SAVEDF& "jfor (!?job so Iobeb toe worlb tbat be gabe
bis ollip -begotten ~on , tbat tubosoeber belietles
in 1)1111 suaII not perisU,butbabe eberlasting life."
U
ndoubtedly the most familiar words in the En glish-Bible, John 3:16 rightly holds the highest place in the Christian memory. For in one suc cinct sentence, it announces the center ofbiblical revelation. First, it assures us that God was loving toward his fallen creatures even before the actual event of the Crucifixion, keeping us from the mistake (too often committed) of assuming that the Cross persuaded God to be merciful. Rather, it was because of his eternally merciful nature that he found a way to reconcile us without alienating himself. God's love comes before the Cross, eternally prior to it, as he established a covenant ofredemption with Christ as the Mediator before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4-11; Jn 6:39; 1 Pt 1:20). Second, it reminds us that God the Father is not the "bad guy" in the drama who would like to con demn, with the Son stepping in to persuade him of the loving path. What could be clearer throughout John's Gos pel than that the Father sentthe Son on this loving mission? Too often, in our desire to defend the biblical doctrine of the substitutionary atonement, we risk envisioning the Father as the one who reluctantly saves sinners, as ifhe has to save them, after all, because the Son has offered the perfect sacrifice. Few actually state it in such stark terms, but often this is the message that people have heard as we explain the orthodox doctrine. The Son, not the Father, was the self-giving victim, but the Father was in Christ when his Son bore his wrath. Instead of confusing or separating the divine persons, let us simplywonder at the foot ofthe Cross at how God the Father, even in executing his just wrath, could be filled with such anguish and loathing that he would turn his eyes from his own Son (Mk 15:33-34). But there is still more to this verse: God gave his only begotten Son. As John's Gospel declared at the beginning, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God ... N 0 one has seen God but God the One and Only. " Not only did God send a Savior, but the Savior he sent was himself God. Furthermore, he was and remains God's "only-begotten Son." There are no incarna tions before or after the virginal conception ofJesus of Nazareth. Thus, there is no other way to the Father but through this Son. He is not an idea or a principle, but a
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person. Redemption cannot come through other sons or daughters, through universal truths ofhuman reason, experience, or morality that are somehow present in all major religions. There is only one God and one ((only begotten Son" who is capable of saving. All who are named God's children derive their sonship by adoption, but this Son is ((eternally-begotten before all worlds." As the eleventh-century theologian Anselm expressed it, our Savior had to be God in order to pay an infinite debt and conquer sin and death. But he had to be Man, since it was humanity, after all, that had merited divine wrath through original and personal sin. So alreadywe see that a high view ofthe work ofChrist requires and rests upon a high view of the person of Christ. But we still have not even sufficiently summarized John 3: 16. Beyond the identity ofthe Sender and the One who is sent, we are given the reason and its effect: (( ... so that whosoever believes in him shall never perish, but have everlasting life." IfJ esus had come merely to help us make our way through this world, or to give us helpful · advice for daily living, or to demonstrate to the world what can be done if only we seek to do good, surely we would be over-shooting if we said that his work saves us from perishing. In other words, this announcement of good news assumes that the bad news is rather serious: Our very life is imperiled. But what does it mean to perish? In the same passage, we are told that it means that we ((stand condemned." There is a legal verdict, as the defendant rises to hear the verdict read. In fact, ((This is the verdict," comes next in the sentence. Weare carried by John into the courtroom, where we are on trial-a familiar image ..throughout Scripture. The verdict is ((gujlty," and the sentence is death. This is the nature of the peril that forms the backdrop for John's good news. If the bad news is something different (a broken marriage, wayward children, low self-esteem, loss of cultural values and personal morality), the good news would be something different as well. That is not to say that these other things are not serious, nor that they are not addressed in Christ's mission, but when the Gospel announcement is made, it is always pointing to this one
modern REFORMATION
