Peter Barnes: Everlasting Life and Everlasting Wrath, John 3:36 (Sunday 19 July 2020 Evening Service, 6.00 p.m.
This last verse of John 3 tells us that, ultimately, there are two responses to Christ, and two destinies. It is like John 3:16, but it is put more starkly.
1. Everlasting Life. (a) How? If heaven could be yours and mine provided we lay on a bed of nails three days a week, would it be worth it? What if we handed out tracts for half of our waking hours? What if we lived on a diet of locusts and wild honey? What if we made a pilgrimage to some holy place? But the Bible says none of those things. Faith is not trusting yourself but resting on Christ alone – Rom.9:30-32. (b) When? – ‘has’ in the present tense, not the future. See John 5:24. However long from mercy We may have turned away, Thy blood, O Christ, can cleanse us, And make us white today. Luke 19:9; 23:43. (c) What? Richard Baxter in The Saints’ Everlasting Rest describes heaven, but then falters: ‘But I cannot express it, I cannot conceive it’. – John 3:13; Matt.25:21, 23; Rev.21:3-4. There is a happy land,/ Far, far away, Where saints in glory stand,/ Bright, bright as day … O we shall happy be/ When, from sin and sorrow free, Lord, we shall live with Thee,/ Blest, blest for aye.
2. Everlasting Death. (a) How? The NKJV has ‘he who does not believe’, but it should be ‘he who does not obey’. There is no other Saviour – Acts 4:12 (b) When? This is in the future: ‘he shall not see life’. But look back at verse 18 . The condemnation starts now. (c) What? ‘The wrath of God abides or remains on him’. Note 1 Thess.1:9-10. J. C. Ryle: ‘Many will go to hell, because their ministers never told them about hell.’ – John 5:28-29; Rom.6:23. Horatius Bonar: I lay my sins on Jesus,