John 1:35-40) Our Lord acts as One fully conscious of His glory, as indeed He ever was. It was not the time now to demonstrate in public power these coming, yea, then present truths. Commentary on John 3:22-36. It is not that He denies the truth of what they were thus desiring and attached to. "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." John 7:24) They reason and are in utter uncertainty. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. Nay, therefore it was they, reasoning, denied Him to be God. Thus, manifestly, the whole question is terminated at the very starting-point of our gospel; and this is characteristic of John all through: manifestly all is decided. Better, he that obeyeth not the Son. John was not yet cast into prison. How Daniels Prophecy of 70 Weeks Connects to the End Times. All this, however, was abstract, whether as to the nature of the Word or as to the place of the Christian. In Him was life for this scene of death; and it is of faith that it might be by grace. On the third day is the marriage in Cana of Galilee, where was His mother, Jesus also, and His disciples. The Son gives life, as the Father does; and not merely to whom the Father will, but to whom He will. Such is the miserable condition of the sinner! "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son," etc. Here was a meeting, indeed, between such an one and Him, the Son, true God and eternal life. (VersesJohn 3:20-21; John 3:20-21). We have now the Word made flesh, called Jesus Christ this person, this complex person, that was manifest in the world; and it is He that brought it all in. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. * The best text omits other expressions, evidently derived from verses John 1:15; John 1:30John 1:30. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Fortunately, the issue does not have to be decided. Both words are used in the phrase wrath of God, which commonly denotes a distinct manifestation of God's judgment (Romans 1:18; Romans 3:5; Romans 9:22; Romans 12:19). (Ver. Here the Lord was really owned by the multitudes as the great Prophet that should come; and this in consequence of His works, especially that one which Scripture itself had connected with the Son of David. In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 2:25), and works belief in us (John 6:28-29), then we realize that the "whosoever" are those that God has granted the act of believing. But all that is historically related of the Lord Jesus inJohn 1:1-51; John 1:1-51; John 2:1-25; John 3:1-36; John 4:1-54. was before the imprisonment of the Baptist. Thus solemnly does the meek Lord Jesus unfold these two truths. The Lord, it is true, could and did go farther than the prophets: even if He taught on the same theme, He could speak with conscious divine dignity and knowledge (not merely what was assigned to an instrument or messenger). It is the wider, universal glory of the Son of man (according toPsalms 8:1-9; Psalms 8:1-9); but the most striking part of it verified from that actual moment because of the glory of His person, which needed not the day of glory to command the attendance of the angels of God this mark, as Son of man. The Jews, then, who could not help, and pitied not their fellow in his long infirmity and disappointment, are scandalized to see him, safe and sound, carrying his couch on that day. And they asked him, What then? Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. John 3:31-36 meaning. What does this verse really mean? Under all changes, outwardly, He abode as from eternity the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Footnotes. He tells Philip to follow Him. And He did accept that place thoroughly, and in all its consequences. It is not merely or most of all a great prophet or witness: He is the Son; and the Father has given all things to be in His hand. 29) on which, as it were, Jesus speaks and acts in His grace as here shown on the earth. The temptation is to hide your light. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." Not only is there no healing to be extracted from the law by a sinner, but the law makes more evident the disease, if it does not also aggravate the symptoms. How blessed the contrast with the people's state depicted in this chapter, tossed about by every wind of doctrine, looking to "letters," rulers, and Pharisees, perplexed about the Christ, but without righteous judgment, assurance, or enjoyment! The disciples of John dispute with a Jew about purification; but John himself renders a bright witness to the glory of the Lord Jesus. All is in the character of the Son of man. The Father seeks worshippers. I can't begin to explain how this app is Optimised Exceptionally Outstanding Because with this app I am able to get better grades in mathematics and others Because this . John practiced law for 40 years and he now monitors local politics. No doubt He must become a man, in order, amongst other reasons, to be a sufferer, and to die. 2. The Father and the Son were at work. In the beginning of the chapter it was rather an essential indispensable action of the Holy Ghost required; here it is the privilege of the Holy Ghost given. Alas! But when the Lord speaks of His cross, and not God's judicial requirements only, but the gift of Himself in His true personal glory as the occasion for the grace of God to display itself to the utmost, then, and not till then, do we hear of eternal life, and this connected with both these points of view. John's desire, and the reason he existed, was to see Christ exalted and glorified. Whoever lives a life of faith in the Son will experience the fullness . So on the last day, that great day of the feast (the eighth day, which witnessed of a resurrection glory outside this creation, now to be made good in the power of the Spirit before anything appears to sight), the Lord stands and cries, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." Hence the Lord, while fully owning the labours of all preceding labourers, has before His eyes the whole boundless expanse of grace, the mighty harvest which His apostles were to reap in due time. The season finale saw two major developments on the "who are the parents of