The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 277

eye of the eoul looking to o. Saviour. "Look unto me, and be ye eaved" (Isa. xlv. 22). (2) The look implied o. dependence in the divinely appointed remedy. 3. The brazen serpent answtrs to Chri9t the Scm of man. We admit none of the fancies of divines respectin,g this rn11tter, '!'he one point of analogy was in the "lifting up." Jesus is the Object to be looked o.t by faith; and, as such, is seen (1) in the excellence of his Person, (2) in the completeness of his work, (3) in the fulness of his grace. 4. The healing of the Israelites answers to that eternal life which is the result of faith. Thus the death of Christ is indispensable to the life of believers. And it stands in causal connection with eternal life as their inheritance. This passage proves not, as some divines say, that life is first, and that the acceptance of the sinner flows from the life; but that acceptance flows from Christ's death, and that life issues out of the acceptance. i Ver. 16.-The immensity of God's love to the world. The apostle here emphasizes the love which was manifest in the method of salvation. I. 'l'JIE TRUE ORIGIN OF SALVATION. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." It is God's love, infinite, eternal, unchangeable. 1. Salvation is not wrun_q froin the Father by the Son. The atonement was the effect, not the cause, of God's love. 2. This love is n.o contradicticm to the wrath of God, which is implied in this very verse as the doom of unbelievers. 3. It i's not inccmsisten.t with the justice of God; for love is here defined ae giviug the Son to a sacrificial death, which signifies the satisfaction of Di vine justice. 4. It is not possiJlle to resolve justice into love under the idea of " a dualism of the Divine attri'butes; " for they are each distinct attributes : as in love God gives, in justice he maintains his inalienable prerogatives as God. 5. Christ does not set forth God's love with the mere o~ject of assuring us of its reality, but rather to magnify it by the value of the sacrifice which was the design of it. 6. Love is not sacrificed to justice, but becomes all the more transcendently glorious because of the Di vine necessity for a satisfaction to justice. II. TH:a: INFl:tHTE SACRIFICE FOR THE WORLD. "He gave his only begotten Son." 1. lt was the Son. of God who was given by God. In the previous verse his title is the Son of man, which recalls his humiliation. Here his title recalls his Divine dignity. The union of the two natures in the Person of the Mediator gives an infinite value to Lis sacrifice. 2. The gift of the Son implies his sacrificial death. (1) The words do not point to God's purpose of salvation. (2) Nor to the gift of the Son to the believer in the application of redemption by his Spirit. (3) But to his being given op to death, whether it refers to the Father's act in giving him (Rom. viii. 32), or to the Son's act in giving himself (Matt. xx. 28; Gal. i. 4). The expression points to sacrifice, because the offerer of the victim in the Levitical economy presented it himself as part of the established ceremony. 3. The unworthy objects of this love. " God so loved the world." (1) It would be a,startling announcement to Nicodemus, with all the narrow particularism of the Pharisee, that this love was destined to extend to the whole world of man outside the borders of Judaism. (2) There is nothing in God's love to the world inconsistent with his wrath against sin. He loves all his creatures, but he hates and punishes their sin, and will not imperil the effects of his love while the obstacles caused by sin stand in the way. Ill. THE DESIGN OF 'l'HE SAORIFICE OF CHRIST. "That whosoever believeth in Lim should not perish, but have everlasting life." 1. The channel of Divine life is opened by faith. (1) Faith accepts the Divine testimony respecting Christ as the Redeemer (1 John v. 10). (2) Faith is the instrument of our justification, as it is the meo.ns of apprehending the righteousness of Christ. (3) Faith is the root-principle of Christian life (Ga.I. ii. 20). 2. Thd tremendous evil that is averted. "Should not perish." 'l.'his implies (1) separation from God both here and hereafter (2 Thess. i 9); (2) the sufferings of hell (Rev. xx. 10, 15); (3) an eternity of punishment (Matt. xxv. 46). 3. TIie infinity of the blessings received by faith. " Everlasting life." It is con- trasted (1) with the wrath of God (eh. iii. 3G); (2) with destruction (Matt. vii. 13, 14); (3) with eternal fire (Matt. xviii. 9); (4) with judgment or death (eh. v. 24). (5) It is everlasting in duration, as well as in excellence. Vere. 17-21.-The Incarnation regarded req,ectively in its design. and in its actual result. I. THE DESIGN OF THE INCARNATION. " For God sent not his Son into the  140 TlIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [011. m, 1-30,