,

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. Romans 8:29

Thank God that election is for the purpose of inclusion, not exclusion. Jesus is the “chosen one” so that we can all be included in the “predestined ones.” Just as Jesus’s election as the only Son of God means that we can become children of God, our election as children of God means that others can become part of this family too.

Paul was specially chosen, not because others aren’t but so that others could be:

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience as an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:15–16

Paul’s personal election, despite being the chief of all sinners, means that nobody is exempt from God’s love.

So that Everyone Who Believes

This further defines “world” for us. God loves the world, and this love was demonstrated in the gift of Jesus, which unlocks the potential of eternal life for “everyone” who believes. Thus, the “world” is as broad as “everyone.”

John uses the Greek word for “belief” (pisteuō) ninety-eight times.

Whenever we read about “faith” or “belief” in Scripture, it is good to remember that this is far more than mental ascent. I can trust that the doctor can administer a life-saving surgery, and while I certainly don’t have to operate on myself or learn everything there is to know about the surgery, I do have to find transportation to the hospital, sign the required paperwork, and, finally, fully submit myself to the surgeon’s care by allowing myself to be put to sleep.

Biblical faith is similar in that we don’t have to know how it all works, and we definitely don’t have to operate on ourselves, but we do have to trust in Jesus’s power to save, and we must realize that this salvation is far more than a legal arrangement; it is a life-transforming operation in which our entire lives are flipped upside down by the power of the Son of God.

Now, it is true that we may have our doubts or fears about the surgeon’s abilities. We may have heard horror stories about being put to sleep. We may even doubt the effectiveness of the surgery.

Do our doubts affect the surgeon’s ability?

If they don’t keep us off of the operating table, then absolutely not.

The same is true with Jesus. Putting out faith in him may be scary, and we might wonder if Jesus could change someone like ourselves, but the faith the size of a mustard seed will do the trick.

As one man said, “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

May Not Perish

When I hear this passage, I tend to think that it is God causing people to perish. I hear it like, “Believe in Jesus or God will get you!”

But if we look at this word “perish” as it is used in John, this idea is not just wrong, it is actually ascribing to God the actions of the Thief.

The word apollymi is only used ten times in John, and some of the uses have to do with food spoiling, but here are the uses that seem to discuss the opposite of eternal life:

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. John 6:39

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:25

While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12

This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, “I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.” John 18:9

Notice that it is the thief who destroys. It is the thief who wants to “snatch them out of [Jesus’s] hand.” People “lose” their life.

In other words, Jesus rescues those who believe in him, but those who continue in unbelief do so because they are under the influence of the Thief.

We might read John 3:16 like this, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will escape the clutches of the thief and have the life of the age to come.”

But May Have Eternal Life

“Notice that Jesus says ‘should’ not ‘shall’!” I’ve said this about John 3:16 more times than I’d like to admit. My point was simple: not everyone who believes in Jesus has eternal life. I was very, very wrong.

Bill Mounce, a Greek scholar who wrote an excellent Greek grammar, said,

ἀπόληται and ἔχῃ are in the subjunctive because they are in a purpose clause. God sent his son for the purpose saving those who believe and for the purpose of bringing them safely to eternal life. Because purpose is not a statement of reality (indicative), it must be moved into the subjunctive.²

Just before this quote Mounce said, “Is there any question that if a person truly believes, he or she will truly be saved from perishing and will truly receive eternal life?”

But what is eternal life?

In John 17, Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

To know the Father is to have abundant life. How do we know the Father? Jesus has made God known (John 1:18).

It’s all about relationship. As I said i’m the first article in this series, the one eschatological hope is “Christ in you.”

Conclusion

“God demonstrated unimaginable love for the world through the gift of the Son, who is uniquely equipped to reveal God’s exact nature in a way that only a son could for his father. All who trust in this revelation will escape the Thief who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy and will begin to experience the life of the age to come, which is an undiluted relationship with the Father through the Son.” - John 3:16

We’ll finish John 3 in the next article by focusing on Jesus’s roles of Savior and Judge as discussed in John 3.

If you want this series to continue, please like, comment, or message me to let me know of your continued interest. Also, ask questions, point out typos, and engage in kind discussion.

1. Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. Print.

2. https://www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/the-subjunctive-“shall”-or-“might”-john-3-16