A study of John 3:34–36
“For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
John 3:34-36 ESV
Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:
-Utters (Speaks): “laleō”, “λαλέω”; verb — to speak; to announce or preach the Word of God or the doctrine of salvation.
-Words: “rēma”, “ῥῆμα”; neuter noun — speech discourse; speaks what God bids Him.
-He Gives: “didōmi”, “δίδωμι”; verb — to give something.
-Spirit: “Pneuma”, “πνεῦμα”; neuter noun — the Holy Spirit (august, full of majesty, adorable, utterly opposed to all impurity).
-Without: “ou”, “οὐ”; particle — It is joined to other words — to a finite verb, simply to deny that what is declared in the verb applies to the subject of the sentence.
-Measure: “metron”, “μέτρον”; neuter noun — an instrument for measuring; sparingly.
-Father: “Patēr”, “πατήρ”; masculine noun — God is called the Father.
-Loves: “agapaō”, “ἀγαπάω”; verb — of the love with which God regards Christ.
-Son: “Huios”, “υἱός”; masculine noun — term used preeminently of Jesus Christ, as enjoying the supreme love of God, united to him in affectionate intimacy, privy to his saving councils, obedient to the Father’s will in all his acts.
-Believes: “pisteuō”, “πιστεύω”; verb — used especially of the faith by which a man embraces Jesus, i. e. a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah — the divinely appointed author of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God, conjoined with obedience to Christ. To have faith directed unto, believing or in faith to give oneself up to Jesus.
-Has: “echō”, “ἔχω”; verb — one is said to have intellectual or spiritual faculties, endowments, virtues, sensations, desires, emotions, affections, faults, defects, etc.
-Eternal: “aiōnios”, “αἰώνιος”; adjective — without end, never to cease, everlasting.
-Life: “zōē”, “ζωή”; feminine noun — life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last forever.
-Whoever Does Not Obey: “apeitheō”, “ἀπειθέω”; verb — to refuse or withhold belief in Christ, in the gospel.
-See: “horaō”, “ὁράω”; verb — to see, i.e. to become acquainted with by experience, to experience; equivalent to: to become a partaker of.
-Wrath: “orgē”, “ὀργή”; feminine noun — The ὀργή attributed to God in the N. T. is that in God which stands opposed to man’s disobedience, obstinance (especially in resisting the gospel) and sin, and manifests itself in punishing the same.
-Abides: “menō”, “μένω”; verb — equivalent to: not to depart, not to leave, to continue to be present; of the wrath of God.
-On: “epi”, “ἐπί”; preposition — of position, on, at, by, over, against.
Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):
This passage tells us He (Jesus) who God has sent speaks the very Words of God, and has been given the Holy Spirit without limitation. God the Father loves Jesus Christ who is also God the Son, and He has given all authority and power to Him. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ will receive eternal life. But everyone who does not believe will remain under God’s wrath and never see and experience the wonderful, eternal life God desires to give to all mankind.
Implication (what does this mean to us):
From verse 34 we learn we can trust what Jesus tells us because He was sent by God the Father and given the Holy Spirit without measure or limit. This is in contrast with the prophets who came before Him. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God would come upon certain people, at certain times for a specific work God had called them to, and then the Spirit would depart from them. But Jesus came to earth full of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Spirit of Truth, “without measure”. For this reason the special revelation He came to teach is uniquely trustworthy.
This is also a point in John’s gospel where he gives a brief glimpse into what Jesus gives to all believers under the New Covenant: the Spirit without measure. All believers in Jesus are given the Holy Spirit without measure as God told the prophet Isaiah He would do around 700 years before the coming of Christ: “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore”” Isaiah 59:21.
But Jesus must have preeminence in all things (Col. 1:18), so, as fully God and fully human, He is the first Man to be given the Spirit “without measure.” But we will read later, in John 7:38–39, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
There is at least one obvious difference between us and Jesus. He has no sin. So, the fact that we who follow Him also have the Spirit without measure, does not mean everything we say is true. It means, we have the Spirit of Truth in us to reveal God’s will and help us to discern what is true. Jesus, God Himself, came full of the Spirit, speaking the words of God without error or deceit because He has no sin. We however, still do sin, but the Spirit of God in us, leads us in the truth, magnifies the Lord Jesus in our hearts and minds, and also instructs and leads us in declaring the Words of God to others, although we do so imperfectly, unlike Jesus.
The gift of God’s Spirit without measure is profound. This would have been almost unfathomable to the 1st century person, and still is for many today. The idea that God would come to personally dwell in the hearts of sinful mankind to redeem, save, and lead in paths of righteousness is scandalous and almost too wonderful to believe. But God is far more wonderful, loving and gracious than anyone had imagined. He came to earth in the fullness of Deity and humanity, lived the life we never could, died the death we deserve, and rose to life again. Now, He gives to us who believe in Him, the Spirit without measure whereby we grow more and more into His image each day, are enabled to discern truth, and by which streams of living water flow from Him, through us, to the people around us.