John II" mystery. (Ed. Compare wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:16). The law works no deliverance; it puts a man in chains, prison, darkness, and under condemnation; it renders him a patient, or a criminal incompetent to avail himself of the displays of God's goodness. In the five porches, then, of this pool lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. The close of the chapter shows us the Lord in Galilee. It is a golden verse that is often first introduced to young children when growing up. For nothing can be more observable than the way in which He becomes the centre round whom those that belong to God are gathered. He saw him under the fig tree. John 1:19-37; John 1:19-37) It is here presented historically. (Verse John 1:9) The world therefore surely ought to have known its Maker. He bore witness that: "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John was to bear witness that Jesus Christ came from heaven as the . Now, it is the Holy Ghost in the power that gives rivers of living water flowing out, and this bound up with, and consequent on, His being man in glory. (Ver. Jesus in John 8:51 says "whoever . Were the Jews zealously keeping the sabbath? (Ver. (c) Shall not enjoy. We have had his name introduced into each part of the preface of our evangelist. Her testimony bore the impress of what had penetrated her soul, and would make way for all the rest in due time. Both of them were in relation to man on the earth; the one while He was here, the other from above. He speaks of Himself as the Son of man in death; for there could be no eating of His flesh, no drinking of His blood, as a living man. In our text, John hits it once more (and it won't be the last time! Life is in the Son, and He who has the Son has life and there is no condemnation to those that have placed their faith in Him. but He, who is the Word made flesh, is the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and so competent to declare, as in fact He has. This implies that he is now under the wrath of God, or under condemnation. For evidently it is the theme of worship in its Christian fulness, the fruit of the manifestation of God, and of the Father known in grace. As there is no way of escaping the wrath of God but by the Lord Jesus Christ, so those who will not believe must go to eternity "as they are," and bear alone and unpitied all that God may choose to inflict as the expression of "his" sense of sin. But let them beware how they perverted it. he might be; and this, too, as the expression of the true and full grace of God in His only-begotten Son given. John 3:36 Translation & Meaning. If, on the contrary, a soul has been taught of God the glory of the person of Him who was made flesh, he receives in all simplicity, and rejoices in, the glorious truth, that He who was made flesh was not made flesh only to this end, but rather as a step toward another and deeper work the glorifying God, and becoming our food, in death. Yet, this obe- dience salvation formula is identically repeated in John 3:16. And herein is that true saying, One soweth, and another reapeth. The man could not tell the Jews the name of his benefactor. Still, such is the effect on man under law, that he could not take advantage of an adequate remedy. He is lost at the point of his birth. Thus it is not the Spirit of God simply giving a new nature; neither is it the Holy Ghost given as the power of worship and communion with His God and Father. The looking for signs and wonders is rebuked; but mortality is arrested. Matthew, Mark, and Luke start, as far as regards the public labours of the Lord, with John cast into prison. For if the Son (cast out, we may say, in principle from Judaism) visited Samaria, and deigned to talk with one of the most worthless of that worthless race, it could not be a mere rehearsal of what others did. Our text divides into four sections: (1) Jesus baptizes, too (vss. The chapter pursues this subject, showing that it is not only God who thus deals first, with the necessity of man before His own immutable nature; next, blessing according to the riches of His grace but, further, that man's state morally is detected yet more awfully in presence of such grace as well as holiness in Christ. (See Hebrews 12:2, Hebrews 13:11-13) Again, let me just remark in passing, that although, no doubt, we may in a general way speak of those who partake of the new nature as having that life, yet the Holy Ghost refrains from predicating of any saints the full character of eternal life as a present thing until we have the cross of Christ laid (at least doctrinally) as the ground of it. God cannot require for justification (whether initial or "final") both a faith that works and a faith that does not work or is apart from works. The incarnate Word was here full of grace and truth. John 4:1-54 presents the Lord Jesus outside Jerusalem outside the people of promise among Samaritans, with whom Jews had no intercourse. This will be displayed in the millennium, when the marriage will be celebrated, as well as the judgment executed (Jerusalem and its temple being the central point then). Two resurrections, one of life, and another of judgment, would be the manifestation of faith and unbelief, or rather, of those who believe, and of those who reject the Son. It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other gospels, with most painstaking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. Here, accordingly, it is not so much the means by which life is communicated, as the revelation of the full blessing of grace and communion with the Father and His Son by the Holy Ghost, in whom we are blessed. It was an extraordinary birth; of God, not man in any sort, or measure, but a new and divine nature (2 Peter 1:1-21) imparted to the believer wholly of grace. (Verses John 1:41-44), On the morrow Jesus begins, directly and indirectly, to call others to follow Himself. Alas! So we see in the attractive power, afterwards dealing with individual souls. John was a voice crying in the wilderness: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same . His life "is hid with Christ in God." But they learn that it was his divine Physician who had not only healed, but so directed him. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The Syriac and Arabic versions render it, "shall abide upon him"; so some copies. This He does in verses 16-19. What a witness all this to His person! He had no need that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. They were not to wonder then at what He says and does now; for an hour was coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those that have done good to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to resurrection of judgment. Her life is laid before her by His voice, and she confesses to Him that God Himself spoke to her in His words: "Sir [said she], I perceive that thou art a prophet." There is no changing or bettering the old man; and, thanks be to God, the new does not degenerate or pass away. God does not here condescend to call it His, though, of course, it was His and holy, just, and good, both in itself and in its use, if used lawfully. It will abide or dwell there as its appropriate habitation. Hence, to such an one, eternal life is not merely something future. One must be born again for God's kingdom a Jew for what was promised him, like another. Today, the phrase "born again" can have any one of a host of meanings. Most music is crap. All others prove not only that they are bad, but that they hate perfect goodness, and more than that, life and light the true light in the Word. Teach the Doctrine: Younger Children Jonah 1:4-17; 3:3-5 The Lord blesses me when I obey Him. 03 Mar 2023 15:00:59 Besides John 3:36 helping, one can more easily accept pisteou means obeys in John 3:16 when one looks at Apostle John's many quotes of Jesus about obedience. "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." The Son had not come to execute the judgments of the law they knew, nor even to promulgate a new and higher law. The Word, in order to accomplish these infinite things, "was made. John was the one who recognised the glory of the Lord about whom he was testifying, and cried out, "Hemust increase and I must decrease." But as many as received him, to them gave he power [rather, authority, right, or title] to become children of God." 25-26); (3) John's joy (vss. We have seen already that thus light was shed on men. As this chapter sets forth the Lord Jesus with singular fulness of glory, on the side both of His Godhead and of His manhood, so it closes with the most varied and remarkable testimonies God has given to us, that there may be no excuse. So, when someone testifies to . Even now faith knows, that instead of sin being the great object before God, ever since the cross He has had before His eyes that sacrifice which put away sin. He has life; the man who disobeys has not, and while he disobeys shall not see life, for he cannot be a subject of a kingdom to whose laws he refuses allegiance. It was not so. Here there could not be more, and He would not give less: even "grace upon grace." (Psalms 132:1-18) Then they wanted to make Him a king. One must be born again. Unless a man or woman is born of the Spirit, born from above, they cannot be saved, because they are attempting to reach God the wrong way. He redeemed us from the curse of the Law, and secured redemption and the forgiveness of sin, for all who would trust in His finished work at Calvary for the salvation of their soul. The present tense. This testimony differs from the rest in having a more permanent character. JOHN 3:16 16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Greek Scripture. God orders matters so that a favoured teacher of men, favoured as none others were in Israel, should come to Jesus by night. "But He said to them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of." How singularly is the glory of the Lord Jesus thus viewed, as invested with the testimony of God and its crown! Nay, the Father has given all judgment to the Son. Jesus (c. 4 BC - AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Roman born Jewish preacher and religious leader; he is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion.Most Christians believe he is the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited Messiah (the Christ) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. But none need hate, and none need live in wilful sin. As there is no way of escaping the wrath of God but by the Lord Jesus Christ, so those who will not believe must go to eternity "as they are," and bear alone and unpitied all that God may choose to inflict as the expression of "his" sense of sin. It becomes a question of man's own condition, and how he stands in relation to the kingdom of God. And while He does not hide the privilege of the Jews, He nevertheless proclaims that "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. While almost all entity I apprehend the words the Authorised Version gives in italics should disappear. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Cf. Nor will the full force of this expression be witnessed till the glorious result of His blood shedding sweep away the last trace of sin in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (VersesJohn 5:8-12; John 5:8-12), But were the Jews mistaken after all in thinking that the seal of the first covenant was virtually broken in that deliberate word and warranty of Jesus? for he knew He was the Christ. 33. The Word, God (and only begotten Son in the Father's bosom), He was eternally Son of God, too, as born into the world. The addition of "unto him" detracts, to my mind, from the exceeding preciousness of what seems to be, at least, left open. Thus it is a kind of transitional fact for a most important part of our gospel, though still introductory. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." The commandment doth not only respect love, but faith in the first place; for faith worketh by love; so as there is an apeiyeia, a disobedience in the understanding, as well as in the conversation; and he that so believeth not, as to obey, shall never come into heaven, which felicity is here expressed by seeing life; as not seeing death is not dying, so not seeing life is dying. What love! (Verses John 7:19-23) What judgment could be less righteous?