John 3:35-36: The Judge who Saves

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 1:3-8 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us...

Intro

Jesus came from heaven preaching one very important message...

Whoever believes in Jesus Christ has eternal life, but whoever does not believe is condemned already and will suffer eternal death for their sin.

That is the most important truth you could ever hear, and its the Big Idea from John 3:35-36.

Its fitting that the chapter chapter of the Bible most famous for talking about eternal life, salvation, and the new birth would end with a call and encouragement to put all of our faith in Christ.

To trust in Him alone for salvation.

These are some of the most important words we could hear because they determine our eternity.

They tell us what makes the gospel such good news and gives us a greater love God’s grace in Christ as we see not only the eternal life we have in him but the everlasting condemnation he saved us from.

Everything rises and falls on Jesus.

How you face the Day of Judgment will depend on Him.

Will you be ready?

How can you be ready?

What will happen to all those who are not ready?

And just how great is God’s grace in saving us in Jesus Christ?

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. The Father Has Entrusted Christ with the Power to Save and the Authority to Judge

John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

These are the concluding words of one of the most famous chapter in the entire Bible.

John 3 is a chapter that is all about the New Birth, Eternal Life, how to be saved through faith in Christ...

And now John concludes this chapter with words to drive the gospel home and call for a decision.

What will you do with Christ?

Last week, we looked at how when John says the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand, the Big Picture theology is that God has exalted Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.

He has given Him the name that is above ever name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-11).

And now this week, I want to look at this verse in context of John chapter 3 and the overall context of John itself.

Because in the context of the New Birth, salvation, and eternal life along with what John specifically says throughout the rest of the Gospel about what the Father has given to the Son...

There is a particular emphasis John has in mind of what the Father has given into the hands of the Son as it relates to salvation, judgment, and eternal life.

When you read the gospel of John, and you follow this theme of the Father giving things to the Son its clear that what John has particularly in mind is not just the Authority and Sovereignty of Christ in general...

But the authority and sovereignty of Christ in giving eternal life to all who believe, and judging those who do not believe in the only Son of God.

The Father loves the Son and has entrusted Him with the power to save all who believe in Him and the authority to Judge those who reject Him in unbelief and condemn them in their sin.

The Father has given all things into Christ’s hands and that means everything, including your eternal destiny rises and falls on Jesus Christ.

I want to look at the Gospel of John and show you two things John specifically says the Father has given the Son.

Number 1...

1. Eternal Life

John 17:2 Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

This is Jesus praying to the Father, and Jesus says that the Father had given Him authority over all flesh.

Over every person that has lived or ever will live.

All men are under Christ and one day will stand before Him and given an account (2 Cor. 5:10).

And then Jesus says that the Father has given Him authority all flesh to give eternal life to all who the Father had given Him.

That’s the elect.

All those God chose before the foundation of the world.

Ephesians 1:4-5: In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.

In other words, God has exalted Christ and given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all those God had predestined to save in eternity past before the foundation of the world.

The idea here, especially in the overall context of John 3, is that eternal life comes through, and only through, Jesus Christ.

He is the cornerstone. The foundation. The end all be all (Acts 4:11).

Acts 4:12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Jesus is the Way. The Truth. The Life.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).

And this life, eternal life, only comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

God has given the power to save to Him.

Number 2...

2. Judgment

Not only has the Father given Christ authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all who believe in Him...

He has also given him authority over all flesh to Judge all who reject Him and do not believe.

John 5:21-22, 27 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

At this point in chapter 5, Jesus is not talking about our future, bodily resurrection from the dead.

He is talking about passing from death to life in salvation.

He is talking about our spiritual resurrection.

You who were dead in your trespasses and sins have been made alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:5).

Verse 22

For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son…[and then verse 27] And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

All judgment has been given to the Son.

One day, Christ will return and judge every person that has ever lived.

The Bible calls it the Last Day, or the Great White Throne of Judgment.

Everyone will stand before Him and give an account for their life. They will be made to stand and give an account for their sins.

This is why it is so important to believe in Christ.

The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) and God promises the soul who sins shall die (Ezek. 18:20).

