John 3:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Where then, someone will say, is His love for mankind, if we receive what follows from our sins? But that we shall receive what is deserved, listen to both the prophet and Paul. One says: "You render to each according to his works," Ps 61:13. The other says: "He will render to each according to his works," Rom 2:6.

Nevertheless, the love for mankind of God is great. This is clear from the following. God divided our destinies into two ages of life, the present and the future. He appointed the first for struggles, and the last for receiving crowns. In this way He showed great love for mankind. How? Though we commit many grievous sins, and though from youth to deep old age we do not cease defiling our soul with countless vices, He does not examine us for any of these sins. In the laver of regeneration He grants their remission, and gives justification and sanctification.

But what will you say if someone deemed worthy of the mysteries from childhood later falls into many sins? Such a person deserves still greater punishment. For the same sins we do not undergo the same condemnation, but a much stricter one when we sin after sanctification by the mysteries. Paul shows this in the following words: "If one who rejected the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the Blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Heb 10:28-29.

Such a person, therefore, is worthy of greater punishment. Yet even to him God still opens the doors of repentance and provides many means to wash away his sins, if only he himself is willing. Consider how great are the proofs of His love for mankind. He both forgives sins by His grace, and does not punish one who has sinned after grace and deserves punishment, but gives time and means for justification.

For this reason Christ said to Nicodemus: "God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." There are two comings of Christ. One has already taken place, and the other will be. Yet they do not have one and the same purpose. The first was not for examining our deeds, but for remission. The second coming will be not for remission, but for examination.

Therefore He says of the first coming: "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world," Jn 12:47. Of the second He says: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy Angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all nations, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep at His right hand, and the goats at the left," Mt 25:31-33.

Yet even the first coming could have been for judgment, as justice required. Why? Because before Christ's coming there already existed the natural law, the prophets, the written Law, teaching, countless promises, the manifestation of miracles, punishments, chastisements, and many other things able to correct men. An accounting should have been demanded for all this. But because God loves mankind, He did not make an examination, but granted forgiveness. If He had begun to judge, all would immediately have perished. For it is said: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Rom 3:23. Do you see the ineffable love for mankind?

Thus the first coming did not have judgment as its purpose, except for those who in fact did not believe, for they are already condemned. The second coming will be decisively for judging all and rendering to each according to his deeds.

Yes, He says, it was truly fitting for Moses, as a servant of the condemning Law, to be its minister. But it was fitting for Me, as Son and God, to free the whole universe from the curse of the Law.

By boundless love for mankind I heal the infirmity of the world.

If justifying grace is higher than the condemning Law, should one not therefore think that He who possesses such divine authority, and frees man from the bonds of sin, is above the condition of a servant?

This is one meaning of the saying, as I think, and it is not without benefit.

Yet with a desire for understanding one may find here another meaning, moving within the same conceptions and containing a contemplation kindred to the former.

The Savior saw in Nicodemus an attachment to the Mosaic ordinances and a firm devotion to the ancient commandments. He also saw fear toward rebirth through the Spirit, and sluggishness toward the new evangelical life.

Nicodemus probably thought that this new life would be harder than the ordinances already given.

As God, knowing the fear that had taken hold of him, the Savior frees him from these anxieties by one decisive argument. He shows that the Law of Moses is much harder, since it was given for the condemnation of the world.

He manifests Himself as the Giver of mercy, saying: "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."

The prophet Isaiah, presenting to us the great person of the Master of all, says: "I am God, and there is none beside Me, a righteous Savior" (Is 43:11; Is 45:21).

If the Son is all this, and saves the world, and is said to have been sent by the Father for this, then He is the One who speaks through the prophet: "I am God, and there is none beside Me."

How then, being such, can He be reckoned created?

To speak with complete justice, even the first could have been a coming of judgment. Before it there had been the natural law, the written law, the prophets, teaching, the manifestation of miracles, and much else that ordered life.

It would therefore have been entirely just to require an account for everything. But, as infinitely loving toward mankind, at His first coming He did not carry out judgment, but forgave everything.

If He had judged, all without exception would have been condemned, "for all have sinned" (Rom 3:23).

Therefore He came now to forgive all that was past and to give assurance concerning the future. Later He will come to judge and punish those who have not believed.

"If I had not come," He says, "and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin" (Jn 15:22).

But at His second coming He will come not to save, but to judge the world.

For just as, "when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son" (Gal 4:4) to save the world by grace, so also He "has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has ordained, giving assurance to all by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).

Consequently, the coming of the Son of God into the world and His impending death on the Cross had as their purpose the salvation of men. They were meant to grant them eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

This salvation is for every person who believes in Him, and not for the Jews alone.

The Jews did not think this way. Failing to understand, or distorting, the meaning of the prophecy about the Gentiles' participation in the Messiah's gracious Kingdom, they imagined something else.

They thought that when the Messiah came, He would condemn the Gentiles and subject them to punishments, but would justify the Jews, shower them with benefits, and reign over them as king.

The Savior explains the meaning of the words spoken twice, and thereby rejects this false idea as well.

Showing His relation to Gentiles and Jews as King and Judge in His new gracious Kingdom, He assures Nicodemus that the Messiah, the Son of God, did not come into the world to make a division between Jews and Gentiles.

