Salvation and Judgment in John 3
Observations on Jn. 3:14-21, 36
The Message of Jn. 3:16-17
By Jonathan Mitchell
Let us observe the immediate context of Jn. 3:16-17 in order to understand just what Jesus meant in these two verses. We will then consider the meaning of 3:36, which sheds light on these two central verses of Jn. 3:
14. "And so, just as (or: correspondingly as) Moses lifted up (elevated; raised up high) the serpent, within the wilderness (desert; desolate place) [Num. 21:7ff], thus it is necessary and binding for the Son of Mankind (Humanity's Son) to be lifted up (elevated; raised up high; exalted),
15. "with the result and end that all - this progressively believing and successively (one-after-another) trusting humanity - in union with Him (or: in order that all humanity, who being constantly loyal, centered in and within the midst of Him), would continuously have eonian life (life having the state of being, qualities and characteristics of the sphere pertaining to the Age [of the Messiah]; age-quality and eon-lasting life)! [with other MSS: so that all, while continuously trusting into Him {others: on Him}, may not lose or destroy themselves, but rather may continuously hold age-abiding life (eonian life; life that continues on through the ages).]
To understand Jesus' meaning of vss. 14-15, we must be familiar with the incident in Nu. 21 where Yahweh sent the fiery (literally, Heb. is seraph; plural: seraphim) serpents to judge Israel for speaking against God and against Moses, but God instructed Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it upon on a pole, so that "EVERYONE who is bitten, when he LOOKS upon it, shall live" (vs. 8). So a judgment and deliverance incident in Israel's history is the setting that Jesus provides as the backdrop for what He is next going to say. Notice the similarity between what I have set off by dashes, in vs. 15 (which corresponds to the Israelites simply LOOKING at the serpent on the pole), and the similar construction set off by dashes in 16b. The dependent participial clauses, in both cases, are in the present tense and thus describe continued, progressive or successive action. If we remove these dependent clauses (skip the words set off by dashes) vs. 15 reads,
"with the result that all... in union with Him would continuously have eonian life;" and vs. 16 reads, "to the end that all humanity [all is masculine, here, and speaks of people]... would not lose or destroy itself, or cause itself to fall into ruin, but rather can continuously have eonian life."
The participial clause describes the ongoing process that God works on us as He "drags all humans to Himself" (Jn. 12:32). With this setting in mind, let us now look at the verses in question:
16. "For thus God loves (or: You see God, in this manner, fully gives Himself to and urges toward reunion with) the aggregate of humanity (universe; ordered arrangement; organized System [of life and society]; the world), so that He gives His [other MSS: the] only-born (or: only-kin; unique-class) Son, (or, reading òste as an adverb: You see, in this manner God loves the sum total of created beings as being the Son: He gives the solitary-race One; or: reading òste: For you see, [it is] in this way [that] God loves the aggregate of humanity - even as it were His Son: He gives the by-itself-in-kind-One), to the end that all humanity, which (or: everyone, who) - when progressively trusting and successively believing into Him and thus being constantly faithful to Him - would not lose or destroy itself, or cause itself to fall into ruin, but rather can continuously have (or: would habitually possess and hold) eonian life (age-durative life with qualities derived from the Age [of the Messiah]; living existence of and for the ages).
[note 1): I have here given the "fact" sense of the aorist tense of the verbs "love" and "give" rather than the simple past tense. The statement by Jesus is a "timeless" fact of God; it signifies that the object of His love and His gift (that object being the cosmos, the universe, the world of men and created beings) is in view as a whole, and both the love and the gift are presented as fact, as one complete whole (punctiliar) which exists apart from any sense of time (i.e., coming from the realm or sphere of the "eternal," or, "the Being of God;"
note 2): Paul Tillich defines "love" (agape): the whole being's drive and movement toward reunion with another, to overcome existential separation; an ecstatic manifestation of the Spiritual Presence; acceptance of the object of love without restriction, in spite of the estranged, profanized and demonized state of the object; - Systematic Theology III, pp 134-138; Richard Rohr: Love; a drive to give yourself totally to something or someone]
The opening conjunction and adverb, "For thus," refers back to Jesus' example of Moses with the serpent on the pole: all folks had to do was simply LOOK. Consider, again, Nu. 21:8 where Yahweh tells Moses,
"Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and EVERYONE, when he sees it, shall live" (ESV).