Even one sin will send you to Hell to suffer eternal, conscious, torment, or what the Bible calls the second death, for all eternity under the wrath of God.

Faith in Christ is the only way to be saved and anyone who does not believe will not stand but fall underneath His judgment.

They will stand before Christ on that terrible day and instead of hearing “Well done, good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your master,” they will hear “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:23, 41).

All judgment has been given to the Son and He will judge the world in perfect righteousness.

Paul gets at this same idea in Acts 17:31: God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Jesus is that man.

Who better to judge the world in righteousness than the one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin? (Heb. 4:15).

Jesus’ perfect obedience as a man, will leave mankind without excuse and testify to God’s righteous judgment that all who practice such things, who live in their sin, deserve to die under the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 1:32).

The authority to Judge has been given to Him.

Summary

So let me summarize all this to get us to the meat of what this sermon is really about.

God has exalted Christ to the right hand of the Father and given all things into His hand.

And in the context of John 3, the all things has a special eye towards all things pertaining to life, salvation, and judgment.

The idea here is Jesus as the Cornerstone. The Foundation. The One on whom everything else rises and falls.

1 Peter 2:6-8 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

Elsewhere in Luke 20:18, Jesus references that same Old Testament Passage and says Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

Here’s the basic idea.

God has entrusted Christ with eternal life, and eternal judgment.

There are two paths. Only two choices.

Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame, but those who do not believe, who stumble over Christ the stone of stumbling and rock of offense, will be broken to pieces and crushed under His wrath.

There is no third way.

What will you do with Christ?

Will build your life upon Him as your cornerstone?

Trust in Him alone for your life, righteousness, and salvation?

Or will you reject Him? Will you stumble over Him and in doing so fall into pieces?

The Bible is clear It is appointed once for man to die, and then comes judgment (Heb. 9:27)

How will you be prepared?

And a better question: How can you be prepared?

John gives us the answer to that question with his closing words from verse 36.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Point Number 2...

II. Whoever Believes in the Son Has Eternal Life

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life...

That is exactly what John says.

All who believe in Christ have eternal life.

They are saved and forgiven of all of their sin.

Believe

This is a major theme all throughout chapter 3.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

This is even the purpose of the Gospel of John as a whole. John 20:31 These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Eternal life comes through faith in Christ. Through believing in Jesus’ name.

Well what does that mean?

Jesus himself already gave us a picture of what this saving faith looks like in John 3:14.

The kind of faith that is born out of the

John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

This is a reference to a story from the Old Testament in Numbers 21.

While wandering through the wilderness for their unbelief (a picture of where unbelief will ultimately lead you…the wilderness and wasteland of God’s judgment) God fed His people with bread from heaven.

But along the way, the people became impatient.

They grumbled against the Lord and against Moses and said Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?…We loathe this worthless food (Numbers 21:5).

And for their sin, God cursed the people.

He sent fiery serpents into the camp.

And when the snakes would bite the people, their venom would burn like fire and led many of the people of Israel to die (Num. 21:6).

And so the people came to Moses and confessed their sin.

They said Pray for us. Pray that God would take away the serpents and forgive us of our sin.

Pray that God would save us from the curse of death the snakes poison us with.

And so Moses prayed and the Lord gave him an answer.

He said Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live (Numbers 21:8).

Israel’s curse became their salvation.

All anyone had to do was look with faith on the salvation God had provided and he would forgive their sin and give them new, physical life.

And Jesus says faith in Christ that leads to new, eternal life, not just new physical life, is exactly like that.

Just like Israel, all of us were bit by the Serpent.

We all sinned in Adam and the fiery, burning poison of God’s wrath courses through our veins.

We are dead in our trespasses and sins. The wages of sin is death.

All of us were as good as dead, doomed to die under God’s wrath.

But God sent His Son to die for us.

Jesus said as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

When Jesus talked about being lifted up, He was talking about His cross.

He became a curse for us.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law (that curse being death) by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

When Jesus was lifted up on the Cross, God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).

He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:5-6).

This is the good news of the gospel.

Just like with Israel, Jesus became our curse for us so that when we look to Him with simple faith - Everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live (Num. 21:8) - He might become our salvation.

