Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 1 Study # 10
October 1, 2023
Broadlands, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
Thesis: "Specific, present, believing" is the requirement of God for receiving the benefit of His phenomenal "Gift".
Introduction: In our studies of
John 3:16 we have seen that this verse is an explanation of the
reason for what God has done,
both in giving Israel a brass serpent to restore them to health and keep them from dying from serpent venom
and in His "lifting up" of the Son of Man on the cross. We have also seen that the verse reveals the complexity of God's "Love for the world of His enemies" (a reality declared by Paul in
Romans 5:8). And, last week we considered the extent to which God's "Love" went: He gave His only, twice-begotten, Son to die as both begotten Man and begotten God so that those who are believing into Him should not perish. This enormous extent is incomprehensible, but it makes the point that man's "sin" is a far greater issue than any man actually understands.
Today we are going to look at the requirement and outcome of this "Gift" made by God.
- I. The Love Of God For The World.
- A. The measure of God's Love: He gave the only, twice-begotten Son.
- 1. This "Son" is identified in 1:18 as "the only begotten God".
- a. There are other textual variants for this verse in the manuscripts of this Gospel which have been found which give alternative readings.
- b. The textual editors of A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament give this variant a "B" rating.
- c. Whether the reading is "the only begotten God" or "the only begotten Son" is no contradiction because the "only begotten Son" of 3:16 has already been declared to be "God", but "the only begotten God" intensifies the nature of the sacrifice the Father made and revealed through Jesus Christ, the Word Who became flesh.
- 2. The issue of the declaration of God's "gift" is the issue of the degree of Love that was behind the giving.
- B. The intention of God's Love: that everyone who is believing into Him should not perish, but should have eternal life.
- 1. The recipients of God's actions of salvation.
- a. "pas ho pisteuon eis autov" : everyone who is believing into Him.
- 1) The "everyone" has one specific qualification: present tense believing.
- a) This eliminates "everyone" who "is not believing" without exceptions because of the Past and without application to the Future: the Present is the time-frame.
- i. A "belief" at some point in the Past that was, afterwards, jettisoned is not accepted as "present believing", and falls outside of the parameters of this commitment by God (there is a real "if" to the requirement that a person's "faith" "fail not" as 1 Corinthians 15:2 pointedly declares and Jesus also pointedly indicated in Luke 22:31-34).
- ii. A "potential of faith in the Future" is not accepted: Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), not "later".
- b) This includes "everyone" who "is believing" without regard for the nature or severity of personal failures.
- 2) This specific qualification is wrapped up in the meaning of "believing" as the active trust of a person regarding the beneficial efficacy of Jesus' dominion over that person's future (this is the meaning of "believing into" as revealed by John 2:23-24).
- 3) This specific qualification is not "comprehensive believing"; it is "specific believing".
- a) "Comprehensive believing" is a doctrinal quagmire.
- i. Those who insist upon "comprehensive believing" are simply proving that they are not "specifically believing" because they are tying the efficacy of the Gospel to human "belief" issues that rule everyone out. There is no one under the sun who "believes" everything the Word of God has revealed to us; thus, everyone who is committed to "comprehensive believing" is simply a legalist in disguise. (Who gets to decide which "Truth" can be disbelieved without total loss?)
- ii. The deceit of "comprehensive believing" is rooted in the denial of what Sin has done to man and the unwarranted insistence that what the Spirit of God produces in man is "belief" in everything the Word of God has revealed.
- b) "Specific believing" is declared to be the "belief into Who Jesus Is".
- i. John 8:24 records Jesus' declaration of what "specific" Truth delivers from the consequences of "dying in one's sins".
- ii. By the same token, John 8:24 records Jesus' declaration of what "specific" Truth, rejected, causes men to perish.
- iii. From the beginning of John's record in 1:12, John's witness is that everyone who "believes into His name" is given the privilege of becoming a child of God.
- iv. Even John 3:15-16 tells us as pointedly and plainly as it can that "everyone who is believing into the "Only, Twice-begotten, Son" will be delivered from "perishing" and be given "eternal life".
- v. In the "Good Shepherd" discourse, Jesus was asked, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are The Christ, tell us plainly (10:24) and in His answer He said, "those who believe that I am The Christ hear My voice, and...I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish..." (10:25-28).
- b. It is the present tense of "believing" into Jesus as The Christ that brings one to life in His name (20:31).
- 2. The negative side of God's intentions.
- a. Jesus' focus in 3:16 is stated, first, in terms of "never perishing".
- b. In this focus, the issues of perishing are revealed in multiplied texts to be forever subjected to The Second Death.
- 1) This "Second Death" is identified in Revelation 20:14 as being cast into the Lake of Fire.
- 2) The actual experience of the "Second Death" is declared in Revelation 14:11 as a burning that causes "the smoke of their torment to go up forever and ever" and as "having no rest day and night".
- 3. The positive side of God's intentions.
- a. Jesus' promise in 3:16 is "eternal life".
- b. Eternal Life is identified in the Scriptures as "being" in a personal experience of the accepting presence of God forever and ever.
