sons are here exhorted not to remain, stick fast, and continue in darkness.
Burgon remarks on this verse : " This verse shows that (1) Christ existed before His incarnation, even as the sun exists be- fore it appears above the eastern hills ; (2) that Christ is the one Saviour of the world, even as there is only one sun ; (3) that He came not for one nation, but for all, as the sun shines for all the world."
47. — [And if any. ..hear. ..believe not.] Having shown the privilege of those who believe in Him, our Lord now shows the danger and ruin of those who hear His teachiug and yet believe not.
[I judge him not.'] These words can only mean, " I judge him not now." To put more on them would contradict the teaching of other places, where Christ is spoken of as the Judge of all at the last day. Our Lord's meaning evidently is to teach that His First Advent was not for judgment, but for salvation, not to punish and smite as a conqueror, but to heal and save as a phy- sician.
[For I am not... judge... save the world.'] These words are an expansion and explanation of the preceding sentence, "I judge him not." They are evidently meant to correct the Jewish im- pression that Messiah was to come only to judge, to execute ven- geance, to smite clown His enemies, and to punish His adver- saries. This impression arose from misapplied views of the Second Advent and the judgment yet to come. Our Lord, for the last time, declares that He came for no such purpose. Wicked as unbelief was, He did not come to punish it now. He came not as a judge at His First Advent, but as a Saviour.
We must take care, however, that we do not misinterpret this sentence. It affords no countenance to the dangerous doctrine of universal salvation. It does not mean that Christ came in order to actually save from hell all the inhabitants of the whole world. Such a meaning would flatly contradict many other plain passages of Scripture. What, then, does it mean?
It means that our Lord came at His First Advent not to be a judge, but a Saviour not to inflict punishment, but to provide mercy. He came to provide salvation for all the world, so that any one in the world may be saved. But no one gets any benefit from this salvation excepting those that believe. — The true key to the meaning of the sentence is the contrast between Christ's first coming and His second one. The first was to set up a throne of grace : the second will be to set up a throne of judgment. The expression in John iii. 17 is precisely parallel, — " God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." If it were lawful to coin a word, the true exposition of the sentence would be, " I came that the world might be waivable."
But while I say all this, I am unable to see how such ex-