The “giving” of God’s Son was totally without solicitation. Though man had fallen and needed a Savior, there is no indication that he ever asked for one: when God came walking in the cool of the day, Adam hid himself from His presence! Not only has man become a slave to sin, but a willing and obedient servant as well. No longer to be known as a son of God, he became “son” to another: “Ye are of your father the devil.” In view of all this, is there any wonder that man is at “enmity against God.” Rom.8:7, Gen.3: 15.

Who neither needs nor requires anything outside of Himself to accomplish His Divine Purpose: He is the total sum of Source and Provision.

Because it is His creation; because He saw it as “good.” He “so loved” the world, not in its sinful state of rebellion, but loved it to the degree that He would “give His only begotten Son” in order to redeem it; to restore it to that state which would please and glorify Himself. It is not that He loved man in his sin; it is that He loved him enough to pay the ultimate price to redeem him from his sin; to restore him as a Son, to reconcile the fallen one to Himself; that man may own Him as Lord; to fall at His feet in worship; to glorify the Lord of Glory!

“God loves you!” Or so say the signs and bumper stickers. But the sense in which this is presented has been regretfully misconstrued. Think not that God loves you in light of your sin: He loves you in Light of the Cross; of the sacrificial offering of the Life’s Blood of His Son. “For God so loved the world” is eternally forged together with “that He gave His only begotten Son.

For what purpose or motive? That “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life.”

“That He gave His only begotten Son. . .To whom? “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. “John 1:11. “There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men” Isa. 53:2,3 “They that hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.” Psalm 69:4.

Actually, the picture presented is most beautiful: that God gave His Son to Himself. As portrayed by Abraham and Isaac: “And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father: and he said, My father: and he said Here am I, (or might we see it as I AM) my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” Gen.22:7,8

At least four lines of definition are given: God will provide Himself (in the Person of His dear Son:) God Himself will provide a lamb, He will provide it for Himself; He will present it to Himself. Twice in this text is our attention drawn to a burnt offering. A description is given to us in Leviticus chapter one: of the priest who puts fire upon the altar; of the wood that is laid in order upon the fire; of the sacrifice upon the altar: it is “a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.” Further the sacrifice is to be a “male without blemish.”

And so we see that God “gave His only begotten Son” to Himself; that He provided His Lamb for Himself; that He presented His Lamb to Himself.

In Galatians 1:4 He “gave Himself for our sins.” In Galatians 2:20 He “loved me, and gave Himself for me.” In Ephesians 5:25 He “loved the church, and gave Himself for it.” In I Timothy 2:6 He “gave Himself a ransom.” In Titus 2:14 He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people.”

Why Faith? In unbelief man turned from God. If he is now to turn again to God, it must be in faith/believing. Why Faith? Man has nothing, he can do nothing of himself to bring about any degree of Righteousness or restoration. He can only believe that God Himself has done all. In so doing, he is lead into an attitude of worship and adoration; to glorify his Sovereign. Why Faith? As God is Light, He may be seen only by faith: as Truth, He must be heard, and that, by faith: as Life, He may only be known and experienced by faith.

“That whosoever believeth.” Regretfully there are two major opposing schools of thought: sad to say again, that the human tendency is to overplay or exaggerate one’s position, while attempting to discredit those whose line of thought does not align itself with our own. While thinking to “do God a favor” with our stanch stand, we are apt to do considerable harm to the “cause of Christ.” In such a state, one would do well to study the Psalms. In them the Holy Spirit uses David to show us a right approach to Holy Scripture: his love for its precepts, his meditation upon it in the night, his delight in discovering its Truth. Though perchance it appear as mere foolishness to the reader, yet do I venture to propose a question; not only to you but to myself: What is the principal purpose in my study of the scriptures? Is it to “know” the Word of God; or is it to know the God of the Word? We have Paul’s answer: “that I may know Him.”

Whosoever. Pas - Gr. All, any, every, the whole:- all (manner of, means), any(one), whatsoever, whosoever.

