THE ESSENCE OF THE GOSPEL – Charles Spurgeon

The Essence of the Gospel

Introduction to the Text and Its Profound Meaning

“He who believes on Him is not condemned; but he who believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-Begotten Son of God.” John 3:18.

I may have preached from this text before; I may have done so several times. If I have not, I ought to have. It is the whole Bible in miniature. We may say of it: so many words, so many volumes, for every single syllable here is charged to the full with meaning. We may read it, and re-read it, and continue still to read it day and night, yet always find some fresh instruction in it. It is the essence of the Gospel. The Good News in brief.

When our Lord Jesus Christ shall come a second time, before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. That will not, however, be the first time in which the Presence of the Lord Jesus has acted as a separator; it is always so wherever He comes. Men are as one body in their fallen condition—all alike estranged from God until He appears. But His coming finds out the Chosen, and calls them apart. On the other hand, the unbelievers are discovered. Two camps are formed out of the once-mingled multitude. Each goes to its own, and between the two fellowships, there is a deep gulf which divides them as clearly as light is distinct from darkness, or death is divided from life.

Other distinctions sink into insignificance in the Presence of Jesus—riches or wealth, learning or ignorance, power or weakness, are matters of too small account to divide mankind in the Presence of the great Discerner of spirits. Only these two characters—Believers and unbelievers—stand out in clear relief. As it is in our text, so is it as a matter of fact in the entire universe. The only two really vital distinctions for time and for Eternity are just these: Believers and unbelievers, receivers of Christ and rejecters of Him.

Furthermore, as today the Presence of Christ divides the masses and gathers men into assorted companies, so also does that Presence ensure a present judgment. It is written that He shall say to them on His right hand, “Come, you blessed,” and to those on His left, “Depart, you cursed”; and even so at this moment, His Presence, with equal certainty, produces a judgment. For here in the text, we find Believers not condemned, or in other words, acquitted; and we find unbelievers condemned already. The “Come, you blessed,” is anticipated in the non-condemnation, and the “Depart, you cursed,” is as it were, already heard in the verdict, “Condemned already.”

I charge you, therefore, this morning, while the Word is preached in your hearing, to remember that a clear and all-important division will be worked while this sermon is being delivered. This day the Son of David holds His Throne, and in this house, He sits in judgment. In the preaching of the Gospel at this moment, His majestic Voice divides the sinners from the saints, and if sensitive to His Presence, we shall either tremble or rejoice! God grant that while this division shall go on, as it must go on, for He will be this day a savor of death unto death, or of life unto life to every one of our souls, we may all be found among Believers, and none of us shut out as condemned already by being unbelievers.

I. Considering Which of the Two Classes We Belong To

“He who believes on Him is not condemned.” Have we a share in that character? Let us see to it.

What is meant by believing on Him, or rather, in Him? The word “eis” is rather in Him than on Him. If I am not mistaken, the word “believes in Him” means a great deal more than most of us have seen in it. I think I see many shades of believing. There are some who believe concerning Christ; that is to say, they believe that He is the Messiah, and is the Savior of men. Many accept this for a Truth of God because their fathers did so, and it is to them a matter of unquestioned tradition! They are born in what is commonly thought to be a Christian country, and therefore have they taken up the Christian Faith, and theoretically and notionally, they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and the Redeemer of the world. They would not hesitate to stand up and say, “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was begotten of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was Crucified, dead, and buried,” and so on.

But remember, you may believe all that is orthodox concerning the Lord Jesus, and yet it will be no token that you are Justified in Him! No one may dare to say that a belief in the Athanasian Creed will ensure us of Salvation. If you reject His Deity, if you deny His Atonement, such errors will be conclusive evidence that you are not a believer in Him because you are not a believer of the Truth of God concerning Him; therefore, you must take your place among unbelievers, who are condemned already!

