31 The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what He has seen and heard, yet no one accepts His testimony. 33 Whoever accepts His testimony has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” 

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

John 3:36 has been burned into my memory ever since I learned the gospel presentation “Two Ways to Live” many years ago. It’s in the last bit in the presentation, where you explain the two ways we each have to choose between – to submit to Jesus as our ruler and rely on his death and resurrection, or reject him and live our own way.

It’s a great verse for challenging people with the “pointy end” of the gospel. But today it struck me that the verses leading up to it explain why that’s the “pointy end” of the gospel. After all, it seems pretty extreme, doesn’t it? Why should your eternal fate rest on whether you believe in Jesus? Why are the consequences so absolute – eternal life, or staying under God’s wrath?

Well, for starters, it’s because Jesus is the one who came from God and who “speaks the words of God,” so if you don’t believe Jesus, you are calling God a liar (v 33-34).

But even more than that, it’s because the relationship between God the Father and his eternal Son is the heart of the universe. “The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands” (v 35). The entire universe is a love story about the Father’s love for the Son in the Spirit. That love is the reason and purpose for all reality.

So of course we can only find eternal life in the Son – it turns out that’s pretty obvious. But the far more wondrous thing is that when we believe in Jesus, God draws us into that love story. He gives us a share in the same Spirit whom he pours out eternally and “without limit” on his Son (v 35). When we embrace our true purpose – when we say, “I believe you and submit to you, Jesus” – we begin to be filled with that same never-critical, always-delighted love of the Father for his Son.

All praise be to him alone forever and ever! Amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.