John 3:16

John 3:16 is everywhere. Tim Tebow has it painted under his eyes, its on giant billboards along the highway, fans hold it up on placards at sporting events, and its on the cover of several books. Some ministries and preachers use it as their central philosophy of ministry. Its likely that we all had it memorized before we were 10 years old: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And a lot of people say Ephesians 1 and Romans 9 must be balanced by this truth that God has loved every man, every woman, and every child equally from the beginning of time until now for God so loved the world. And even more than that, God has so loved them all that for each and every one He gave His only begotten Son as a payment for their sins which, if theyll only accept it, will settle their accounts with the Father and satiate His wrath so that each and every can be called His friends and family and spend eternity in heaven with Him. It does not matter that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel at Passover (Ex. 11:7). It does not matter that the LORD commanded Israel to slay every Amalekite man and woman, infant and suckling. (I Sam. 15:3). It does not matter that God says He hates the workers who do iniquity (Ps. 5:5) or that He hates with passion those who do violence (Ps. 11:5) or that He Himself sets the wicked in slippery places to cast them down into destruction (Ps. 73:18). It does not matter that God has rejected Ishmael as an heir or loved Jacob and hated Esau or set up Pharaoh for the sole purpose of tearing Him down; no! These must all be balanced by John 3:16. If God ever hated anyone it merely means that H e only loved them slightly less than He loved someone else. John

3:16 is the answer, the ONLY answer, to predestination, election, and reprobation. We dont have to listen to any argument anyone makes contrary to this belief; all we have to do is stick our fingers in our ears and shout John 3:16 repeatedly until they realize their error and give up and join us. And we, as those who believe the Doctrines of Grace, dont often know how to respond to this, do we? We read John 3:16 and we say, Well, it seems to say what theyre saying, and I guess theres just no way out of it. And so we end up with this schizophrenic God who is sovereign over all things and controls the hearts of all men and who is the granter of repentance and author of faith, but who is also somehow mystically bound to the wills of the men He created and so loves. He is in control of everything and in control of nothing. And we just dont know what else to do with it so we call it a great mystery and go on with it. But might I suggest that this wretched interpretation of this marvelous verse is nothing more than Satans monkey wrench meant to confuse and draw us away from the revealed glory and majesty of our eternal Lord and Savior? Might I suggest that with a more careful reading and with more special attention to the context that we who believe in the absolute sovereignty of our God have no reason whatsoever to fear it? It all begins in 2:23:
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Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 25And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. So, all these people saw Him working wonders at the Passover feast and they believed in His name because of what they saw, but He did not return faith because He knew what was really in them. They were nothing more than fallen sons of Adam and their Jewishness bought them no special favor.

3:1

There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: Now, this is a man to be trusted, right? The people loved and respected the Pharisees; naturally so would the Messiah.
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The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. He thinks hes got good news for Jesus: Your plan worked! We believe! But Jesus isnt worried about that:
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Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, this a Jew, as hes never understand
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isnt what Nicodemus expects to hear, is it? As a Pharisee, he knows hell see the kingdom. But done this born again thing, and he cant even it:

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mothers womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. This is a reference to Ezekiel 36:25-28: Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

The water and the Spirit is one event and it comes from God. The reason for this is very important:
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That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Being born through Abraham cant save a man; God can raise up children for Abraham from rocks! (Lk. 3:8) The thing that matters is being born ek tou pneumato" (out of the Spirit).
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Marvel again. hearest cometh, born of

not The the and the

that I said unto thee, Ye must be born wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it whither it goeth: so is every one that is Spirit.

The Spirit (and therefore spiritual life) is under no control of the Jews. Nicodemus cant make a man be born or prevent his birth any more than he can control the wind. He doesnt even know the origin or the destination; he can only watch where it goes and what it does. Of course, this is contrary to everything he knows, so hes having a hard time keeping up:
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Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? This ruler and teacher (along with all the other teachers) should have known from his Bible. Nicodemus sees God and salvation and Messiah as purely Jewish concepts. Sure, a Gentile might convert to Judaism, but these are still Jewish things. He is called a Jew, and rests in the law, and makes his boast of God, and knows His will, and approves the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and is confident that he is a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, and a teacher of babes. (Rom. 2:17-20). And yet he doesnt understand this most basic concept!

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Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. Ezekiel has spoken. Moses has spoken. Jesus has spoken. But they are not believed.
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If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? Until Nicodemus can understand the types and shadows in the Scriptures he will never understand the spiritual fulfillment of those types and shadows. If they read and dont see Christ, how can they know about anything spiritual? The tabernacle was only made of cloth. The things in it were only earthly materials. The priest was a mere man and the sacrifices were mere animals. If they cant see Christ in these things, then they have no hope of relating the physical things to the spiritual things (3:912). What they need is to listen to someone with authority; they need to hear from someone whos seen it for Himself:
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And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. Nicodemus has never been to heaven. It doesnt matter what his mentors have taught him or how ancient his traditions may bewhat is in heaven can only be revealed by someone who has seen it or who has heard from it. And the Son of Man is the Word who came down! And what does He say? How does He show substance belonging to the earthly shadow?
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the

heavenly

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. This is from Numbers 21: And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the

way. 5And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. The people made God angry and He sent poisonous snakes to bite them. However, not all those who had been poisoned would die; whoever looked away from the snakes and up to the bronze serpent would live despite having being bitten. This, we believe, points us towards the Son of Man who became sin for us. This points us towards the foolishness of the cross and the real true gospel that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. This little story seems so strange and its so abrupt within the chapter, but Jesus uses it to show Nicodemus how the earthly things are tied to the spiritual:
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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. Lets think about the Jewish concept of Gods love for the world. In Acts 10 Peter had a dream about the sheet filled with all the unclean food. He was told to eat but refused and God said, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common (:13). Immediately afterwards he was sent to visit Cornelius and said to him, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of

another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean (:28). Then Cornelius tells him about his vision of an angel and Peter says, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him (:34-35) And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. 43To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins (:42-43). Then the people were baptized. When the Christian Jews in Jerusalem heard about this they confronted Peter for eating with uncircumcised men, but when he told them about the dream and the work of God they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life (11:18). The Jewish Gentile! concept of Gods love did not include the