But on the other hand, if you hold the Scriptural Truth, and believe accurately concerning the Lord Jesus, yet if you go no further, your mere faith about Him, or concerning Him, will not bring you Salvation. To know Christ is of no avail unless it can be said, “Flesh and blood have not revealed this unto you.” It is a step further when we have come to believing Him. This is sometimes mentioned in Scripture—believing Him. “I know whom I have believed.” Believing concerning Him that He is God’s Christ, His Anointed, His Sent One, His Messiah, we therefore should as a matter of course accept whatever He says as being true; and if with our hearts we do this, I think we are Saved. But we may think we do this and notionally may give our assent to His teaching, and yet notwithstanding, we may not have attained unto His Salvation! We may still be condemned unbelievers, though we may think, and say, and profess that we believe Him.

Frequently in Scripture, there is another form of the believing which clusters about the Greek word, “epi,” believing upon Him. Our translators seem to have placed the word “on” here as though it were in our text, but it is hardly so in the Greek. There is a difference between believing on Him and believing in Him. To believe on Jesus is indeed a saving Faith, for He who believes on Him shall not be confounded. To believe on Him is, as it were, to lean upon Him, to receive Him as God has set Him forth, and in consequence, to make Him the foundation of our hope. Believing concerning Him, and believing Him, we then come to repose upon Him, and to make Him our confidence; we believe that He can save us, we trust in Him to save us, and this is the essence of Saving Faith—to believe upon the appointed Redeemer.

But in this particular case, our text speaks of believing in Him, and this is something more than believing upon Him. Every man who really believes upon Christ will before long come to believe in Him; but there is a growth—believing in Him is more than believing upon Him. How is that? If I thoroughly believe in a man, what is the result of it? Is he an advocate, and am I immersed in law? Then I trust my case to him—I leave the affair in his hands without fear, for I believe in my advocate. Very good! So far that may be believing upon him, but now he gives me directions and rules of action. If I believe in him I shall certainly follow those rules to the letter, being fully convinced that they will lead me to a right issue. I commit the matter practically as well as theoretically to the man whom I have chosen to represent me, and I do so cheerfully, for I believe in him.

II. The Condition of the Believer

Now this is the Man of whom the text says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned.” The question I put this morning to myself, and to you is: have we believed in Jesus? Do we really take Him to be our All in All; do we consent that He should guide and lead us till He brings us to Eternal Happiness?

The context of our text will help us to form a judgment as to whether we are indeed Believers in Jesus. Brothers and Sisters, have you realized, by a true exercise of Faith, what is meant by the 14th and 15th verses of the present Chapter? “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” As the serpent-bitten Israelite looked to the bronze serpent when it was uplifted, have you, in the same way, looked to Jesus and found healing through looking to Him? By this, you may judge yourselves! Have you been healed of the wounds of sin, and Quickened into a new and heavenly life? Have you in very deed made the crucified Savior your soul’s resting place?

In the verses which follow the text, you find such words as these, “He who does the truth comes to the light.” Do you, my Brothers and Sisters, as the result of having trusted in Christ come to the Light of God? Is it your desire to know God’s Truth, God’s Will, God’s Law, God’s Word? Are you seeking after the Light of God, and are you desirous that the works worked in you should be seen to be the fruit of God’s own Spirit? By this also, can you judge yourself? It is vain to say, “I trust in Christ,” if you have never looked to Him with that same childlike look with which the Israelite looked to the bronze serpent—and equally vain for you to profess to be a believer in Him, unless you desire the Light. You may still be in partial darkness, as doubtless you are, but are you seeking more Light, seeking God, seeking Truth, seeking right?

III. The Condition of the Unbeliever

Now, secondly, and for a very short time, let us consider the condition of the unbeliever. “He who believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed on the name of the Only-Begotten Son of God.” Observe the fact, itself, which is here stated: “He who believes not is condemned already.”

