But Doesn’t John 3:16 Say “Everyone Who Believes”? Isn’t That a Limitation?

Certainly. Yet we should know that “eternal life” is “eonian life.” That is the life of the coming eon or age (Luke 18:30). Believers will inherit that age. Unbelievers will not. But since we know that “the coming age” is certainly not the last age (after all, the Bible speaks of “the coming ages” and of “the consummation of the ages”), John 3:16 says nothing about the final destination of the unbeliever.

John 3:16 says that God loves the world. That is a fact. Man’s unbelief changes absolutely nothing about that (Romans 3:3). It is remarkable that John 3:16 is so well known, while only few know what is written in the following verse 17:

For God does not dispatch His Son into the world that He should be judging the world, but that the world may be saved through Him.

The consequence of this is that, if God were not actually to save the world, then He sent His Son into the world for nothing. Then He Himself would be the greatest one who misses the mark or, in the language of Scripture, the greatest sinner of all time… Thank God, Jesus Christ is truly “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14)!

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