Simeon:

THE END FOR WHICH GOD SENT HIS SON.

John iii. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

AN expectation generally prevailed among the Jews that their Messiah would interpose on behalf of their nation alone, and bring all other kingdoms into subjection to them. Our Lord took frequent occasions to rectify this mistake, and to show, that he was to be the Savior, not of one people? only, but of the whole world. In this discourse with Nicodemus, he introduces this important subject in such a way as to inform his mind, without shocking his prejudices. Having explained to him the nature and necessity of regeneration, and shown him, by reference to a well known type, the way of salvation, he declares, that the whole world, Gentiles as well as Jews, were to participate the benefits of his coming; and that God, in sending him into the world, had as much respect to the welfare of the benighted heathens as of his chosen and peculiar people. To elucidate the words before us, we shall show,

I. That, supposing God to send his Son into the world, it was far more probable that he should send him to condemn the world than to save it–

That God should ever send his Son into the world at all is such a mystery as must for ever fill the whole universe with amazement. But supposing him to make known his determination to do so, the probability certainly was that it should be for our destruction rather than our salvation–

1. Consider what was the state of the world at the time he did send his Son–

[Had he seen the greater part of mankind lamenting their fall, wishing earnestly that some way could be devised for their recovery, and struggling, but with unsuccessful efforts, to get free from sin, we might have supposed that God would exercise mercy towards us, and open a way for our restoration through the sacrifice of his Son. But when the whole mass of mankind were up in arms against him, when not one of the whole human race (except a few whose hearts he himself had touched) desired reconciliation with him; yea, when all were utterly averse from it, and desired nothing so much as to live in sin with impunity, and wished for no better heaven than the unrestrained indulgence of their lusts; for what end could God send his Son, but to execute upon them the vengeance they deserved?]

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Clifford:

8. I John 2:2, unlike John 3:16, contains an explicit reference to the atonement: ‘And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.’ Owen insists that the verse is not a statement about general redemption, but about the provision of grace for believers throughout the world. In short, holos kosmos is no more than the ekklesia katholike: the church universal, or the elect of God everywhere.¹⁰⁴ Owen carefully observes that the Apostle is seeking to ‘give consolation’ to believers by linking Christ’s death with his present intercession for them (v. I ).¹⁰⁵ But in calling believers ‘all nations’, he effectively particularizes a general expression to suit his theological purposes. That said, he has the partial support of Calvin, who maintains that ‘John’s purpose was only to make the blessing’ of Christ’s propitiation ‘common to the whole church.’¹⁰⁶ However, since Calvin was opposing the idea of an absolute universalism, even embracing the possible salvation of Satan himself, he needlessly went beyond his usual solution. In fact, he admits the truth of the sufficiency-efficiency distinction, while denying that it fits the passage. But Calvin’s view of a universal satisfaction, as well as a twofold intercession, distances him from Owen’s basic approach to J John 2:2.

Alan C. Clifford, Atonement and Justification (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 154-155. [Some reformatting; footnote values and content original; and underlining mine.]

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¹⁰⁴DD 336.

¹⁰⁵Ibid. 332 ff.

¹⁰⁶Comm. I John 2:2.

Simeon:

CHRIST THE LAMB OF GOD.

John i. 29. Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.

IN the general estimation of the world, they are reputed great who bear sway over their fellow-creatures, and are surrounded with pomp and splendor. But, with God, men are accounted great according as they possess a knowledge of his ways, and advance the ends of his government. Hence we are told by our Lord himself that John the Baptist, a plain rustic man, clothed with coarse raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle, and subsisting on the spontaneous produce of the wilderness, was the greatest of all men that had ever been born. And what was it that so exalted him, not only above all the monarchs of the mightiest empires, but above Abraham, or Moses, or David, or any other of the prophets? It was this:

they had seen Christ only at a distance, and spoken of him only in dark prophecies; but he beheld him personally; and, having discovered him by an infallible sign from heaven, pointed him out to others as that very Lamb of God, who should take away the sin of the world. Through the goodness of God, we may be as much exalted above him, as he was above others, if we behold Jesus in the character which is here assigned him; because the completion of his sacrificial work, together with the more perfect revelation of it, which we have in the New Testament, enables us to enter far more deeply into the mystery of redemption, and more fully to comply with the ends and designs of God in it.¹ To forward therefore your truest advancement, we shall,

I. Illustrate the character of our Lord as it is here described–

[Under the law there were lambs offered every morning and evening in sacrifice to God; and it is to these, and not to the Paschal Lamb, that St. John refers. They were to be of the first year, and without blemish:² and by the continual offering up of them God was pacified, as it were, so that his wrath did not break forth to destroy his people on account of their daily transgressions. Such a lamb was Christ: he was the Lamb, whom all the others typified. He was truly without spot or blemish;³ and was offered on the altar of his cross, not merely for the good, but in the stead, of sinners.⁴ He was really a propitiatory sacrifice, inasmuch as he bore in his own body the curse due to sin,⁵ and expiated all its guilt. As there was no variation of the daily sacrifices, but only a repetition of the same, so his one offering of himself is the sole cause of our acceptance with God: nor need that to be repeated, because the virtue of it extends from the beginning to the end of time;”he is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”⁶ Nor is it the sin of one nation only that he takes away, but the sin of the whole world.⁷ He was eminently the Lamb of God, having been chosen to that office by God, and being accepted by him on our behalf in the discharge of it: He was “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.”⁸]

II. Call more particularly your attention to him–

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Hooper:

This scripture not only teaches us the knowledge of salvation, but also comforts us against all the assaults, subtleties, and crafts of the devil–that God would of his inestimable love rather suffer his only Son to die for the world, than all the world should perish. Remaining always, as he was, very God immortal, he received the thing he was not, the mortal nature and true flesh of man, in which he died, as Peter saith, I Pet. iv. Irenaeus hath these godly words: “Christ was crucified and died, the Word submitting to be crucified and die.” The divine nature of Christ was not rent, or torn, or killed, but it obeyed the will of the Father. It gave place unto the displeasure and wrath of God, that the body of Christ might die. Being always equal with his Father, he could, if he had executed his divine power, have delivered his body from the tyranny of the Jews.

These words of Irenaeus wonderfully declare unto us what Christ is, and agree with Paul, (Phil, ii.) “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant.” Seeing he was sent into the world to suffer this most cruel death and passion, he would do nothing that should be contrary to his vocation, but, with patience praying for his enemies, submitted himself unto the ignominy and contempt of the cross; suffering pains innumerable, without grudge or murmur against the holy will of his Father: his Godhead hiding itself, until the third day, when it restored the soul again unto the body, and caused it to rise with great triumph and glory, (Rom. i. Mat. xxviii. John xx. Luke xxiv. Mark xvi.) repeating the doctrine, which before his death he preached unto the world, that he was both king and lord, high bishop and priest, both of heaven and of earth. “All power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth: go, therefore, teach all nations” (Matt, xxviii.).

John Hooper, “A Declaration of Christ and his Office,” in Writings of Dr. John Hooper (London: The Religious Tract Society, [1800s]), 19. [Some spelling modernized and underlining mine.]