Next, verse 35 is short but profound because of what it tells us about the love of the Father for Jesus, and the authority of Jesus. In verse 35 we read, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands.” In John 5:20, Jesus Himself says, “The Father loves the Son.” And in Matthew 3:17 and 17:5 God the Father speaks from heaven to say He loves the Son. In case it was not abundantly clear already, God the Father, who is Love, loves God the Son. And God the Son loves God the Father. This distinction is made to communicate to us the love of God but also to communicate what is different about Jesus from the prophets who came before Him. God loved them too, but now the Son of God has come and He is loved in a way that goes beyond God’s love for His servant prophets. This verse speaks of the uniqueness of Jesus in comparison to any man who had come before. He is the uncreated all-creating One, loved by the Father and therefore all things have been given into His hand. No other prophet or king of Israel could say the same. Notably though, as Christians, we have been born again as children of God, and He loves us with this same great love too. Because Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness, when the Father looks at us He no longer sees our sin; He sees only the perfect righteousness of Jesus.
As the unique, one and only Son of God though, the Father “has given all things” into Jesus’ hands, or we might say, all things have been placed under His authority. Jesus said nearly these exact words in Matthew 11:27. In Matthew 28:18 He said He has been given “all authority in heaven and on earth.” And in John 17:2 Jesus prays to the Father saying, “since you have given [me] authority over all flesh, to give eternal life…” Jesus is not only the greatest prophet, teacher and priest the world has ever seen, He is also the greatest King. He is the King of the universe who has authority over absolutely everything and everyone in existence. Therefore He has the authority to give eternal life to whoever believes in Him.
To gain an even better understating of the nature of Jesus’ authority and governance we should read Isaiah 9:7: “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” From this passage we have learned Jesus is the Son of God who is loved by the Father and has been given authority as King over the whole universe. And we also learn that He is a loving, just and good King who laid down His own life to give eternal life to whoever believes in Him.
Lastly, verse 36 is a restatement of the concepts from John 3:15–21. Eternal life really is freely available to “whoever” believes. Jesus loves all people from all nations and ethnicities. He does not desire that anyone should perish. He came and laid His own life to prove it and make the way to eternal life possible, but this eternal life is only given to those who believe in Him as Lord and Savior.
John has been making the case that Jesus Christ is God come down from heaven as fully God and fully human. For this reason we should listen to Him, and there are severe, eternal consequences for choosing not to. As we read, “…whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.” It is a matter of choice. Who or what do we love? From verses 17–18 we learned Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but in order to save the world that is already condemned. And from verses 19–21, all those who reject Him, the Light, do so because they love the darkness and hate the Light. Those who reject Jesus reject Him because they love their wicked deeds, do not want them to be exposed by the Light, and hate the Light which exposes their wickedness. Those who love the Light, respond with humble repentance to having their wickedness exposed by Jesus, and repent and believe in Him as Lord and Savior. Such people are therefore saved from God’s wrath, because God’s wrath has been placed on Jesus as the substitutionary sacrifice satisfying God’s wrath for the sin of the whole world. But the wrath of God “remains” or some translations say “abides” on those who do not believe.
The wrath of God for sin does not describe a violent, uncontrolled outburst. Remember Jesus cleansing of the temple in John 2:13–22. Jesus was angry, but He took the time to carefully craft a whip made of rope, and then drove the greedy money changers out. He was angry, but had a calm, settled plan for how to set things right. God in His wrath for sin is not shaking in uncontrollable rage. He is rightly displeased with sin and moral evil, and He has a plan for how and when He will righteously execute justice. God’s perfect love and moral character demand that He justly deal with sin. But also, because of His perfect love and moral character, He has taken the just punishment for sin we deserve on Himself, and we can be spared from His wrath by repenting of our sin and believing in Jesus Christ.
The wrath that remains on those who do not believe in Jesus tells us the wrath was already there. It is not placed on a person when they decide not to believe in Jesus. We are all under God’s wrath, but we can be saved from it by belief in Jesus who is the perfect all-sufficient sacrifice to appease God’s righteous wrath. If we go into the afterlife without having believed, then God’s wrath will remain on us forever because we have no perfect, substitutionary sacrifice for sin and must face eternal punishment ourselves.
This is a loving warning from God to us. He sent His Son because He loves us. His perfect justice requires that He punish sin. But His perfect love is why He took the punishment for us. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved from the wrath that is to come. Confess your sin, and confess Jesus as your one and only Lord and Savior, and you will be saved. Jesus has done all the work for us, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves or be born again. We must simply accept His free gift with heartfelt confession and sincere belief in His name (Romans 10:9–10).
Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):
From this passage we learn Jesus is the supreme authority in the universe. He is fully God and fully man. He is One with God the Father and belief in Him as Lord and Savior is the only way to be saved from God’s wrathful eternal punishment for our sin. Belief in Him not only means being saved from wrath, but for eternal life in fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore. God is good and loving, which is why He sent His Son to warn us about the wrath we are born under and to provide the one and only way to be saved. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus, the Son of God, and it is only by belief in Him that we can and will be saved.
Self Reflection:
Do I understand that Jesus Christ is not merely a human prophet or teacher, but that He is the God of the universe in whom all of space and time exist?
What does this understanding of Jesus tell me about the trustworthiness of His Words?
What does the fact that God Himself bore the wrathful punishment I justly deserve for my sin on my behalf tell me about His love for me?
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