- A Non-standard View of John 3:16

Appendix 2. A Non-standard View of John 3:16

This is my understanding for John 3:16, in reply to a ‘reformed’ professor of theology who believes that believing is in order to obtain eternal life, the standard reformed view, espoused and defended by the RBF.

a. God so loved… because He loved the world that lies in spiritual darkness and death and condemnation, world in rebellion and in enmity against Him. He loved the utterly unlovable, and He loved such with an immeasurable love. (God’s elect were of the world… sons of disobedience and children of wrath)

b. God so loved… because in His covenant faithfulness He gave His only begotten Son, His one and only Beloved for the utterly unlovable. God so loved because He subjected His only begotten beloved Son to the most horrible humiliation and suffering to secure eternal life for the justly condemned enemies.

c. God so loved… because He imputed Christ’s righteousness to His elect by free grace alone when Christ died at the cross. God so loved… because He applies Christ’s righteousness by free grace alone while we were dead in sin, were in enmity, ungodly, and were sons of disobedience and children of wrath.

d. God so loved… because He bestowed eternal life to them by the sovereign and free grace regeneration of His Holy Spirit. He adopts them as sons and daughters. He gives them gifts of faith and repentance. And that eternal life animates their entire spiritual activities of believing and repenting. Therefore there are believers.

e. God so loved… because He nourishes those in whom He has begotten eternal life… with the ministry of the word... This is why there are believers when the gospel is preached. The eternal life that makes believing possible is different from the redeemed life as a result of living by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The eternal salvation that makes believing possible is different from the temporal salvation experienced as a result of a life of faith in our blessed Lord and Saviour.

g. God so loved… because He perseveres to preserve all those in whom that He has begotten eternal life in that state of grace and salvation. None of them will fall from grace despite their unbelief and sins.

h. God so loved… because He shall glorify all those whom He has begotten eternal life… that they may enter into their inheritance of eternal glory.

We know that God did so love because there are believers in Christ Jesus. Yes, God so loved that He sent His Son who did everything necessary to secure eternal life for those who deserve eternal damnation… This eternal life that is birthed in them by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit evidences or manifests itself in faith in the blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the ministry of the word.

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” John 17:2. Please note that eternal life is the cause… knowing the giver of eternal life as the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is the effect. Is anything more obvious than this? Does one need more proof?