20
THE KING’S BUSINESS
ners or rankest o f infidels and blas phemers in the past, but the moment he thus puts his confidence in Him and rests his confidence in Him, that mo ment all danger of perishing is past forever (cf. ch. 10:28, 29), and he has everlasting life. If any one does thus put his confidence in, Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, and rests his cofifidence on Him, he will show it by - receiving Jesus to -be to himself all that He offers Himself to bfe (cf. ch. 1:12)., It is evident that believing on-the,-Lord'‘ Jesus means more than believing about the’ Lord Jesus. No amount o f believing about Jesus, no matter how correct and thor oughly orthodox our believing may be, will save any one,from perishing, or bring any one .everlasting life. I The Greek word rendered “perish” according to its usage, arid the usage o f the nouns derived frorii it, does not mean to be annihilated or cea'se to be. The Greek noun derived from the verb is of frequent usage in the Testa ment and it is never used either when’ it refers to natural objects or when it refers to spiritual experience, of an nihilation. Exactly what it does rriekn as referring to the destiny o f the un saved person can be learned by a com parison of Revelations 17:8, 11 where this Greek noun is used to set forth the destiny of the beast (the noun here is translated “ perdition” but should be translated “ destruction” ) with Revel ation 19:20 and 20 : 10 , where we are told exactly what is the destiny of the beast. The exact force o f the tense o f the verb used in John 3 :16 points to a perishing once for all, a definite experience of perishing at a fixed moment and not a continuous process. On the other hand, the tense of the verb translated “ have” (ever lasting life) sets forth an “ abiding present enjoyment” of everlasting life. In this verse God is spoken of as “ giving” His only begotten Son. In
the next verse (v. 17) God is spo ken of as “ sending” His Son. The word “ gave” used here brings out the idea of the sacrifice that love made and the gift it bestowed. The signifi cance o f “ s&nd” we will take up in considering the next verse. How great ai^d \vondrous was the gift and the sacrifice,-, is brought out by the words “ only begotten.” The one Greek word translated “ only begot ten” means “ single o f its kind,” “ only one of its kind.” In-classical Greek, it is used,, of only ,,pons;.^nd daughters, and it i,s thus used .in ^Scripture. In Luke 7:12 it is used of- the only: son of the widow, of Nairp; in Luke 8 :42 o f the only daughter o f Jairus; in Luke 9 :38 o f an "only son. In the six remaining, passages (John 1 :14 ; 1 :1 8 ; 3 :1 6 ; 3 :1 8 ; Heb. 11 :17 ; 1 John 4 :9 ), in which-it is used in the New Testament, it is used of Christ as the only Son of God. This shows how utterly foreign,to tffe N.e,w...Testament teachings is that o f those, who in our day say, “ Yes, Jesus’-,was the Son of God, , but yre are all sons o f God.” This phrase, as welj as many -others, makes it, as clear as day. that Jesus was ¡an.only Son, 3 Son in an entirely unique sense, a Som in a sense that no one else, is the Son of God. There seems to be in this verse a clear ref erence to Genesis 22 :2 , where Jeho vah said to Abraham, “ Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lov- est” and offer him for a burnt offer ing. This was to be the supreme test of his love and loyalty to Jehovah and when Abraham met the test Jeho vah said, “ Now I know that thou fear- est God seeing thou hast not with held thy son, thine only son. from me” (Gen. 22: 2 ). Just so, God’s giv ing His only Son was the supreme p r o o f'd ! ¡His l love,,to.-an apostate world ; He gave-the-very best He had; He gave that which was dearest. Over against this wondrous love of God is set in the following verses
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