What Are John 3:16 & The Gospel About?

What Are John 3:16 & The Gospel About?

“For God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”—John 3:16 NKJV

On November 8, 2018, an article was posted on Patheos entitled, “Why John 3:16 Isn’t About The Crucifixion“:

In preparation for an upcoming online debate about PSA [Penal Substitutionary Atonement] Theory, I started wondering whether or not Jesus, or any of the Gospel authors, specifically communicated the Gospel as being about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, or to appease the wrath of God, etc.

In the process of exploring this question, I started with John 3:16 because, growing up, I had always equated it with the crucifixion. However, I realized that this entire conversation has nothing to do with the crucifixion, nor does it even mention the death of Jesus at all.

Here’s what the verse actually says:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

Now, I think most of the time we have been told to read the word “gave” in this sentence to mean that “God laid Jesus down on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world and sacrificed Him for us.”

But, quite obviously, it does not say any such thing.

What it says is that God loved the world. He loved the world so much that he gave us Jesus and that if anyone would trust in him, and his teachings, he would live and not die.

I’ve also started to realize that whenever Jesus talks about “eternal life” or “will not perish”, he is not talking about the afterlife, or about what happens to us after we die.

In a very practical way, John 3:16 is a verse about how those who follow the path of Jesus will escape the coming destruction of Jerusalem and live beyond that event.

Here’s the deal: Jesus showed up as the promised Messiah at a time when the Jewish people were seeking a violent, revolutionary hero who would lead the uprising against their Roman oppressors. Instead, Jesus tells them to repent of this desire for violent revolution and warns them that if they live by the sword they will all die by the sword. He teaches them to love their enemies, turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, and seek to overcome evil with good.

The promise, then, that Jesus makes is that they will have life that extends beyond the end of the age [that is, the end of the Jewish age], if they follow His teachings. If they refuse, then they will be slaughtered along with the destruction of the Temple, the end of the daily sacrifice, and the death of the Jewish Priesthood. [Which, by the way, is exactly what happened to those who rejected the message and path of Jesus].

So, the promise of John 3:16 is that those who trust in Jesus [that’s what the word “believe” really means], and put his teachings into practice, will not reap the fruit of rebellion [which is death], but survive the end of the age which Jesus promises will come within a single generation.

Forty years later, that prediction came to pass.

And, just as Jesus promised, those who followed the Way of Christ, escaped the “wrath of God” – which was simply the reaping of a harvest of rebellion against Rome – and the Christians who were in Jerusalem fled to the city of Peleg months before the Roman army surrounded the city and began to lay siege to it.

In this way, the promise of John 3:16 was fulfilled: Those who put their trust in the Way of Christ – which was to love their enemies, bless those who cursed them, and do good to those who hated them – escaped the horror of AD 70. They did not perish but inherited life beyond the end of the age [or “eternal life” that extended beyond the present age].

Jesus never communicated the Gospel as saying a prayer so you could go to heaven when you die, or as a human sacrifice that would appease the wrath of God. What Jesus said the Gospel was is simply this: “Change your way of thinking! The Kingdom of God is here, right now! You can live under the rule and reign of God today. No need to wait until you’re dead. The Good News is for your life now, not for after you die.”

Here are just a few examples from Scripture:

“I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” (Luke 4:43)

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” (Matt 9:35)

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom..” (Matt 4:23)

Jesus taught this Gospel, and so did the Disciples, and the Apostles, including Paul and Peter and Philip, etc.

Why are we teaching any other Gospel than this one?

That’s a great question. (And another blog post).

Now let’s see what the Bible really says about John 3:16 and the Gospel:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NIV)

The writer of the Patheos article falsely claims that John 3:16 isn’t about Jesus’ sacrificial death. He takes John 3:16 in isolation from its context. Not only taking the verse out of context, he also twists its meaning into something foreign to the writer’s intent.

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.(John 3:13-15 NIV)

These verses prove it is all about God’s love for humankind, manifested in Jesus being put on the cross, or execution stake, and it also has to do with our response to it, resulting in our ETERNAL life or death!

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17 NIV)

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.(Ephesians 3:6 NIV)

These verses show that Jesus’ death is not just for Jews living back then before 70 CE, but is for all time, and is for the salvation of the entire world of mankind, for whoever will believe.

By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.(1 Corinthians 15:2-4 NIV)

The writer of the Patheos article claims that ‘believing in Jesus Christ doesn’t save us from the wrath of of God’. However, the Bible indicates that it does by saying:

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains upon him” (John 3:36 NIV).

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel.” (2 Timothy 2:8 NIV)

The writer of the Patheos article is obviously not even aware of what the gospel actually is, by asserting the gospel is about surviving the destruction of Jerusalem and Judea in 70 CE. These scriptures show the gospel is about Jesus’ death and resurrection, guaranteeing that faithful Christians will be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:12-19; Acts 17:31).