Let me enlarge upon this very solemn Truth of God. First, the unbeliever offers himself for Judgment. “He has not believed on the name”—what is the name? It is the Savior, Jesus. He who believes on Jesus, the Savior, confesses that he needs saving, and declines to stand on the footing of Law; but he who refuses the Savior does in effect say, “I do not require a Savior, I am willing to stand my trial by the Law.” I tell you, every soul that declines a Savior does in effect, ask to be judged by the Law. There stands the alternative—are you guilty—will you confess it? If so, accept the Savior! But if on the other hand, you say, “I will not accept the Savior,” in the bottom of your soul there lies the presumptuous conceit, “I can stand the Judgment; I do not need Pardon and Grace.” Then, Sir, if you ask for Judgment, you shall have it! And behold the result of it—God declares you to be condemned already; you have not believed; you have asked for judgment; you shall have it, but it is your ruin!

The unbeliever, himself, gives personal evidence to his own condemnation. Do you inquire how he does this? The text points us to his not believing. Is yonder person a condemned or not condemned man? Ask him what he thinks of Christ; if he replies honestly, he says, “I do not accept God’s Testimony about Jesus Christ; I do not receive Jesus as my Savior.” He claims that he does not need a Savior or else he does not feel that Jesus is the Savior he needs; he rejects the Testimony of God concerning Christ—is not that enough to condemn a man? If a man, in the very presence of the judge, committed theft or murder, he would condemn himself; but is it not a still higher offense than this, in the very Presence of God to do despite to His Son by practically declaring His work and blood to have been unnecessary?

What further witness do we need with regard to your enmity to God? He who will not believe in Christ would murder God if He could! His not believing in Christ is virtually to make God a liar! Still further, he who believes not in Christ gives evidence against himself, for he rejects “the name.” Observe the text, “He has not believed on the name.” As I had already hinted, that name is Jesus, the Savior. The man says, “I will not have the Savior.” Many of you have not said as much in words, but you practically say it, for you do not believe in the Savior. You remain at this moment Saviorless—out of Christ—without hope, without God’s Pardon, without God’s Mercy; and you have continued to do so under the preaching of the Gospel for many years. What more evidence do you need? If a man will reject God, even as a Savior, there must be dreadful venom in his heart against God!

Conclusion

If God appoints Christ to be King, and I reject Him, that rejection shows that I dislike God; but when He appoints Him to be a Savior, the errand being one entirely of Mercy and Goodness, if I reject Him I must in my soul have an amazing depth of enmity against God, and by this clear proof, I condemn myself! My Brothers and Sisters, if you look at the text again you will see that he who believes not, rejects a most exalted Person, for he has not believed on the name “of the Only-Begotten Son of God.” What a word is that, “On the Jesus, who is God’s Only-Begotten Son.” I wish I had language suitable for the utterance of a thought which presses down my very spirit, as it did last Sunday evening. That God should send a Savior, and for a Savior the Only-Begotten, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, without whom was not anything made that is made, and that He should come with Testimony of Love, the Love of God to sinners, and seal that testimony with His blood; and that men should refuse to believe in Him! It is the most monstrous iniquity that could be imagined! I cannot see that Satan himself, with all his blasphemy, has ever gone this length! He was never placed where he could reject, as a Savior, the Only-Begotten Son of God. When men rejected Moses, they perished without God’s Mercy, for he was sent of God; but when a man despises the Only-Begotten, in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily, we may well say—“Call no witnesses against the man; rake up none of the details of his past life, this is quite evidence enough.” If he has not believed on such a One as this, he is condemned already! There is no need of a trial; unbelief itself is the vilest of all treasons—out of his mouth the sinner is condemned! Do you not see, O Sinner, how the matter stands? The Infinite Lord of Mercy, that you might not perish, has devised a wondrous way of Salvation which has astonished cherubim and seraphim, and made Heaven ring with song, and this you utterly reject! The plan so stupendous in conception is briefly this—that the Creator should suffer that the created rebel might escape—that the Infinite should come into this world, and be put to shame that the guilty might be clear! And all you are asked to do, all that is demanded of you is that you submit to be saved by this plan—that you do but trust in the Jesus who is Divine, who is also Man—do but trust Him to save you! Will you not? Oh, will you not? Sirs, will you spurn Almighty Love? Can you turn away from boundless Mercy?