Then we are told,
"And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (vs. 9b).
And so ends the narrative of that story. A happy ending, after the judgment. And Jesus chooses this story as the backdrop for what He explains here in John 3. So, returning to John's narrative, why did God give His Son to the aggregate of humanity (the human translation of kosmos)? Because He loves us, and does not want us to lose or destroy ourselves, or to cause ourselves to fall into ruin, but rather to have Life. His action in giving His Son to us, to deliver us from our dead and enslaved condition, echoes the Exodus story of God delivering His firstborn son, Israel (Ex. 4:22), out from the bondage in Egypt.
Now you will notice that I did not use the word "perish," due to the traditional nuance had has been added to this word. The Greek word means: lose; destroy; fall into ruin - and perish, in these senses. It does not mean "go to hell." Furthermore, notice the words "itself" (referring to the corporate "aggregate of humanity," in the first clause of the verse; or, to "all humanity" in the last clause). The word "itself" is there because verb (apolètai) is in the MIDDLE VOICE, which means that the subject (here: all humanity) acts (here: lose; destroy; fall into ruin) upon ITSELF. That is the function of the middle voice. In their dead and enslaved condition, humans were repeatedly and progressively destroying themselves - throughout this life. God gave, and gives, His Son to us to remedy our predicament.
Going back to Jesus' OT reference, above, the Israelites were causing themselves to fall into ruin (death) and were destroying themselves through their rebellion against God and Moses. That was the first Adam condition then, and so it is now. The judgment was to be bitten by a poisonous snake (quite another thing from being sent to some mythical, pagan eternal torment!), and then die (Nu. 21:6). God sent the Son to deliver us from the human condition of exiled Adam, and from the continued exile of Israel (the Babylonians were now replaced by the Romans, as their masters and overlords). Humanity was dead, in trespasses and sins. See Jn. 3:36, below, for how John described the human predicament of what Paul laid out in Eph. 2:1. This was the condition of Israel, under the Law. Paul picked up this same story in Rom. 8:
3. You see, [because of] the powerlessness and inability of the Law (from the written code; = associated with Torah) - within which it kept on making [folks] weak and feeble ([note: the active voice]; but as an intransitive: in which [incapability] it was constantly falling sick and continued being without strength) through the flesh (= the alienated self, oriented toward the System; or: = Torah culture and cultus, with boundary-marker observances) - in sending His own Son (or: by sending the Son, Who is Himself) within a result of a likeness of flesh that is connected with sin (or: in an effect of being made similar to sin's flesh; = in union with a result from being made like the alienated existence that came from failure), and concerning sin (or: encircling failure and error; to address a missed target; surrounding deviation; [note: or, as a technical term for the sin offering: = to be the sin-offering; see: Lev. 4:32; 5:6-9; 2 Chron. 29:24; Ps. 40:6; Ezk. 42:13, LXX]; cf Jn. 3:16), God gives a commensurate decision from a corresponding negative evaluation which falls in line with and follows the pattern which divides down (or: condemned; gives a down-oriented verdict; passed down a sentence on and gave judgment against) the Sin within the flesh [system] (or: the failure, the error, the miss of the target and the deviation [which is] in union with the human condition; or: = the mistake of the estranged, System-dominated self),
4. to the end that the effect of the just Deed of deliverance in which wrong was set right, resulting from being liberated and turned in the right direction within the Way pointed out, which is the principle, (or: so that the effect of the fair relationships which come from [His] law and custom; or: in order that the result of the equity and rightness of the Law) can (would; could; may) be fulfilled and become full within us - in those habitually walking about (or: = for the folks ordering their behavior/living their lives) not in accord with flesh (or: = not corresponding to the human condition; or: = on the level of Torah-keeping boundary-markers), but rather in accord with spirit (or: down from [the] Spirit; corresponding to [His] Attitude; on the level of and in the sphere of Breath-effect). [cf 2:1-11, above; 2 Cor. 3:3; 5:16]
And as a result of God sending His own Son, and then giving a "commensurate decision" pertaining to the Sin (Sin personified in Rom. 7, but tied to the story of Adam, in Rom. 5:12). But Rom. 8:2 presents us with the same Good News that we are discussing here in Jn. 3. There, Paul instructs us that:
"For the principle and law of, from and which is the spirit and attitude of 'The Life within Christ Jesus' (or: For you see, the Law of Life's spirit, joined with [the] Anointing of Jesus; or: For the Spirit's law of life within Christ Jesus; or: the Law [= Torah] from the Breath-effect, which is Life in union with [the] Anointed Jesus) frees you away from the Law of the Sin and of the Death (or: immediately set you [other MSS: me] at liberty from the principle of the failure, or of the missing of the target, and from the death; exempts you from this code involved with error and deviation from the goal, as well as from the death; emancipated you from this law from the mistake, and which is the Death)."
This law from sin and from death refers both to the principle of the old Adamic life and to Israel's Torah; cf 1 Cor. 15:53-54; 2 Cor. 3:6; 5:4]
So now we see that vs. 17, below, simply EXPLAINS the purpose of God sending His Son into the world, i.e., into the aggregate of humanity...
17. "You see, God does not send forth His [other MSS: the] Son as a Representative or Emissary into the world (or: System; aggregate of humanity) to the end that He should continuously separate and make decisions about the world (or: would at some point sift and judge the System, or the aggregate of humanity), but to the contrary, to the end that the world would be DELIVERED (or: for the result that the System could be healed and made whole; so that the ordered arrangement should be restored to health; to the end that the aggregate of mankind may be saved - rescued and re-established in its original state): through Him!
The purpose is that: "the world (or: the aggregate of humanity) would be DELIVERED through Him!" But tied to this verse and the quote, above, from Rom. 8, we see in Gal. 4 another aspect of the purpose of God "sending forth His Son":
4. Yet when the effect of the filling of the time came (or: that which was filled up by time reached full term), forth from out of a mission (or: from out of the midst of [Himself]), God sent-off His Son, being Himself come to be born from out of a woman, being Himself come to be born under [the rules, authority and influence of] Law, [cf Ex. 19:17, LXX: "under {Sinai}"]
5. to the end that He could (or: would) buy out (release by purchase; redeem; reclaim [from slavery]) those under [the] Law - so that WE could and would receive and take away into possession the placing in the condition of a son.
18. "The person habitually believing and progressively placing trust into Him is not being continuously sifted or evaluated (is not habitually being separated for decisions or being judged), yet the person not habitually trusting and believing has already been sifted and evaluated (separated for a decision; judged) and that decision yet exists, because he or she has not believed so that he trusts into the Name [note: "name" is a Semitism for the person, or his authority, or his qualities] of the only-born Son of God (or: into the Name of God's Son - the only-kin and unique-class One, or the by-itself-in-kind One, or, the solitary-race One).
In the first clause of this verse, notice the present tense. The human situation has changed for those who have cast a glance upon the crucified One. But those who have not yet done so remain under Adam's judgment of death, or Israel's judgment of exile: both are human, on-earth situations in THIS life. In that second clause, notice the perfect tense (an action done IN the PAST, with results of the past action lasting into the present time): "has already been sifted and evaluated (separated for a decision; judged) and that decision yet exists." Such folks are still "dead in trespasses and sins." Their ordered place in the Resurrection (the Christ Life) has not yet arrived (1 Cor. 15:23).
