In the previous section, Christ taught Nicodemus that the cause of our spiritual regeneration is the coming down and the lifting up of the Son of Man, and as we go down with Him in the waters of baptism, He lifts us up to eternal life, which is the fruit of His Incarnation and Redemption. In this section, Christ demonstrates the magnificence of this fruit from the greatness of God’s love for man.

First of all, we should note that the cause of all our good is God, Who is goodness itself. Every good that we possess, including our very existence, is attributable to Him. His will is the cause of all things. To will something good to a person is to love him. By willing our good, God loves us. By willing His creatures to exist, God loves all that He has made: “thou lovest all things that exist, and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made, for thou wouldst not have made anything if thou hadst hated it” (Wis 11:24). God is the cause of grace, which is for us a great good. He came to man when man needed Him most, for Adam and his children throughout the generations had stumbled into sin. By coming down to us in the Incarnation and by lifting us up through our Redemption, He demonstrated His great love for us in our darkest hour, as He said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jer 31:3). Because of His great love for us, He lifts us up by grace and leads us to glory, which is our greatest good and our final end.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his [Only Begotten] Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). God’s love for us is the greatest love for four reasons. First, because of the person who loves. Since the lover is God, Who is infinite, His love for us is immeasurable. Therefore, the Evangelist said, “For God so loved.” That is, His love for us is so very great. “Yea, He loved his people; all those consecrated to him were in his hand” (Dt 33:3). Second, God’s love for us is the greatest love because of the condition of the person loved. God did not love us only when we were good and healthy, but He loved us when we had fallen and were living in sin. This demonstrates His extraordinary love for us, as St. Paul said to the Romans, “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Thus, the Evangelist added that God loved “the world,” that is, the whole world, the just together with and the unjust, the saint and the sinner. Third, God’s love for us is the greatest love because of the greatness of His gifts, for love is expressed in a gift, and a lover proves His love by giving his beloved a gift. The magnitude of his love is revealed in the value of the gift. What could be more precious to a father than his only son? To show the measure of God’s love for us, the Evangelist said that the Father gave us “his Only Begotten Son.” From this act of immeasurable generosity, we can conclude with St. Paul: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Rom 8:32) He said, “Only Begotten” (unigenitum) for three reasons. First, to distinguish Christ, Who is God’s only natural son, from us, who are His adopted sons and daughters through grace. While Christ is consubstantial with the Father, we are not. When the Psalmist said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you” (Ps 82:6), he was referring to God’s adopted children, not to His Only Begotten Son. We become “gods” in the sense that God adopted us and called us to union with Him, as a father welcomes his adopted children into his home. Second, to say that Christ is the Only Begotten Son refutes Arius’ assertion that Christ was a creature, for no creature has the capacity to receive the totality of God’s infinite love. Third, Christ is called the Only Begotten Son in order to show that God’s love is not divided among many natural sons, for “the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing” (Jn 5:20). Since the Son has the Father’s undivided love, and since the Father’s love for the Son is without measure, we can appreciate how great a gift we have received when the Father gave us His beloved Son. Fourth, God’s love for us is the greatest love because of the greatness of the fruit, which for us is eternal life. Christ obtained this great fruit for us when He willingly suffered and died on the cross. As Christ was lifted up on the cross, we are lifted up by Him, and not only lifted out of sin, but raised to eternal life in union with the Blessed Trinity. The ultimate reason why the Father sent His Son was so that “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Three things are mentioned in this phrase. First, “whoever believes in him” implies that, while grace is offered to all, each person must accept it in order to be saved. God does not restore a creature to life against his will. Second, concerning “should not perish.” Our final end is eternal life; our proper and natural end is eternal life. But as long as we voluntarily remain in sin, we keep turning away from that end. When one dies in the state of sin, in the state of turning away from his proper end, then he is said to perish, for “the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps 1:6). Once he has perished, he cannot be restored; but, while he is still living, there is hope that he will accept the grace of salvation which Christ offers to him. Third, the phrase, “but have eternal life,” demonstrates the immensity of God’s love for us, for by giving us eternal life, He gives us Himself. To enjoy eternal life is to enjoy God, Who is our final end. To give oneself and to offer oneself is a sign of fervent love. St. Paul explained: “God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-6).