Seeing Christ crucified looks at Christ in faith and says there hangs my sin.

There’s my death and curse, I deserved.

And there’s my God suffering it all for me.

My Lord and My Savior who drained the cup of God’s wrath on my behalf so that I would never have to know the taste of that bitter cup.

That is what it means to believe.

We are saved by Grace through faith.

Not works - Not cleaning yourself up - so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8-10).

But simple faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me that I might not perish but have eternal life.

When we believe in Jesus Christ, all it means is that we receive Christ’s person and work on our behalf.

Faith takes Christ and makes Him our own.

The He is our Prophet, Priest, and King.

The Son of God who offered His life as a sacrifice to pay for all my sins; not just someone’s sin in general.

And so if you want to have eternal life, the answer, and the only answer is look to Christ.

Remember God has given Him the power to give eternal life.

There is salvation in no other name.

You come to Christ - the Son of Man lifted up - and you pray, God be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13).

You confess your sin and put it to death.

You repent and turn from your sin to follow Christ.

And Jesus promises all who come to me I will never cast out (John 6:37).

That whoever comes to Christ will never perish but have eternal life (John 10:28).

Will you not come to Christ?

If God has given Christ the authority to give eternal life to all who believe in Him will you not come to the only one who has the power to give it?

Where else will you find salvation and forgiveness of sins?

As Jesus said If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).

What better day than today to become a Christian and be freed from your condemnation and sin?

What better day than today to have eternal life?

And that takes me to the second thing I want to emphasize from this verse.

Has Eternal Life

Notice John says John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life...

Present tense.

Eternal life is not something we are waiting on to one day have in the future.

So many Christians look at eternal life and assume it all has to do with heaven.

Well listen, there’s some truth to that.

Heaven is the consummation of eternal life. Heaven is where we will enjoy the fullness of it.

But John says eternal life is not something we are waiting on heaven to enjoy.

It is something currently have and enjoy here and now.

Whoever believes in Christ has eternal life today.

You as a believer are already in the possession of it and by God’s grace you get to currently enjoy the benefits of it and all that it entails.

Eternal life includes all the blessings of salvation that we have in Christ.

Forgiveness and cleansing from sin.

The indwelling Holy Spirit.

New hearts with new desires that work themselves out in new spiritual life free from the bondage of sin and death.

We have peace. Hope. Assurance.

Joy. The fullness of life.

But that’s not all.

Look at John 17:3...

This gives us a radically different understanding of what most of us normally think of when we think of eternal life.

Eternal life is not merely all the blessings of salvation.

That is a far too truncated view.

And when we see eternal life as little more than the blessings of salvation, blinds us to the true joy of what God has given us in Christ…God Himself.

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Jesus definition is simple.

Eternal life is knowing God.

And its not just knowing God in general. As if there’s some God out there that exists.

Its knowing God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

So eternal life according to Jesus is knowing God through Jesus Christ.

Well what does that mean?

That we don’t just know God out there somewhere…We know God as our loving Father.

That’s eternal life.

All the blessings of eternal life lead to and culminate in this one glorious truth. God is our Father!

So when you think of salvation, forgiveness, justification…those are all wonderful and precious treasures to the soul, but they are not an end of themselves.

They are the building blocks to something greater: reconciliation with our heavenly Father.

God sent Jesus to reveal who He is. Christ’s mission was to save His people and in saving them, make the Father known.

Well who does the Son reveal God to be?

A Father.

That is what God wants us to know?

That He is our Father who loves us in Christ even as He loves the Son.

So many Christians have what John Owen calls hard thoughts about God.

That He is always angry and disappointed with such sinful creatures.

That He is hard, severe, and unable to please.

And those lies keep us from enjoying God as He has revealed Himself to be.

What child ever comes into the living room when dad is angry?

They run away and hide. And that is exactly what we do with God the Father and in doing so rob ourselves of the joy and blessing of eternal life.

God is not just a righteous Judge. He is our loving Father.

Jesus said You have loved them even as you loved me (John 17:23).

God’s love for us is objective its not rooted in us. Its rooted in God’s own love for His Son.

