3:35
“The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands.” John’s gospel places a great emphasis on the fact that the Father loves the Son. The key thing here is the relationship between the Father and the Son. The doctrine of the trinity is crucial to a right understanding of God. There are many reasons for this, but one of the key ones is that of love. Under a unitarian view of God one has to ask “where does love come from?”. Indeed some people think that God created man because He wanted someone to love or was lonely. Such views are seriously misguided. Love has always existed within the Godhead. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are completely united, they are one (another theme of John’s gospel), but they are also distinct. So relationship between them has always existed.
The fact that the Father loves the Son and that He has placed everything in His hands is based on their relationship. Likewise, we need to understand that God’s actions towards us are based upon His relationship with us. We so easily lose sight of this. The “name it and claim it” type teachings completely miss this point, some forms of prosperity teaching miss it, for they are legalistic. When we go through tough times we so easily forget that we are in a relationship with God. And the key to getting through is knowing the full extend and depth of God’s love for us.
3:36
This verse contains a promise and a warning. If we believe in the Son we have eternal life. Note that it does not say “will have” but already has eternal life. Eternal life is not just something that happens to us when we die, it begins the moment we start to know Jesus.
Conversely the one who rejects Jesus will not see life. This verse is the only occurrence of the word wrath in John’s gospel (though he does make up for it in Revelation!). Note that it says God’s wrath remains on him. We are by nature of objects of wrath (Eph 2:3). Our sin means that we deserve wrath.
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