For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 is a favourite text by many, and is one of a few texts that all people, regardless of how “biblically literate” they are, know and can often recite. As with many precious texts, this is one that has often been abused, both historically and in modern times.
One should note that the phrase “whosoever believeth” is not a completely accurate translation of the underlining Greek. The Greek is ὁ πιστεύων which is a participle, properly translated as “the ones believing.” This shows that the “belief” John is speaking about it not a superficial belief, or a faith that only lasts momentarily, as one finds with Antinomian and “No-Lordship Salvation” camps; instead, it is an on-going belief in the life of a believer, and one that perseveres until the end.
Another abuse of this text is that it teaches God has no particular love for any individual or group; instead, he loves all people equally the same. This is, at best, a half-truth. Yes, God loves all people insofar as Christ died for all men without distinction (cf. 1 Tim 2:1-4, which, contra Calvinists, teaches universal atonement). However, just as we have different types of “love” for different people (how I love my pet dog clearly differs from the love I have for my parents), God has a special or “salvific” love to true believers.
That John is teaching a particularity vis-à-vis God’s love in John 3 can be seen in verses 3-5, where Jesus teaches the need for baptism to enter the Kingdom of God (cf. 1 Pet 3:21). Furthermore, John’s use of the Old Testament is also further evidence of this. John presents Jesus as the antitype (the fulfilment of a type) of the brazen serpent in verse 14:
And as (καθος) Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
John hearkens back to Num 21, where God commands Moses to forge a serpent made from bronze (KJV: brass) to counteract the fiery serpents that invaded the Israelite camp:
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (Num 21:6-9)
The Book of Mormon also speaks of the brazen serpent as an Old Testament “type” that would be fulfilled in the then-future atoning sacrifice of Christ:
Behold, he was spoken of by Moses; yea, and behold a type was raised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live. (Alma 33:19)
Of course, not all the Israelites looked upon the brazen serpent and died, notwithstanding the provision being made for all the Israelite camp (Amulek, in Alma 33:19, states that “many,” not “all,” the Israelites looked upon it). John, in discussing the Father’s giving of his unique Son, shows that the Father does not just have a salvific love for national Israel, but for the entire world, but to read into John 3:16, in light of its Old Testament background, universal salvation or other theologies, is to engage in eisegesis.
