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THE KING’S BUSINESS
of God upon the sinner can only be removed by faith in the Son ; and that, therefore, upon the one who has not this faith and who does not show it by obedience, the wrath of God con tinues or abides on him (cf. 1 John 3 : 14). All men have lost God’s favor and incurred His intense displeasure by sin, the only way out from under His displeasure back to His favor, is by the acceptance of the sin-bearer Whom He has Himself provided, His own Son. If we will not accept the Son then we must ,abide under the ap palling thunder cloud of God’s wrath. Some one has' said it is “fearful pen alty to be forever . excluded from God’s presence, but infinitely worse to be under the abiding weight of wrath Divine.” These solemn words, appall ing words, of John the Baptizer are the last utterance of the Old Testa ment dispensation and with these words the Baptizer dismissed his dis ciples who were evidently in danger (see v. 26) of disbelieving the Son even in their very allegiance to John and thus bringing the awful doom of which John tells them upon their own heads. With these words also, as far as the New Testament record goes, John the Baptizer’s testimony to Jesus and His ministry closes. This is the only passage in which the expression “the wrath of God” is found in any of the Gospels though the thought is of frequent occurrence. The only other places in the Gospels where the word “wrath” is used of the wrath of God, with the single ex ception of Luke 21:23 is in reports of utterances of John the Baptizer (Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7), in which one excep tion Jesus is the speaker. This would seem to be a further indication that John the Baptizer is the speaker in verses 31-36, and not John the Evan- gelist.
not thus put such faith in the Son as leads to obedience to Him, “He shall not see life.” These are very solemn and searching words; they take away every ray,of hope of obtaining eternal life from any one, no matter how cul tured or moral or amiable he may be, who does;npt believe on the Son with that vital faith that leads to obedience. Life can be obtained only in one way, by believing on the Son with that real faith that leads to obedience to the Son. The one who thus disobeys the Son has not life now and never shall have it, he “shall not see life.” But John goes beyond saying that he that disobeyeth the Son shall not see life, this would be merely a nega tive deprivation, but beyond that there is positive misery for him, “the wrath of God abideth on him.” “Wrath” means intense displeasure; God is in tensely displeased with every one who disobeys His Son. His first demand of every man 'is faith in His Son, the faith that leads to absolute surrender and obedience to His Son (cf. John 6: 28, 29). If men will not believe His Sop with that real faith that leads to obedience to His Son, there is noth ing else that he can do that will please God, but God’s intense displeasure rests upon hirm - God loves him (v. 16) but is displeased with him. It is an appalling thought. The phrase “the wrath of God” is constantly used in the New Testament of some dis tinct manifestation of God’s wrath in judgment upon those with whom He is displeased. (Rom.'1:18: Eph. 5:6; Col. 3 :6: ¿f. Rev. 6 :17; 11:18 ; 14:10; 16:19; 19:15). But in the passage before us, the prominent thought is the intehse displeasure of God which lies back of these manifestations of His displeasure, which is most in mind. The force of the word “abideth” is that the wrath of Gpd is already upon man as. a sinner and that this, wrath
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