John 3:16-19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For God so loved the world, &c. Here our Lord proceeds to inform Nicodemus, that men owed the blessings above mentioned to the free and immense love of God the Father, who desired their salvation with such ardency, that he sent his only-begotten Son to bestow it upon them; and that it is designed for all that will accept of it in the way God hath appointed. God, says he, so loved the world, that is, all men under heaven; even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally perish, that he gave his only-begotten Son, truly and seriously: and the Son of God gave himself, (Galatians 2:20,) truly and seriously; that whosoever believeth in him With that faith which worketh by love, and holdeth fast the beginning of his confidence steadfast to the end; should not perish Under the sentence of divine justice, as he otherwise must have done; but have everlasting life The life of grace, and the life of glory, through the mere mercy of God, and the infinite merits of his Son. For God sent not his Son to condemn the world To execute that vengeance upon them which their guilt might have taught them to fear; nor did he send him to destroy the Gentile nations, which prejudiced Jews have supposed would be one principal end of the Messiah's coming. God, says Grotius, is often described as an avenger in the Old Testament: therefore the guilty might reasonably expect, that when his Son came into the world, it would be to execute vengeance in his Father's name. But that the world through him might be saved Even all, without exception, who will hearken to the overtures of the gospel. He that believeth on him With his heart unto righteousness; is not condemned Is acquitted, is justified before God, how many and great soever his past sins may have been, and however unpardonable according to the tenor of the Mosaic law: but he that believeth not Whatever his external profession and privileges may be; is condemned already Remains under the sentence of his former guilt; yea, and subjects himself, by his refusal of the only remedy, to still greater and more aggravated condemnation and wo; because, notwithstanding the incontrovertible evidence given of Jesus's divine mission, and of his being the true Messiah, he hath not believed in the name, the glorious name of the only-begotten Son of God Though expressly revealed to him, that he might believe in him. “Though the name of a person be often put for the person himself, yet it may be further intimated here, in that expression, that the person spoken of is greatly magnificent; and therefore it is generally used to express either God the Father, or our Lord Jesus Christ.” Doddridge. And this is the condemnation The cause of it, the crime that fills up the measure of men's iniquities, and is the principal reason of their speedy and final ruin; that light is come into the world Divine and glorious light, the day-spring from on high, the light of the glorious gospel, through the incarnation of the Eternal Word, and the preaching of his forerunner preparing the way before him; and men loved darkness rather than light Ignorance of the divine truth rather than the knowledge of it, folly rather than wisdom, sin rather than righteousness; because their deeds were evil And they had not so much fear of God before their eyes, or so much concern for their own everlasting salvation, as to resolve on a thorough reformation of their conduct.