| Frequently
Asked Questions # 21
"Condemned
Already"? John 3:18
A reader writes: “Isn't
John 3:18 an awkward fit into your premise B with its
claim that ‘All persons are elect in Christ except those who the
Bible expressly declares will be finally lost.'?” This question
implies that John 3:18 directly contradicts the fundamental teaching of Evangelical Inclusivism.
John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not
condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”
All who do not
believe in Jesus are “condemned already” because they have “not
believed in the name of God's one and only Son." If all who do “not believe" are “condemned already” we ought
not to view them as (consider them to be) “elect in Christ” until
and unless we have specific knowledge to the contrary, Evangelical Inclusivism expects us to do..
This is a penetrating question that deserves
a very direct response.
To “stand condemned” can mean
either: “to be worthy of condemnation,” which is true of all persons
except Jesus Christ; or, it can mean “to be consigned to Hell.”
It is one thing to say that all persons, due to their inherited
sin (original sin), are children of wrath and “worthy of” unending
death. It is something altogether different to say all persons are actually
consigned to Hell and will be numbered among those described in
2 Thess. 1:9: “They will be punished with everlasting destruction
and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty
of his power on the day he comes.”
When
Jesus speaks of those who “stand condemned” in John 3:18 he is not
merely speaking of those who are only “worthy of eternal death.” If he
was referring to all who are “worthy of condemnation” he would be
speaking of all mankind, himself alone excluded. The text would
then be self-contradictory because those who “stand condemned" are
only a portion of mankind according to John 3:18. They are the segment of human beings who do “not believe.”
John 3:18 speaks of a divided
mankind, some of whom “believe” and some who do “not believe.” Those
who “stand condemned” refers only to those who do “not believe”
and consequently will be actually sent to Hell. There can be no
question about this meaning of “stand condemned” in John 3:18. (In
this discussion we are not speaking about the nature of Hell, we
are referring only to the reality of Hell.)
Must we (or even may we) conclude
that what John 3:18 says is that all who have not at some time during
their earthly existence “believed in the name of God's one and only
Son” will be sent to Hell? That, among others, would include all
those who have never heard the gospel and have never heard of Jesus.
This has often been urged as one of the strongest motivations for
missionary endeavor.
That such a view is a mis-understanding
of John 3:18 is seen if we try to consistently apply this standard:
1)
Then no one who dies in infancy can be saved. They have never, during
their earthly existence, “believed” as described in John 3:18. But
of course, it can be said, Jesus was not talking about those who
die in infancy.
2)
Then every Christian in their earliest years, before they knew of
Jesus, was at that time “consigned to Hell.”
3)
Then the apostle Paul before his conversion was at that time “consigned
to Hell” because at that time he did “not believe in the name of
God's one and only Son.” Paul himself came to know much better than
that.
These difficulties, necessarily
inferred from the reader's question (See above.), derive from the
phrase: “stands condemned already.” Our first thought is that this
phrase must be a reference to the sinner's condemnation due to the
fall of Adam. Immediately we begin to think of sinners being conceived
and born in sin and therefore they are “already” under condemnation
unless or until they believe “in the name of God's one and only
Son.” As we already noted, if the phrase “stands condemned already”
refers to our condemnation in Adam it refers to all mankind not
to only a portion of mankind designated as “whoever does not believe.”
Another way of understanding
the phrase “stands condemned already” is the one set forth, for
example, by Dr. Wm. Hendriksen in his Commentary on John 3:18:
“The one who rejects Christ by not believing in him as God's only-begotten
Son does not need to wait for the final judgment, as if the verdict
would be postponed until then. Already, by the very fact of his
obstinate unbelief, he has been (and therefore stands) condemned.”
This understanding of the phrase
“stands condemned already” reflects the fact that Jesus is speaking
about those who have been confronted by the truth about Jesus. Those
about whom Jesus is speaking in John 3 have been confronted by Jesus
himself. John 3:11 says, “I tell you the truth . . . but still you
people do not accept our testimony.” Those who willfully and finally
reject this kind of testimony (special revelation) are “condemned
already” because they have “not believed in the name of God's one
and only Son.”
Those of whom Jesus is speaking are those who have heard the truth about Jesus and even though they have heard of God's grace in Jesus Christ they wanted nothing to do with it. The point is that such people need no greater or other indictment. As long as they so continue they are already fit for the consignment to Hell.
This understanding of John
3:18 is totally compatible with the premise of Biblical Universalism
that all persons are elect in Christ except those who the Bible
expressly declares will be finally lost. “Those who will be finally
lost (the reprobate) are described in Scripture in no other way
than those, and only those, who, in addition to their sin in Adam,
persist in unbelief and sin, exhibit unbelief, are the agents of
unbelief, and perform evil actions throughout their lifetime on
earth. They are lost by their own deliberate and inexcusable choice.
They will receive that which they have willfully and personally
chosen, namely, to depart from God. They are those, and only those
who willfully, decisively and finally reject God's will as it has
been made known to them in general revelation ( Rom. 1:20; 2:15)
or as it was declared in special revelation (Mark 16:16; John 3:18)."
(See also Posting 2 "Those Who Will Be Finally Lost.)
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Contact
Neal Punt at: whenindoubt3@charter.net
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