When God gave us His Son, did He intend His Son to die on the cross? The Father gave His Son the will to suffer and die, and He gave this to His Son in two ways. First, concerning Christ’s divine nature, the Son willed from all eternity to assume flesh and to die for us. He had this will from the Father, for they have the same divine will. This is because everything the Son has, He received from the Father, Who is His principle, His origin (STh I, 33, 1). Second, concerning Christ’s human nature, God infused into the human soul of Christ the will to suffer and die for our salvation. Though God predestined from all eternity that our salvation should be achieved through Christ, the consummation of this plan depended upon Christ’s conforming His human will to the divine will (STh III, 24, 4). This He did freely, of His own accord.

“For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). This excludes any suggestion that Christ became man for the purpose of judging the world. For since Isaiah prophesied, “The Lord has taken his place to contend, he stands to judge his people” (Is 3:13), some might think that the purpose of the Incarnation was not to give man eternal life, but to condemn him in the flesh. But, the Incarnate Word of God explicitly said, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47). Now is not the day of judgment, but “now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). Our salvation consists in attaining God, entering into union with Him, for “God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation” (Ps 62:1). Though His first coming was to bring salvation, His second coming will be to render judgment. St. John Chrysostom said that in His first coming He came, not to judge, but to forgive, but in His second coming, He will come, not to forgive, but to judge. Mindful of this, we should, therefore, not presume upon God’s mercy, which was characteristic of His first coming, but should keep ourselves pure, for His justice will be the distinctive feature of His second coming. Of the day of judgment, the Lord said, “At the set time which I appoint I will judge with equity” (Ps 75:2).

When our Lord said, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47), He seems to have contradicted what He said in Jn 9:39: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” But there is no contradiction, for He was speaking of two different kinds of judgment: judgment of distinction and judgment of condemnation. Christ’s first coming was for a judgment of distinction, for after He revealed the New Law, men could be easily distinguished according to their deeds: some live by the light of grace, while others languish in the darkness of sin. Christ’s second coming will be for a judgment of condemnation, whereby the just will be rewarded and the sinners punished.

That Christ’s first coming was not a judgment of condemnation was proved by the Evangelist through a process of elimination, first by revealing the destiny of believers, and then by discussing the fate of unbelievers.

Concerning the destiny of believers, St. John said, “He who believes in him is not condemned” (Jn 3:18a). Whoever believes in the Son of God is not judged with a judgment of condemnation, but with a judgment of distinction, for he wins the approval of the Lord. It is this sort of judgment that St. Paul spoke of in 1 Cor 4:4: “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.” Christ Himself declared, “[Amen, amen], I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (Jn 5:24).

Origen, who looked forward to a universal restoration of all things (apokatastasis), thought that no believer, no matter how great his sin, will be eternally damned. Even Satan, he thought, will be saved. Origen and others who subscribed to this error imagined that each believer will be given some sort of temporal punishment for his sins, but will be saved on account of his faith, which, they said, is the foundation of one’s salvation. They based this assumption on their peculiar interpretation of St. Paul’s statements, “For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11), and “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved” (1 Cor 3:15). But their interpretation must be wrong, for elsewhere St. Paul clearly warned his spiritual children to avoid all sorts of evil deeds: “the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21). It is clear that the foundation of salvation is not a faith devoid of charity, which is unformed faith, but a faith informed by charity, which is a faith that gives rise to good works. Those who sin undermine the foundation of their faith, and those who sin mortally remove the foundation completely.

He said, “He who believes in him,” not “He who believes him,” for we can believe a thing to be true without loving it. But to believe in a person implies that we tend toward that person in love, for love is an inclination toward a good (STh I-II, 26, 1), and good is both the end and the cause of love (STh I-II, 27, 2). Love seeks either to possess what is loved or to do good to the beloved (STh I-II, 28, 1). Whoever believes in God, loves Him, and whoever loves Him desires to be with Him. He that desires to be with God does not sin mortally, for he knows that mortal sin deprives him of union with God. St. John Chrysostom said that those who sin willfully are not true believers, that is, although they may believe truths about God, they do not believe in God. “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds” (Ti 1:16). Whether they do evil deeds or fail to do good works, it is the same, for St. James clearly stated, “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (Jas 2:17).

