(John 3:16)…..For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ will not perish but will have everlasting life. Why?
Because of the main verb in our verse, God “GAVE” His Son. God gave His Son for the purpose (Greek: hina) that every one who believes should not perish, but that every one who believes should have everlasting life.
As mentioned in yesterdays devotion, (John 3:16) actually speaks of a limitation, of a particular, rather than a universal, redemption. Clearly, not everyone will be saved. Only those who believe in Christ will be saved. The Father loved the world in this way: He gave His Son for the purpose of saving those who believe. The Son is given so that the believing ones will not perish, but by contrast, have eternal life. That is the purpose of the giving. So, what (John 3:16) teaches is: ALL who do (a.) (believe in Him) will not (b.) (perish) but will have (c.) (everlasting life).
PERISH – The word does not mean merely the end of physical existence or annihilation. We know this from the text. (John 3:17) says…..For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. This verse indicates that the perishing involves divine condemnation, complete and everlasting so that a person is separated from the presence of the God of love and dwells forever under His wrath. Here’s a quote from John Piper:
“The misery of hell will be so great that no one will want to be there. They will be weeping and gnashing their teeth (Matthew 8:12). Between their sobs, they will not speak the words, “I want this.” They will not be able to say amid the flames of the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14), “I want this.” “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:11). No one wants this.
When there are only two choices, and you choose against one, it does not mean that you want the other, if you are ignorant of the outcome of both. Unbelieving people know neither God nor hell. This ignorance is not innocent. Apart from regenerating grace, all people “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18). The person who rejects God does not know the real horrors of hell. This may be because he/she does not believe hell exists, or it may be because he/she convinces ones self that it will not be so bad.
But whatever he/she believes or does not believe, when he/she chooses against God, he/she is wrong about God and about hell. He/she is not, at that point, preferring the real hell over the real God. He/she is blind to both. He/she does not perceive the true glories of God, and he/she does not perceive the true horrors of hell. So when a person chooses against God and, therefore, chooses hell, or when he jokes about preferring hell with his friends over heaven with boring religious people, he/she does not know what he/she is doing.
When a person dies, they will be shocked beyond words. The miseries are so great that he/she would do anything in ones power to escape. But what sinners want is not hell, but sin. That hell is the inevitable consequence of unforgiven sin does not make the consequence desirable. It is not what people want, certainly not what they “most want.” Beneath this misleading emphasis on hell being what people “most want” is the notion that God does not “send” people to hell. But this is simply unbiblical. God certainly does send people to hell. He does pass sentence, and he executes it. Indeed, worse than that. God does not just “send,” he “throws.” “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown (Greek eblethe) into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15) (Mark 9:47) (Matthew 13:42) (Matthew 25:30). I hope if you are reading this, that you are one who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. and that you know you have eternal life in Him.