Faith and Eschatological Judgment (John 3:18)
Verse 18 extends this idea of eschatological judgment which is so important in John’s Gospel. The salvation or condemnation which every person will experience is not something merely at the end of our earthly lives or at the end of time. These are spiritual realities which begin now. Whoever believes in him is not condemned (or, is not under judgment), but whoever does not believe is condemned already. Let that sink into your mind for a moment. Put it in the crockpot and turn it on slow-cook. This is a verse worthy of much meditation.
Those who believe in Christ will be saved because they are saved, right now. They have eschatological life in the present. The new creation has already begun for them; it has begun in their hearts. This theme we have already been introduced to here in chapter three, and we will have many more opportunities to reflect on and give thanks for it before our survey of this Gospel is complete.
But this is not only true of those who are saved. Eternal damnation also begins in the present age. Those who will be condemned on the Last Day already are; they are condemned because they do not believe in the Son of God. This comes up again in 3:36, but this text has much to say about it as well.
No one is lost because he or she has not heard the Gospel. They are lost because of sin. We are all born in sin; we come into this world under its power (Rom. 3:9), and because of this original sin, we also commit ourselves to the practice of it, renewing in our lives every day God’s just judgment against us. If we read v. 18 as saying men are only lost because they do not believe in Christ, we are not reading it properly in its context. Men are already lost. We were lost before Christ ever came into this world. Believing in the name of God’s Son is the only hope we have of redemption and salvation. So obviously anyone who does not believe in his name is lost and will be lost because they already were lost and because they have rejected the only means of being saved.
Unbelief is a particularly egregious sin, and so it is associated here in v. 18 with the judgment of the lost. Imagine for a moment a terrible virus infected the human race and rapidly spread across our nation. This virus turned men, women, and children into a kind of zombies, crazed and vicious and absolutely out of control but retaining basic cognitive functions. They can see and hear and think and speak. They can even discern certain categories of right and wrong and feel guilt and shame when they commit some wicked act. But they continue to do wicked things anyway. They are driven to it. It is their passion. It is what they live for. You might almost feel pity for them except you know that they know, deep down inside, that what they are doing is wrong. Yet they do it anyway. They are violent and hateful because they want to be; they want it more than they want anything else. You don’t have to imagine it, because that is very much how the Bible describes the human condition. We sin because we are sinners, but before you feel bad for us or think it somehow is not our fault, remember that our wickedness is willful and is exercised in the face of a definite awareness of right and wrong. We are sin’s victims, but we are not only its victim, we are its perpetrators.
Now imagine someone who is not sick, someone from outside, comes to our nation. He is exposed to the virus, but amazingly he is not infected by it. He walks among the dead and dying but is not contaminated by their condition. Instead, he works to help the dead among whom he dwells. Finally he takes decisive action. Only by sacrificing himself, by pouring out all of his blood, can a medicine be created that will destroy the virus and end the plague forever. The savior gives his life, and his blood is given to save the human race. But as the cure begins to be administered, something remarkable happens. No one wants it. Indeed, they become angry and violent and even seek to kill those who offer the medicine to heal them. They want to destroy the cure, and they do everything in their power to do so. They would rather remain in their wretchedness than receive the medicine which can cure them of it.
Here is, by way of a vulgar analogy, a description of the human condition. This is who we are. Those who are infected by the virus are dead men walking around, but they are willing participants in their condition, and they will violently refuse aid whenever it is offered. Why are they dead? We could answer that in two ways, and to some extent, Scripture does so. They are dead because of their original condition. Men are condemned because they are in sin, under sin, and continue to sin (Rom. 3:9-20). But they are also dead because they refused the one way that they could have received healing and life. They are under judgment because they do not believe in the name of the Son of God.
Make no mistake. Anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. The Gospel is that simple. It is that beautiful. But if you do not believe in Christ, if you are not trusting in Him alone, and if you love your sin more than you long for freedom from it, then you are already under judgment and you are headed straight for Hell. While there is life, there is opportunity. If you will repent and turn to Christ in faith, even now, you can be saved. But if you do not turn and trust him, there is nothing that can save you, and no one will, because you have condemned yourself. -JME
