The Gospel of John tells us that, because of His love for the world, “God…gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). God’s gift, motivated by love, resulted in the opportunity for all those who believe to have everlasting life. Paul called this amazing, unique demonstration of God’s love an “indescribable gift” (II Corinthians9:15, NKJV).
Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus was begotten of God (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5). But Oneness believers do not affirm that a second person of the Trinity is eternally begotten by nature. Rather, at a particular moment in time, in accordance with God’s plan of redemption, the Holy Spirit came upon Mary with the result that the “Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35, NKJV). In this connection, leading New Testament scholars such as Raymond Brown have argued that the adjective monogenes means “one-of-a-kind,” “one-and-only,” or “unique,” rather than “only begotten.” In any case, John’s main concern in 3:16 was to emphasize the uniqueness and specialness of the Son in God’s plan. John wanted to show that there was only one Son gifted by God to and for the world. Salvation is available to the world only through this one-of-a-kind Son, Jesus Christ.
Clearly, salvation is a major theme of John 3:16, as is plainly expressed in the following verse (John 3:17). More specifically, John had in view the Incarnation and Christ’s act of self-sacrifice on the cross. The “lifting up” of the Son of Man, which John used as a metaphor for Christ’s death, had just been referenced in John 3:14. (See John 8:28;12:32–34.) Moreover, John used the same verb (give) elsewhere with reference to the death of Christ.
Jesus told the crowd at Capernaum, “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32b–33, NKJV). He explained further: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51, NKJV).In John 6, it becomes clear that John understood God’s gift, the substance of which he described in John 3:16 as “the one-of-a-kind, unique Son,” to have primary reference to the Incarnation. The divine gift is that Jesus’ human life was sacrificed on the cross for the life of the world.
There is one final point to consider regarding John’s statement that “God…gave his only begotten Son.” The subject of the clause is God. That is, God, the active agent, gave the Son up for sacrificial death (John 3:16). Similarly, in John 6:32, the Father gave the “true bread from heaven.” Yet in John 6:51, Jesus gave His flesh for the world. (See John 10:18,28.) How could John write both that God gave the Son for the world and that Jesus gave His flesh for the world? Put differently, how could the gift already given by God to the world (Jesus) be said to give Himself to the world?
Some might think the solution is found in Trinitarian ideology, that the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—decided to give the second person—the Son—to the world. The second divine person—the Son—then willingly gave Himself to the world, either by virtue of His distinct nature or by decision. But this view is not fully consistent with Trinitarian theology or with the language in John’s Gospel. Trinitarianism asserts the divine persons are in perfect unity and therefore act in concert. If the Son were involved in the initial decision, there would be no need for Him to give Himself again at a later time.
The key to understanding these two decisions is the Incarnation. Our Lord Jesus Christ was both fully divine and fully human. In His divinity, Jesus had decided from the beginning to give His life freely for the world (Revelation 13:8). Speaking as God, Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John 10:28, NKJV). In His humanity, however, Jesus had to submit to the divine will and choose to lay down His life (John 5:20; 18:11). The two decisions, then, were made by God on the one hand and by Jesus in human identity on the other hand.
Today, we all have the opportunity to avail ourselves of God’s indescribable gift and receive eternal life. When we are born of water and Spirit, we enter the new life Christ’s death made possible (John 3:16). Each individual is invited to respond to the gospel by following the instructions Peter gave on the Day of Pentecost: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”(Acts 2:38, NKJV). Paul also explained that baptism connects believers with Christ’s own death: “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4, NKJV).
God has freely given us the gift of salvation. Jesus, in His humanity, fully accomplished His part in our redemption. The only remaining choice is ours. Will we respond to the gospel in faith and receive salvation, or will we reject God’s loving gift?
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Personal Application:
- Why was it important for John to emphasize that the Son is unique or one-of-a-kind?
- How could God’s gift, the one-of-a-kind Son, in turn give Himself?
- What is the significance of Jesus’ being “lifted up” in John’s Gospel?
- How does the fact that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human help us understand the statements by and about God, the Father, the Son, and Jesus in John’s Gospel?
- How can modern believers apply Christ’s death to our own lives, thus availing ourselves of the divine gift?