19. "Now this continues being the (or: So there continues being the same) process of the sifting, the separating and the deciding (the evaluating; the judging), because the Light has come (or: has gone) into the world (the aggregate of humanity; the ordered system and arrangement of religion, culture and government; or: the system of control and regulation; or: the cosmos), and yet the humans love the darkness (or: the men [= the leadership] love and fully give themselves to the dimness of obscurity and gloom; or: mankind loved and moved toward union with the shadow-realm) rather than the Light, for their works (deeds; actions) were continuing to be bad ones (unsound ones; wicked ones; laborious ones; toilsome ones that created bad news; wrongful ones),
NOTICE!!! What is "the judging"? What is the sphere of this process of the sifting? Darkness (= ignorance) in the WORLD (in the aggregate of humanity) - the place where the Light has come. The Light was first sent to the Jews; they loved the darkness of the old covenant more than the Light (as we see in the Judean leadership of the priests, scribes and Pharisees).
20. "for it follows that everyone who is habitually practicing (or: performing) worthless things (base, mean, common, careless, cheap, slight, paltry, sorry, vile things or refuse) is continuously hating (regarding with ill-will; radically detaching from) the light, and is not coming (or: going) to the light (or: the Light), so that his or her works (deeds; actions) may not be tested and put to the proof (and thus, exposed and perhaps reproved).
In their temple cultus, they were practicing "worthless things." So, too, were the Gentiles. These base or vile things were being done on all levels of society. It was the human condition of the first Adam, in all cultures and people groups. We see a summation of this situation in vs. 36, below.
21. "Yet the person habitually doing the truth (constantly constructing the real; repeatedly making the genuine; progressively producing the non-concealed, actual state) is constantly coming (or: moving) toward the light (or: the Light), so that his or her works (deeds; actions) may be set in clear light and manifested, because they exist being ones having been worked, accomplished or performed within God (or: that it is in union with God [that they are] ones having been acted out)."
This verse is a comparison of works, just like the situation of the sheep and the goats (little, immature goats; kids) in Mat. 25. The Light was revealing and separating between those whose hearts had been opened to hear the Word, and respond, and those who were not yet ready. Now vs. 36 of this same chapter describes the first Adam situation, and old covenant Israel's situation, and how God's judgment is here and now, and continues according to His calling and choosing (or, 1 Cor. 15:23). So observe closely what is said here...
36. "The one habitually trusting into (or: continuously going on confidently believing with loyalty unto) the Son is NOW constantly holding and is presently, progressively possessing (having) eonian life (life having the characteristics and qualities of the sphere of the Age; life of and for the ages; eon-lasting life; life whose source is the Age [of Messiah]). Yet the person NOW continuing being unpersuaded by the Son (or: presently being constantly incompliant, disobedient or disbelieving to the Son; being repeatedly stubborn toward the Son) will not be catching sight of (seeing; observing; perceiving) [this] Life. To the contrary (or: Yet, nevertheless), God's personal emotion and inherent fervor (or: the teeming passion and swelling desire, which is God; the mental bent, natural impulse, propensity and disposition from God; or: the ire, anger, wrath or indignation having the quality and character of God) PRESENTLY continues remaining (keeps on resting, dwelling and abiding) upon him."
This is the human condition that constantly exists until a person is born from above, or raised up to be in Christ. If you want to see what "God's wrath" looks like, just look around at the situation of death all around us. But notice the semantic range of the word òrge "teeming passion and swelling desire; mental bent; natural impulse; propensity and disposition; or: ire; anger; wrath; indignation." Now this is mankind's predicament. But recall vs. 16, above. God SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO loves the world of humanity and drives toward reunion with us, giving Himself to us! So with which meaning of òrge do you choose to read vs. 36? What kind of God do you have? A pagan one, or the One that has been revealed in Christ and described in vss. 16-17, above?
Jonathan
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