Through faith God puts us in Christ.

He makes us one with Him so that now, all the love and blessing the Father has for the Son, flows through the Son to us as well.

How does the Father love the Son? Eternally, perfectly, unconditionally.

Freely. Fully. Never-endingly.

And now in Christ that is how the Father loves us as well.

Eternal life is knowing God as our Father who loves.

This is why Jesus said, No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

The only way to know God as Father is through the Son.

He is the one, John 1:12, who gives us the right to become children of God.

We are adopted as God’s own beloved sons and daughters, in the Son.

And eternal life is Knowing God as Father and enjoying Him and all the blessings of His love.

This is what Owen called Communion with God.

God is not distant or uncaring or far off. He is always by our side.

He watches over us. Cares for us. Works all things together for our good.

The eternal life, the reconciliation and relationship with have with Him through Christ, is enjoyed the more we find all of our love, joy, life, and satisfaction in Him.

John Owen said The Father’s love is like a bubbling spring or a sparkling fountain, always pouring out water (Communion with God, Banner of Truth 26).

God’s love is a fountain that never runs dry and eternal life is quenching every thirst in Him.

The idea is we enjoy communion with God, we enjoy eternal life, when our souls stop searching and wandering in desert places looking for broken cisterns that hold no water and instead find all of our rest in Him.

Find all of our contentment, satisfaction, and peace.

This is what God has given you in Christ. The fullness of life in God Himself as your heavenly Father who loves you and cares for you.

And this God loves us so much that while we were still sinners He gave His one and only Son to die for us on a cross.

To suffer the wrath He had against us in our place, so that we who were once children of wrath worthy of nothing but eternal judgment and condemnation, my know His great love and be adopted as His own beloved sons and daughters.

And if God loves us in the Son, and He loves the Son and has given all things into His hand…How much more will more will He not graciously give us all things when He did not spare His only Son? (Roman 8:32).

So here’s why I wanted to bring this out.

When we talk about eternal life we need have something in our minds that is more concrete than just some vague idea of spiritual salvation.

Eternal life is not just a vague idea of salvation in general.

It the fullness of salvation once for all in Jesus Christ.

Unless all of our sins truly were forgiven...

Unless we truly were renewed from the inside out and made New Creations in Christ...

Unless everything really was finished like Jesus said on the cross...

It would not be possible to have communion with God and know Him as our Holy and Loving Father.

So when you think of eternal life, its not just some vague idea of spiritual life.

It is all the blessings of salvation we currently enjoy and it is the fullness of those blessings because eternal life culminates in a blessed communion, mutual delight and enjoyment, of God as our loving Father through Jesus Christ.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, Communion with God, and therefore the fullness of salvation and forgiveness of sins.

Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.

Number 3: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but...

III. Whoever Rejects the Son is Condemned Already

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

It is interesting that John contrasts faith in Christ with whoever does not obey.

What are we to make of this?

Is John teaching some sort of works based salvation as in if you obey the Son than you will see life? Or maybe if you don’t obey the Son you can actually lose your salvation?

Not at all.

Listen where else we saw Jesus talking about what makes someone able to see eternal life.

John 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

And this new birth, we are told, is clearly a work of God’s grace by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So what is going on here?

There are two good options.

On the one hand God commands everyone to repent and believe the gospel.

We looked at part of this verse earlier.

Acts 17:30-31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

God commands all people everywhere to repent. So not doing so is in fact disobedience as much as it is unbelief.

The other idea is that faith without works is dead (James 2:26).

Saving faith always produces the fruit of good works and obedience to God.

In this way, disobedience to the Son reveals a lack of saving faith in the Son.

Another way to look at it is that the new birth produces such a radical new life in the believer that they no longer live for sin but live for righteousness.

They obey the Son out of the grace of the New Birth.

Either way, true obedience is connected to saving faith.

This is a theme common throughout the New Testament.

The Bible talks about people becoming obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7, Rom 1:5, 16:26).

2 Thessalonians describes sinners as those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

We are not saved by obedience, but obedience is the evidence of our faith, and the first step of obedience is repenting of our sin and believing in the gospel.

