John 3 Footnotes

3:2-9 Nicodemus started out so promisingly yet ended up not understanding Jesus at all. Is this conceivable for one who was called a teacher in Israel (v. 10)? Yes, and it was typical of the responses of various Jewish authorities to Jesus. John narrated a number of miracles (“signs”) to try to convince people that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah (20:31), but he also recognized that signs by themselves can mislead (2:23-25). That John did not turn Nicodemus into a follower of Jesus (at least in this passage) contrasts with later Christian legends that did, making the historical plausibility of this episode all the greater.

3:16 Muslims claim that God could not have a Son because they think Christians are talking about a literal biological offspring of the Father and Mary. However, throughout the NT, and especially in John, “Sonship” refers to the intimate spiritual relationship between God and Jesus.

3:17 John said that Jesus didn’t come to judge or condemn the world (12:47), but elsewhere we clearly read that Jesus will function as Judge on the last day, condemning some to hell (e.g., Mt 25:31-46). This is scarcely a contradiction, since John himself recorded that Jesus had all judgment entrusted to him (Jn 5:22). The purpose of the incarnation was to offer a plan of salvation for all who would receive it. Those who refuse it simply remain in the condemned state they were already in. Or, in C. S. Lewis’s words, “There are only two kinds of people in the end; those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’ ”