Concerning the fate of unbelievers, St. John said, “He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the [Only Begotten] Son of God” (Jn 3:18b). We can interpret this in three ways. First, according to St. Augustine, God does not need to pass judgment on the unbeliever, because, in His foreknowledge, God already knows that the unbeliever would voluntarily remain in sin, thereby meriting condemnation. God knows all our deeds, for “no secret is hidden from you” (Ez 28:3). God knows the mind and heart, for as a shepherd knows his sheep, “The Lord knows those who are his” (2 Tm 2:19). Second, according to St. John Chrysostom, a man condemns himself by the very fact that he refuses to follow the light and chooses instead to live in the darkness of sin. Third, again with Chrysostom we can say that one who does not believe is already condemned, inasmuch as he clearly manifests the reason for his condemnation. He is like the convicted murderer awaiting execution of his sentence. It is said of the man on death row that he is “as good as dead.” Those who have some merit will be subjected to a trial to determine their guilt, as is the case when an accused man is tried in a court of law. But there is no need for a trial in the case of those who clearly renounce the faith, for their manifest unbelief makes their condemnation apparent. “The way of the wicked will perish” (Ps 1:6), for the wicked have no possible defense to justify their egregious actions.

To be judged is to be condemned, and to be condemned is to be permanently excluded from the kingdom of God. There is only one way that leads to salvation, and that Way is Jesus Christ. That is why, in order to obtain our final end, in order to obtain true happiness, we must believe “in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God,” for “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The prayer, “Save me, O God, by thy name” (Ps 54:1), is fulfilled in Christ.

Here He is called Son of God, and not Son of Man, in order to indicate that the power by which He brings us to eternal life is not in Christ as man, but in Christ as God. The power is not in His human nature, but in His divine nature, for the power to create life and to restore a dead creature to life belongs, not to man, but to God. Thus, St. John said of the Word of God, “In him was life” (Jn 1:4), and of the Son of God, “This is the true God and eternal life” (1 Jn 5:20).

Next, the Evangelist explains why the condemnation of the unbeliever is evident from their actions. First he gives a sign, an example of their behavior (v. 19), and then shows how this sign proves the point (v. 20). Here is the sign: “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (Jn 3:19). This verse says three things about the judgment of unbelievers. First, Christ, Who is the light, came into the world in order to lift us out of the darkness of ignorance and sin. He claimed to be the light that we needed to guide us to life: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). Zechariah, the father of St. John the Baptist, said of the day upon which the Word of God became man: “the day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk 1:78-29). Christ had to bring His light to us, since we could not go to heaven to receive it. Heaven is naturally inaccessible to man, for the Lord “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see” (1 Tm 6:16). Second, despite the fact that Christ came to enlighten us, some men preferred to remain in ignorance and ignored the truth that Christ taught. They apparently “loved darkness rather than light.” It was these kind of men that Job had in mind when he said, “There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths” (Jb 24:13). Isaiah’s chastisement was directed toward their kind: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Is 5:20). Third, the cause of their perversity is simple: “their deeds were evil.” They did not conform to the light, to the truth that Christ spoke, but preferred the cover of darkness, that they might freely pursue evil, unimpeded by the light and by those who walk in the light. Job mentioned three sins that typify those who rebel against the light: murder, adultery, and theft. “The murderer rises in the dark, that he may kill the poor and needy; and in the night he is as a thief. The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he disguises his face. In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.” (Jb 24:14-16). The unbeliever deliberately withdraws himself from the light of Christ, because the light, the truth, is uncomfortable for him to face. St. Paul used the images of light and darkness to encourage the Romans to turn away from sin: “the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day” (Rom 13:12-13).