And the kind of disobedience John is talking about here is a persistent, hard-hearted unbelief.

And in John 3:21 Jesus said this hard hearted unbelief is because people love darkness rather than the light and do not want to come into the light, lest their evil works should be exposed.

In other words, this persistent hard-hearted unbelief is a direct result of someone’s love for sin which in itself is disobedience.

Whoever does not obey the Son, whoever does not renounce all their sin and come to Christ, will not see life.

Instead, the wrath of God remains on Him.

Wrath Remains

Now why does John say it remains?

Because sinners are already condemned in their sin.

They children of wrath, and sons of disobedience (Eph. 2:3).

The judgment for their sin has already been determined.

The soul that sins shall die (Ezek. 18:20).

And the evidence of their condemnation is their persistent unbelief.

John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The wage of sin is death, and death hangs over every man as a veil (Rom. 6:23, Is. 25:7-10).

Romans 5:12 Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”

There is no escaping this condemnation. We are all born into sin when we are born in Adam.

The only way out is faith in Christ, the Last Adam, The Perfect Adam, who bore our condemnation on our behalf through His death on the cross so that through faith in Him there would be no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:31).

But for all who do not obey the Son, who refuse to come to Christ, who persist in their unbelief, they will die in their condemnation and sin, and suffer eternal condemnation under the wrath of God forever in Hell on the Day of Judgment.

Judgment Day

Revelation 20, gives us a picture of this Great and Terrible Day.

Revelation 20:11-12,15 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done...And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

All judgment has been given to the Son. Christ is the one who is seated on the great white throne.

This Throne represents the holiness, righteousness, and purity Christ has and the judgment that will be executed by Him.

And every person great and small will stand before the throne to give an account of their life.

Books will be open. The book of your life that has every thought, word action and deed.

Romans 2:16 Paul even says in Romans 2:16 that God will judge even the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.

Everything will be laid bare.

Nothing will be hidden.

Who’s life can stand up to that scrutiny? No one.

This is why Psalm 1 says The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous…[and] the way of the wicked will perish (Psalm 1:5-6).

No one will be able to stand before Christ except for those who are found in Him.

So how will you face that day?

Think of how terrible that day will be when judgment is pronounced on a poor sinner.

They will stand before Christ trembling as an exact account is given of his life.

And the book of life will not have His name in it.

He will be condemned and dragged away with wailing, crying, and gnashing of teeth as he will never again see any hope or glimmer of mercy.

He will drink the cup of God’s wrath poured out in full.

As Revelation 14 says He also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night (Rev. 14:10-11).

There will be no mercy on that day, because Christ offers His mercy today.

If you want to escape that judgment all you must do is believe. Trust in the Son.

What a comfort the Day of Judgment is for the life of the Believer.

There is nothing to fear. The one who pronounces judgment is the very one who died for us.

It is impossible that He would look at us who have put our faith in Him and demean His own blood by saying it is not enough.

If you believe in Christ, you will face that Day, and all of your sins will be forgiven.

You will hear your name read from the Book of Life.

And instead of hearing Christ say Depart from Me, He will say Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your Master.

Page after page after page of the book of your life will be stained with blood each one declaring “Paid in Full. Forgiven. Justified. Righteous before God” because we will be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

We will be covered in dazzling white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.

And we know we will be saved because our Judge, the one we will stand before on that glorious day, is the very same one who died for our sin.

And what will be our reward?

The Fullness of Eternal life! All the blessing of communion with God and salvation we enjoy in part here and now.

Revelation 20:3-4 Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Conclusion

Its odd that a chapter so focused on the New Birth and eternal life would end but the wrath of God remains on Him.

All this glorious grace and salvation and then...wrath.

But even this warning of God’s wrath is an invitation to God’s grace.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).

We deserve condemnation.

We are all born condemned already.

But God gave us His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

He has given the power to save and the authority to Judge to His Son.

If you come to Him He will give you eternal life. If you persist in unbelief, eternal death.

Hear His invitation for eternal life!

Come to me, all who [are weary] and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28-30).

And Whoever comes to me I will never cast out (John 6:37).

Let’s Pray