WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (I Timothy 1:15) That is a very simple yet complete and accurate statement of what Jesus came into the world to accomplish. He completed the work His Father sent Him to do on behalf of all mankind by His death on Calvary’s cross.

Having walked with Jesus and having listened to Him teach and personally witnessing His carrying out His work, John was able to boldly declare with absolute confidence, “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) The word, “whoever,” simply means there are no limits or restrictions on who can come to Jesus and believe on Him.

Pharisees do not like the word “whoever” when it comes to God. They turned a deaf ear to Jesus' message, refused His love and rejected Him as Messiah because He refused to set limits on who could come to Him. Publicans and prostitutes and pitiful, pathetic people with no pedigree were allowed to touch Him and He even touched them and they were healed. The Pharisees reasoned that if Jesus truly was a holy man He would know who all these “whoevers” were that He was associating with and would do as they did – have nothing to do with them.

John closely observed Jesus and listened to Him and knew without a doubt that His love and salvation were as infinite as God and unlimited in span and scope. It included all who believed in Him; not only then, but all who would ultimately come to believe in Him because of their witness. He was so certain of this because he had heard, straight from Jesus Himself on many occasions, such things as, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37); “Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24); “If anyone is thirsty, let Him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘streams of living water will flow from within him.’” (John 7:37-38; Isaiah 58:11)

Sin and evil had already seized the upper hand and were firmly entrenched in the world, holding all mankind in bondage. The religious leadership and much of the community, rather than being redemptive, had become a self-righteous sect of exclusive and condemning maintainers of their traditions and interpretations. As God had shown many times in Israel’s history and continues to demonstrate even to this very day, He will not allow man’s evil interpretations of Himself to limit His ability to operate in the world. He will invite to His wedding banquet whomever He wills.

Therefore, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.” (Romans 5:10) Christ Jesus came to intervene on our behalf and do for us what we could not do for ourselves – secure our freedom from slavery to sin and death. Jesus came to redeem us and set us free. He did not come to further condemn us and make sin's hold on us more secure.

Sin has no ally in Jesus, He is sin’s nemesis. He came to save us from our sin not provide yet another occasion for us to stumble into the clutches of sin by our rejecting Him. By the same token neither did He come to condemn anyone who was already enslaved by sin. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

Jesus’ typical response to persons caught in sin can be observed in what He said to the woman brought to Him accused of committing adultery, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11) Though He did not condemn her for her sin, He nevertheless knew that her sin was deadly for her and thus He admonished her to stop sinning. His mission was “to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10) Whoever believes on Him is saved. Whoever rejects Him remains in their state of sinfulness and is doomed to perish.

Twice in the third chapter of His Gospel (3:18 and 3:36) John declares that those who reject Jesus do not thereby incur some new conviction and sentence of God’s wrath for having rejected His Son Jesus. Their conviction is already in place and their sentence imposed. Sadly by rejecting Jesus they reject the only hope they will ever have for pardon and choose to remain in their sin and separation, and thereby retain the previously imposed wrath of God. “They perish because they refused to love the Truth and so be saved.” (II Thessalonians 2:10) The simple yet profound fact is, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (I John 5:12)

“God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in (Jesus) and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20) God, in Christ, offers all mankind reconciliation and peace and an opportunity to be freed from His condemnation and the wrath reserved for sin and those enslaved in it. “Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath.” (I Thessalonians 1:10) God “does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9) Those who reject Jesus remain vulnerable to all that God wants to free them from.

John writes in his Epistle, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (I John 5:1-5)

Praise God!