Not all unbelievers have given themselves over to doing evil deeds, for many pagans have lived righteously. We can explain their actions in two ways. First, St. John Chrysostom noted that it is one thing to act according to virtue and another thing to act according to a natural disposition. For example, one man may live chastely on account of personal virtue, whereas another man may live chastely only because he is not beleaguered by concupiscence. The difference between the two is this: the virtuous man remains chaste, despite annoying inclinations to the contrary, whereas the other man is ruled entirely by his sensual appetite, much like a brute animal which reacts to stimuli and blindly follows its sensual appetite. St. Thomas pointed out (STh III, 15, 2) that the fomes peccati (tinder of sin), which is the inclination to satisfy the sensual appetite, operates entirely outside the sphere of reason. The law of fomes is quite natural in brute animals, but in man, it ought to be controlled by reason. The more reason a person has, the less fomes he should have. The unbeliever whose actions are ruled by his appetites does not effectively utilize his rational faculties, that is, his intellect and will. He acts in a less than human manner. He acts as an animal, but not as a rational animal. Second, another reason why an unbeliever might do good deeds is because he is acting, not out of virtue, but out of vainglory. For example, such a person performs a good act in order to impress others, to elevate his own prestige, or to gain some temporal advantage. He differs from the virtuous man in this: the unbeliever does not do all things well; he does good deeds only when it is to his advantage. His good works are good indeed in the eyes of others, but his self-serving motivation reveals him to be disingenuous at heart. He may believe Christ, that is, he may believe that the truths Christ taught are beneficial to us in many ways, but he does not believe in Christ.

Next, the Evangelist shows how this sign, the fact that the unbeliever loves the darkness, is sufficient evidence for his condemnation. “For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (Jn 3:20). He said, “does evil,” rather than “did evil,” because those who repent come into the light and are no longer in the darkness of sin and error, whereas those who persist in evil are unrepentant unto their end. Repentance is a sign of sorrow for sin. The unrepentant man shuns the light, not because the light reveals the truth, but because it unmasks his sins. He may still desire to know the truth of things, but he does not want others to know the truth of his sinfulness. So, he avoids any wise man who can see through him: “A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise” (Prv 15:12). Those who love the darkness of sin find the wise man and the upright man repugnant: “They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth” (Am 5:10).

Now that St. John has showed us how the unbeliever merits condemnation, he contrasts the unbeliever with the man who loves the truth. “But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God” (Jn 3:21). While the evildoer hates the light and shuns the light, the believer approaches the light. The unbeliever hides from the light because the light exposes his evil deeds, whereas the believer is not afraid to let his deeds be made known. It is not enough just to seek the truth, for truth is found, not only in thoughts and in words, but in deeds as well. The true believer thinks holy thoughts and speaks the truth in praise of God. But perhaps the most apparent sign that he is a true believer is that he performs good works in Christ’s name.

When is it permissible to allow one’s deeds to be made known? It appears that it is not always appropriate, for Christ scolded the Pharisees for their ostentatious show of piety. It is vainglory for a man to want others to see his good works in order that they might praise him. This was the Pharisees’ sin. But it is permissible, and even beneficial, to reveal one’s good works in three ways. First, it is lawful for a person to want God to see his good works, as Job said, “my witness is in heaven” (Jb 16:20). The Apostle explains the reason for this: “For it is not the man who commends himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends” (2 Cor 10:18). Second, it is lawful for a person to want his own conscience to become aware of his good deeds, so that he might give glory to God on account of the good he has done: “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world, and still more toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God” (2 Cor 1:12). A clean conscience mirrors God’s purity and excellence. Third, it is even lawful to allow others to see one’s good works, provided this is done for the sake of God’s glory, so that others, upon seeing that a man does good works in God’s name, may have cause to give God praise, as Christ said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt 5:16). Such a person makes it clear to others that his good deeds are done in accord with God’s commandments. He credits the beginning of his good works to the grace of God which inclined him to do good. The prophet Isaiah said to the Lord, “thou hast wrought for us all our works” (Is 26:12). Whatever good we do, whether it is by good works, or by repentance, or by the avoidance of sin, it is fundamentally attributable to God, Who is the source of good and truth. It is fitting that the good which God began in us, should return to Him in abundance through our good deeds, for His honor and glory.