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people.(Revelation 14:6 NIV)

The final nail in the coffin of this writer’s false assertions is in the following verse. Revelation was written about 25 years after Jerusalem’s destruction, “to show his servants what must soon take place” (Revelation 1:1 NIV), in the future. “The eternal gospel” was still to be preached for centuries beyond Jerusalem’s destruction!

4 thoughts on “What Are John 3:16 & The Gospel About?

  1. But what are the words of Jesus himself on this matter? As far as I can tell, you are just presenting the words of followers or interpreters of the life of Jesus.

  2. John 3:13-15 is a quote from Jesus himself. Jesus metaphorically referred to his death and resurrection, and the life-giving result for others, at John 12:23,24 NIV: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds”. Also, Jesus “told them, ‘This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46,47 NIV). Jesus metaphorically referred to himself as the self-sacrificing “good shepherd”. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John 10:11,27,28 NIV). All these scriptures, and more, build on the theme of John 3:16, that Jesus’ sacrificial death is the basis for people’s faith for eternal life.

  3. 1 If Revelation was written 25 years after Jerusalem’s destruction why is John mentioning it as a present reality within the text?
    2 Physical delivery is representative of spiritual delivery, and prophecy is given to prove that the speaker’s words are truly of God. So, just as with Joshua and that generation which was circumcised all together when Jehovah rolled away the disgrace of Egypt; the possession of a part of the promise is sufficient to say not one word of Jehovah has failed, in the same manner the destruction of Jerusalem confirms Jesus’ words that he is the Son and final prophet. Henceforth the kingdom of God is that spiritual family on earth wheresoever the seed flourishes producing a community, being prepared as the older writers had it, for the consuming ecstasy of beholding the beatific vision, which Revelation represents as the continual praise of God and of the Lamb, Amen.
    3 The idea of a physical remaking of the actual heavens and earth is but the continuing fantasy of Jewish dreams, the notion of a physical bodily resurrection is based on Jesus’ initial resurrection, however the scriptures are explicit in insisting that Jesus body (or rather David’s Lord) wouldn’t see corruption, but this is not how we will appear if 1John is to be heeded we are only given to know we will appear like Jesus who has clearly inherited a different and spiritual body. ‘This is what I’m saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom. Something that rots can’t inherit something that doesn’t decay. 5 1 Corinthians 15:50-51
    4. I’m continually amazed at how Christians so easily disconnect the expectation of an end that drips from the pages of the New Testament writings ‘for I reckon the that the sufferings of this present time (are) not worthy (to be compared) with the glory about to be revealed in us’ . Romans 8:18 Literal Standard Version. Of note are two things the honest translation of the Greek mello as about to, which most translations, having a future judgement as essential, (Jesus sets you free but the ministry and Church building need continual financing) leave out as inconvenient, and secondly the glory is revealed IN us, not to us, so Paul must be speaking about the Salvation of that All Israel which he describes as being saved and the mechanism whereby they are saved in the next chapter, through that calling of the gospel which announces Salvation and thus calls the elect to the obedience of faith those who have been sealed with the spirit, the earnest of the redemption in Christ Jesus.
    5 Amen there’s an everlasting Gospel, for there’s a mixed multitude which none can number, this Gospel announces the finished work of God and the glorious truth that all his promises as revealed in his holy writings are Yes And True in Christ Jesus. That all are predestined to the election in Christ for He is Jehovah and changes not Amen. So ‘in whom you also, having heard the word of truth – the good news of your salvation – in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, which is a deposit of our inheritance, to the praise of his glory amen. (Ephesians 1 13,14 LSV) The biblical picture is quite clear is it not Israel as a nation were delivered through God’s having set is love upon them, they’re children although the children of Covenant breakers and thus legally non Israelites were graciously brought back into covenant through the mass circumcision – a seal of the covenant – and then given that law which their flesh promised to keep but only Joshua, having a different spirit could truly say that he and his family (such is the encompassing grace of God) would keep, and so as Hebrews shows the New Covenant is better because Jesus has accomplished all and we might fail but He and his family won’t. Thus the canon rightly closes with the prayer of all, the faithful ‘even so come Lord Jesus’. Amen

    1. Revelation was written about 25 years after earthly Jerusalem’s destruction, and “the new Jerusalem” is presented as a present reality (Revelation 3:12;21:2,10). Hebrews, written while earthly Jerusalem still existed about 35 years prior to Revelation, informs its readers “for here we do not have an enduring city”, and speaks of “the heavenly Jerusalem” as a present reality (Hebrews 13:14; 12:22 NIV). The scriptures are very clear that Jesus is not “Yahweh”. For example, “The LORD [Yahweh] says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand . . . ‘” (Psalm 110:1 NIV). This is quoted at Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36, and Acts 2:34. Jesus cannot sit at Yahweh’s right hand and be Yahweh at the same time.

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