Ah, just as I thought, some will say: it is all, any, every, the whole! But whosoever what? If I counted correctly, whosoever is found in the scripture 179 times, in 33 of the 66 books of the Bible. There is a firm consistency in its usage: whosoever is followed by an action; followed by a result or consequence; be it warning or blessing.

We certainly shall not list all the verses here, but a few examples might be in order. “Whosoever slayeth Cain, [action] vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold” [consequence] Gen.4: 15. “And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, [action] him will I blot out of My book” [consequence] Ex. 32:33. “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, [action] him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven” [consequence or blessing] Matt. 10:32. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, [action] him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven” [result or consequence] Matt. 10:33. “Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water [action] shall thirst again:” [result or consequence] “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him [action] shall never thirst:” [consequence or blessing] John 4:13,14. “that whosoever believeth in Him [action] should . . .have everlasting life” [result/blessing].

So we see that the whosoever in our text is clearly identified: it is he who believeth. In contrast, he who will not believe, will not have everlasting life, but will perish.

Before concluding this article it seems needful to address a question that has resulted in many a furrowed brow: there are those who are so bent on proving what they believe that they appear to have lost the desire for Truth. The question, simply stated, though the object of much controversy is this: “For whom did Christ die?” For the whole world, for every man, say some. Not so, say others; else every man would be saved. That fallen man is totally depraved and can by no means save himself brings some disagreement, but perhaps the center of conflict is that of a “limited atonement.”

“For God so loved the world” kosmos. Gr. In pure Grace did “God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son!” Salvation is a bonafide offer. On the authority of the scripture, not one sinner who approaches the throne of Grace in repentance and faith will ever be refused or turned away.

“That whosoever believeth in Him” Now we see the responsibility of man. He is not asked to “do” anything for he cannot: he must believe that a Sovereign God has already done everything necessary for him to be saved. “Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” John 6:29.

In unbelief did man sin; now must he believe unto Righteousness.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son:” gave Him to die in our stead; gave Him that His blood might be offered an atonement for our sin. But that atonement must be believed, applied, imputed.

The illustration that I now propose to present is admittedly a poor one, but for the moment I have no other.

Suppose you were approached by one who placed within your hand an extremely large check. It is not a joke, it is not a bogus check. Your benefactor is extremely wealthy; he is a multimillionaire. His bank account is well able to cover the amount specified. Now you have two options: you may carry that piece of paper around, throw it back in a desk somewhere, discard it in a nearby trash can: or, you could take it to the bank. Upon receipt of the document from your hand, the bank official draws the amount of your check from your benefactor’s account and imputes it into your account.

But suppose you never deposit the check. Though your would be benefactor was most sincere with his gift, though the money was there to be appropriated; yet would it remain in his account; it would never be imputed into your account.

Man is absolutely bankrupt before God: but God has placed at his disposal a document. This document is the Word of God: it represents a legal transaction, an Everlasting Covenant of Atoning Blood. When one approaches the Bank of Heaven, trusting what is written in the Book, the “Bank Official” imputes Righteousness from the benefactor’s account into the believer’s account. It is, again, a legal and binding transaction.

But what of a “limited atonement?” If such may be said to exist, it has wrongfully been directed at our God! No, it is man, who in his willful unbelief, rejects the mercies of the Almighty; who will not come to Him that he might have everlasting life. Man is responsible before God: if he will not repent and believe, if he tramples underfoot the Precious Blood of Christ, then he, my friend, is the one who “limits” the Atonement. Again, it is not that there is a lack of provision made for him; it is that he refuses what is provided: though the Father greatly esteems the Atoning Blood, yet it is to no avail to him who denies and will not come that he may have eternal life.

In a previous article, The Ninety and Nine, we tendered a comparison and contrast, laying two parables “along side:” The Lost Son and The Lost Sheep.

Let us take care that we do not lose sight of either of these: as yet they are a glorious mystery. May we be drawn forth in worship unto the “author and finisher of our faith.”

We have, of course, only touched on a few things in this short study. May the Spirit of God grant unto us illumination that we may with greater discernment, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

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