He did not come to shower some with His benefits and subject others to punishment. He brought salvation to the whole world.

To judge means, properly, to divide, then to conduct judgment. In particular it sometimes means to condemn, to pronounce a sentence that condemns to calamities and misfortunes.

Here the word is used in this last sense, because it is set over against the word "save," meaning to deliver from misfortune and to make blessed.

Applied to Christ's work, it means making one a participant in all the blessings that Christ's Kingdom grants its true members, both in the present life and in the life to come.

Before the judgment of God's righteousness, and likewise before His love, all are equal, Jews and Gentiles alike. Without Christ all, without distinction, Jews and Gentiles, the whole world, are guilty before God (Rom 3:19).

Christ came to grant salvation to the whole world, not condemnation. True, He came into the world for judgment (Jn 9:39), but this is not the judgment that the Jews expected according to their distorted notions.

It depends solely on men's faith or unbelief in the Messiah.

The Savior says that the Pharisees, who condemn the Gentiles to perdition, do not have a true conception of the heavenly Father. They imagine Him cruel and heartless toward millions of people.

No, God is not such. He desires only to save all, not to destroy them.

The Pharisees also failed to understand the meaning of the Messiah. They preached that He would appear to make the Jews alone blessed and to subject the Gentiles to punishments.

The Messiah, the Son of God, now appears in order to prepare salvation for all, both Jews and Gentiles. He will be Judge of the universe, but at another time.

Yet, making use of the freedom of the human will, there are people, as verse 19 below says, who loved darkness rather than light. "God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap," Gal 6:7. Therefore one must distinguish the words in the Gospels that refer to the Lord's second, judgmental coming from the present merciful calling. This calling points to the possibility of escaping judgment by "believing with the heart and confessing the Lord with the mouth unto salvation," Rom 10:10.

Therefore it is said in Jn 5:22: "The Father has given all judgment to the Son." Compare also Jn 9 and 1 Jn 2:28. It is also said that "God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world," Acts 17:31, and we know the Lord's words concerning this judgment, Mt 25:31 and following. In the first coming the Son of Man assumes, in the full form of man, humiliation, sufferings, and death. Yet He Himself, the Son of Man, "will come in glory," Mt 25:31, "will separate the sheep from the goats," Mt 25:32-46, and "will proclaim judgment to the nations," Is 42:1; Mt 12:18.

But this final and great act of God's justice, which we await, has not been fixed for us in time. The Lord only warns us with the word, "Watch!" Mk 13. He also says that no one knows the day and the hour, not even the Son, but only the Father, Mk 13:32. Concerning the latter expression, compare Gregory the Theologian and Athanasius the Great. One must remember when the Lord speaks as the Word, and when He speaks as the Son of Man in the flesh.

Meanwhile, until the great day of judgment, a separation already takes place in this earthly life, Jn 9:39; Lk 12:51. This separation is the consequence of man's good or evil will. The Lord came not to judge, but to show mercy. Yet does not the one who thrusts away the hand of mercy and love anticipate for himself the day of judgment?

The source of light appeared on earth, but do all men desire the light? See verse 20 below. The will of God was "that Christ should truly appear in the world as the Savior of the world," Jn 4:42; 1 Jn 4:14. After this, the time of God's long-suffering flows on. He "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," 1 Tim 2:4. He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," 2 Pet 3:9.

In this time, the time of the Lord's love, He said: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age," Mt 28:20. The Lord, who does not judge the world but came to save the world, meets every sinner as the father meets the prodigal son. He Himself goes to seek the lost sheep like the Shepherd. He goes toward the perishing man and does not judge him, but stretches out His hand to him, as to Peter when he doubted on the waters, Mt 14:31. He does this in order to gain him and warm his cold heart with His great love.

Only over embittered Jerusalem and an embittered people was judgment pronounced. This served as a foreshadowing of the great judgment of the world, Mt 24:1-36; 25:31-46; Mk 13:1-32; Lk 13:34-35; 21:6-11, 20-27. The attentive reader will notice how the judgment over Jerusalem merges with the great final judgment. The first event, already fulfilled, prefigures the second, which is awaited. In Jerusalem there was already a separation of the Christian lambs from the goats of the Jews. The former entered into the joy of the Lord, while the latter perished.

In this time of long-suffering, this time of mercy and love, "the one who believes in the Lord is not judged." It is enough for a man to cry out for salvation and stretch out his hands, as a helpless child stretches out his hands to his mother. The Lord already forgives sins and says to him: "He who believes in Me shall not be condemned." "He who hears My word," the Lord also says, Jn 5:24, "and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but passes from death to life."

Faith in the only-begotten Son of God is at the same time faith in God the merciful Father and in the Life-giving Holy Spirit. Yet how terrible it is not to hear the voice of the Lord who calls man: "He who does not believe is already condemned." He is condemned by himself, for in his soul, darkened by evil, petty, human, and earthly desires, there is no place for high and holy feelings. The unbeliever, befogged by pride and the self-exaltation of his own ego, hands himself over to all the consequences of his madness. In his weakness he thinks himself strong, and perhaps only at the final moment of his life will he realize that man without God's help is nothing. In the following verses the Lord indicates this judgment, which takes place already in earthly life.