Imagine Nicodemuss amazement when he hears for God so loved the world. How can this be? How can God love pagans and reprobates? How can He love goyim? And this is why this verse is so fulfilling; its not because of Arminian Universalism but because of impartiality in election! And if the Jews had been paying attention they would have seen that it was always this way: Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. 7Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst

depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD (Dt. 9:4-7). And this truth is as stalwart today. No man is chosen by righteousness. No man is saved by works. Every single one of us from Adam on is hopelessly devoid of any good thing so that even our righteous acts are filthy rags before the eternal and ever-burning Light. And so this love is not reserved for any particular race, language, tribe, or nation; it is not and cannot be given in return for any good thing. But even more than that, the love of God is not wasted so that it should return to Him empty; no! It is the basis of predestination and calling and justification and glorification! The Scripture does not say, For whoever made the right choice He did these things, but it says, For those whom He did foreknow! If a man is ever to be glorified in his body its without any doubt that his hope is first rooted in the fact that God has eternally loved him. God loved Jacob and hated Esau before birth. Gods plan for Moses and for Pharaoh was from the beginning: one He loved and the other was hated as a worker of iniquity. One would be chastened as a son while the other would be judged as a sinner. And so it is for us today. How arrogant of some to assume that God must be as they desire; how arrogant and silly to force equal opportunity-ism on the framer of the heavens. How humbling to know that God has sought this wicked and depraved sheep despite his intentional wanderings and that He keeps my path straight all the way to the narrow gate. This is the result of Gods love. What waste to say that its poured out in equal portion to all. How useless it must be if the road to destruction is still wide; how ineffectual it is to our hope! But oh, how treasured when directed at a chosen happy few; how prosperous it is for us: 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.

Lets look at this in three parts: (1) God gave His only begotten Son that (2) whosoever believes in Him (3) should not perish but have everlasting life. First, what does it mean that God gave His only begotten Son? He provided the means of salvation just as He had for Israel in the wilderness with the bronze serpent. But in doing so He had to give His only begotten Son. The Father loved the Son. This wasnt just an animal as the Israelites offered every year at the Passover; this was the Son He loved. This is the One who had been with Him in the beginning. This is the One Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:6-8). This was a real and painful sacrifice. Second, what is meant by whosoever? Again we run into Arminian Universalism. Whosoever surely meaneth me. This is obviously free-will right here, right? Never mind that those bitten and filled with the poison are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1) and count themselves enemies of God (Col. 1:21). Never mind that theyre blinded by the god of this age (II Cor. 4:4) and that they suppress the truth they so hate (Rom. 1:18). Never mind that the cross is foolishness to them. Never mind that Christ is the author of faith (Heb. 12:2) and the granter of repentance (Acts 11:18; II Tim. 2:25)God loves everyone equally and so everyone has an equal shot at eternal life. What does whosoever mean? Think back to Numbers 21. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread (:5). The people who were bitten deserved it. They loathed Gods bread (Jn. 6:35). They would die and they should die! But Gods love for His people is not affected by our wickedness:

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 10He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our 11 iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 13Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 14For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. 15As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 16For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. 17But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto childrens children; 18To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them (Ps. 103:8-18). What does Jesus say in the New Testament? And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 11And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 12But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mt. 9:1013). Think about what Paul says later: And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew

forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting (I Tim. 1:1215). Whosoever means the worst of sinners may come! It is not the righteous Pharisee or the descendants of Abraham who find salvationit is all who are born again by the water and the Spirit. Pagans and heathens and idolaters are not prevented because of their wickedness. If they are loved by God they are predestined and called and justified and glorified (Rom. 8:29). And so, when we preach the gospel we dont look at people and say, This one can come and that one cant. That would be the same thing Nicodemus tried to do. You can hear the wind but you dont know where it came from or where its going. The sorriest sinner, the biggest hypocrite, drug dealers, prostitutes, slave traders, persecutors, Pharisees, drunkards, swindlers, homosexuals, thieves, and murderers all behold Gods cure for the poison by grace through faith and all are accepted equally who are saved by Gods perfect sacrifice! This is what it means that they should not perish, but have everlasting life! Life is not the reward for good conduct or good choice. Life is the sure and definite result of Gods love. In closing, I want to share an old hymn which Ill share with you now. Free Grace is the name and the subject, and free grace is our hope: This pardon, this peace which none can destroy This treasure of grace and heavenly joy The worthless may crave it, it always comes free The vilest may have it it was given to me Its not for good deeds, good tempers nor frames From grace it proceeds,

and all is the Lambs No goodness, no fitness expects He from us This can I well witness, for none could be worse Free grace has Free grace, though Free grace has Free grace to the paid for all my sin it cost so much to Him freed even my will end sustains me still

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