John 3:16-17. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Incontrovertible fact: God loves the world. He loved it from the beginning and desired all to follow Him. But all did not follow Him, and that too is incontrovertible. Does the blood of Jesus cover those who oppose Jesus until the day they die? This verse says no.

God gave His Son that believers will have everlasting life. Isn’t that what it says? Believers. The world was already condemned when Jesus entered it. The entire world! The world that God loved! John 3:18 makes it clear that those who did not/do not believe are condemned, and rightly so. No apologies.

Was this God’s ultimate desire for mankind? No, He loved mankind. So much so, that He called some to believe, and those who believe are saved.

Is your mind going back and forth here? Deal with it! That’s the tension of this subject. You don’t have to resolve the conflict! “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” Not me. But the mind of the Lord is on both sides of this delicate issue. Step back. Look at it all. Then lay down your weapons and join the church again. The whole church.

Moving on through John, the mystery increases. Look at this:

John 5:2-3, 5-6. “There is in Jerusalem…a pool… having five porches…In these lay a great multitude of sick people… A certain man was there… when Jesus saw him lying there… He said, ‘Do you want to be made well?’”

Think. Great multitude. One man chosen. Why? The man was surprised, and had little if any faith, except in the common story that one day an angel’s moving of the water might save him. Here is another of those “sovereign” cases we must deal with. And it happens to this day. One person healed, the other with so much faith, not healed. Why? Election? Confirmed in our next verse…

John 5:21. “As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, so the Son gives life to whom He will…”

And especially shouted out in the following passage:

John 6:37-45. “All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out… This is the will of the Father Who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day, and this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life….No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him… everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”

It’s hard to comment on a passage like that except to say “Amen.”

But lest we forget the tension, Jesus adds the other way of looking at things:

John 8:31. “IF you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”

There’s that “if” again. Not so intimidating when we read all the verses showing us security. But something that needs to be dealt with. Could it be that Jesus is saying that the proof of their discipleship — their calling, if you will — is the fact that they do indeed abide in His Word?

The seeming doubt displayed by the word “if” is countered in a large way by the “Shepherd” passage:

John 10:14-29. “I am the good shepherd, and I know My sheep…you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep… My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me… I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”

So, so, clear. So, so obvious. Once eternal life is given to a person, no one snatches that person away from it. Never.

Now look at this curious comment:

John 13:18. “… I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.”

Jesus is talking, is He not, about the eleven remaining disciples when He says, “I know whom I have chosen.” But did He not choose all twelve? That’s what John 6:70 says. So here we see two kinds of choosing, some to eternal life, some to eternal punishment. Surely the Father knew who Judas was and what he would do. But He moved His Son to choose Judas anyway. “Choosing” takes on new possibilities with this incident.

John 12:40. (quoting Isaiah). “[God] has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.”

John 15:6-14. IF anyone does not abide in Me, cast out as a branch. IF you abide… IF you keep my commandments… you are My friends IF you do whatever I command you…

Here we have the language of the book of Hebrews, and His own words in 8:31 above, words that seem to indicate the possibility of falling away. In our rush to one opinion, let us not bypass these sentiments. But in the light of the rock-solid security of the “Shepherd” passage and the words in chapter six, how can we reverse course here and say that Jesus has changed His mind, and things aren’t so secure after all? Why not rather suggest that His elect will abide in Him, His elect will keep His commandments? He Who begins the work in us by choosing and calling us, will be sure that we become obedient servants and friends.

After all,

John 15:16. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…

You see? The righteous, the called of God, will bear fruit, the sort that springs up to eternal life.

There is a serious reason why all this is true, if the seriousness of the Son is not enough. Behold the seriousness of the Father, as viewed in the “high-priestly” prayer of Jesus in John 17: