never telh men to look at these questions, but commands them to beheve. Salvation, it always teaches, does not turn on the point, " did Christ die for me ?" but on the point, " do I believe on Christ ?" If men do not '^ have eternal life," it is never because God did not love them, or because Christ was not given for them, but" because they do not believe on Christ.
In leaving this verse, I may remark, that the idea maintained by Erasmus, Olshausen, Wetstein, Rosenmuller, and others, that it does not contain our Lord's words, and that from this verse down to the 21st we have St. John's comments or observations, appears to me utterly destitute of foundation, and unsupported by a single argument worth noticing. That our Lord would not have used the third person in speaking of Himself is no argu- ment. We find Him frequently speaking of Himself in the third person. See, for instance, John v. 19, 29. There is literally no- thing to be gained by adopting the theory, w^iile it contradicta the common belief of nearly all believers in every age of the world.
Flacius observes that this verse and the two preceding ones comprise all the causes of justification : 1. The remote and efficient cause, Grod's love. 2. The approximate efficient cause, the gift of Grod's Son. 3. The material cause, Christ's exaltation on the cross. 4. The instrumental cause, faith. 5. The final cause, eternal hfe.
17. — [ God sent not....condemn... .world.'] In this verse our Lord shows Nicodemus another ''heavenly thing." He shows him the main object of Messiah coming into the world. It was not to judge men, but to die for them ; not to condemn, but to save.
I have a strong impression that when our Lord spoke these words, He had in view the prophecy of David about Messiah bruising the nations with a rod of iron, and Daniel's prophecy about the judgment, where he speaks of the thrones being cast down, and the Ancient of days judging the world. (Psalm ii. 6 — 9: Dan. vii. 9—22.) I think that Nicodemus. like most Jews, was filled with the expectation that when Messinh came He would come with power and great glory, and. judge all men. Our Lord corrects this notion in this verse. He declares that Messiah's first advent was not to judge but to save people from their sins. He says in another place. " I came r»ot to judge the world, but to save the world." (John xii. 47.) The Q-reek word for judging and condemning, it must be remembered, is one and the same. Judgment and the condemnation of the ungodly, our Lord would have us know, are not the work of the first advent, but of the second. The special work of the first advent was to seek and save that which was lost.
[That....iuorld.... through Him. ...saved.] This sentence must