What Does John 3:16 Really Teach
For God
So love the world
That He gave
His only begotten Son
That whosoever
Believes
In Him
should not perish
but have eternal life
Interpreting the Bible Responsibly
Now here is how it happens: every time I talk about the doctrine of Election, the first verse that gets thrown up to me is how about John 3:16.
"What about John 3:16?" And I would say what about John 3:16 I would say?
"For God so love the the world that whosoever..........rest of the verse.
And they would unline whosoever five times. and whosoever believe will have everlasting life?" they will read.
"And".... I would say:
They say "well that means everyone has the moral power to choose Jesus and anybody who choose Jesus out of that moral power will be saved."
I look at John 3:16 and I can't find that. Where is that in that verse?
"Well it is obvious?"
Well no it isn't.
You are drawing an inference (a conclusion reached on the basis of your reasoining, or you are inferring something on the text that is not there, or stated)
"No what the verse states explicit (stated clearly and in detail. leaving no room for confusion or doubt) all who do A will not receive B and will receive C."
"All who believe will not perish." All who are in the category will not be included in the category of those who will perish. But will be included in the category who participate or share will have eternal life.
That is what the text teaches explicity. It tell us what happens to those who believe as oppose to those who do not believe.
Now what does the verse say to those who have the moral power to believe?
Do I need to translate that? Nothing.
What does the Bible say explicity about man's natural ability to incline himself to believe and do the things of God.
What does the Lord say explicity?
"No man (universal nagative) can come to Me unless it is given to him by the Father." John 6:44.
"This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." (esv)
Does the Bible teach that in our fallen condition man have the natural ability in his own power to bring himself to Christ? To choose Jesus when we want to.?
No it doesn't.
The Lord Jesus Christ said. we do not have the natural ability, none of has, unless God meets the necessary conditions for us to be able to respond to the Gospel.
That is what the Bible tells us explicity, (fully and clearly expressed and is demonstrated; leaving nothing mrerly implied. ) about our moral ability.
But that explicit teaching that Jesus gives in John 6 is trumped by an implication drawn (the conclusion that can be drawn from a verse although it is not explicity stated.) from John 3. Same author who said in John 6 only God can grant salvation .
Do not interpret the explicit by your inplicit. But you interpret the implication by what is explicit stated.
Luther said' You intereprete the obscure with the clear, not the clear with the obscure."
"No man can come unto me."
Unless the fields had been hpdrepared it was in vain to sow the seed. No effort on the sower's part could make them receptive.
The fact that they believed not, declared that their hearts were not prepared, but did not affect the goodness of the seed.
This defection did not surprise Him,s he ad alread used words whicdh anticipated it. (John 6:37, 44.)
The soul of man the flesh is of no value, so without the quickening Spirit of God all forms of religion are dead and worthless.
"except it were given him." John 6:65
"Plainly showing that by the Father's "drawing" (John 6:44) was meant an internal and efficacious operation, for in recalling the statement here He says, it must be "given to a man to come" to Christ. "
"that no man can come to me, except it be given him by my Father"
'Which is the same, as to be drawn by the Father; for faith in Christ is the gift of God, and coming to Him, is owing to efficacious grace, and is not the produce of man's power and free will." John Gill.
"Because many of you believe not, and therefore, though there is in them the outward appearance of discipleship, they lack the inward divine preparation. " Myers.
"All that brings men to Christ is the Father's gift." John 6;65
"Therefore" (better to say:, "for this cause." (John 12:18; John 12;27) John 5:15; John 5:18; John 7:22 and John 8:47.
"Given" by the drawing of grace.
Christ has come completely round to the fundamental principles with which he stated.
The coming to Him,
the believing on Him,
the spiritual apprehension of His Divine humanity,
the adoring acceptance of His precious blood,
the reception of the spiritual life-giving energy which went forth from Him in word,
depended on the Father's "drawing" -
on those fundamentnal characteristics of appetite and capacity to receive the grace of Chdrist which are subjective and are referrible to the Father's good pleasure.
Christ does not give the hunger, but the bread. From the beginning He saw the presence of the appetite after that which He came to bestow.
Sometimes a morbid cessation of all hunger, a moribund cessation of thirst, may be and is transformed into passionate and life-saving eagerness by The sight of food.
The Father gives both the hunger and the food, the sense of need and the heavenly supply.
The love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, is ethe drawing of the Father through the Son to Himself.
The drawing of the Father is the giving of souls to the Son: A fresh thought is here added, This drawing, thus interpreted, is God's gift also to the human soul.