The Condemnation of Unbelief and the Power of Christ’s Mercy

Introduction

Then what shall I say of you, but just what the text says; you condemn yourselves, you are “condemned already”? You must be infinitely wicked! You must be enormously, monstrously, diabolically at enmity with God, or else surely a benefit so precious you would not slight! Surely a plan of God’s Mercy so adapted to your condition you could not have the impertinence to reject! “Condemned already because he has not believed on the name of the Only-Begotten Son of God”; solemn words! Hear them and tremble!

From the verses following the text, we gather that you unbelievers go on to give further evidence against yourselves, for every man who rejects Christ, the true Light, always goes on to reject other forms of the Light of God’s Word, God’s Spirit, and his conscience. He loves darkness rather than light, and comes not to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved. You quench the Spirit; I know you do, if you reject the Savior; you turn a deaf ear to your conscience; you do violence to your own judgment. The Truth of God you do not wish to learn. It is not possible that you can be a candid seeker after the Light of God if you refuse to receive Him who is Truth’s central Sun. Your further rejection of Light is confirmatory evidence that you are condemned already though your not believing is in itself, evidence enough.

The Seriousness of Condemnation

And now solemnly, and in the name of Him who lives, and was dead, and is alive forevermore, speaking for that Christ who though once He was slain, now sits at the right hand of God, I ask those who are under this second character to listen to these simple but weighty words of admonition. Consider, I pray you, O unbeliever, that the condemnation which is pronounced upon you already is no matter of form. Our judges sometimes read out sentences of death upon a certain order of criminals, and the sentence is recorded though it is never intended that the sentence shall be carried out; but from God’s bar there never proceeds a sentence that is meant needlessly to alarm; you are condemned already, and as surely as you live, and as surely as God lives, He will not let His Word remain a dead letter! That sentence shall be no idle threat! In your proper person, you shall be made to know what the Power of His Wrath is. “Who knows the Power of Your Anger?” asks the Psalmist. They only know it who feel it, and you will feel it before long, for the sentence will assuredly be fulfilled!

The Lord has Power at this or any moment to fulfill His sentence; what power have you to resist it? Who is there that can help you to withstand Him? You are utterly in His hands; you cannot escape from His prison; if you climbed up to Heaven He is there; if you dove to Hell He is there. The whole universe is but one great prison for an enemy of God; you cannot escape Him—neither can you resist Him. If your bones were granite, and your heart was steel, His fires would melt down your spirit! Against Him you can no more stand than the chaff against the fire, or the dust against the whirlwind. O that you would feel this, and desist from your insane rebellion!

The Wrath of God and the Inescapable Judgment

Remember, there is no Promise given to you that He will not execute the sentence of His Wrath this very day. You have no warrant either from His Word or from His angels to assure you that God has suspended the sentence even for the next hour! You are living by His Patience, spared by Divine Sovereignty. Some rave against Sovereignty, but in this case it is not Justice that spares you, it is the mere Will of God that for a while keeps you out of Hell. You tell me that nothing endangers your life at this moment—how do you know that? The arrows of death often fly imperceptibly; I have stood in congregations preaching on two occasions when the unseen darts of Death struck one of my hearers, so that one died on each occasion while listening to the Word of the Gospel. God needs no miracle to put His sentence into execution at this moment; He need not disturb the natural order of affairs for you to die instantly, and if He so Willed it, your soul’s destruction would without the slightest effort on His part, take place at this very moment, even where you are.

The Wrath of God is Active Now

Remember with deep concern that God is Angry with you right now! This statement is no invention of mine—it is written by the pen of Inspiration that, “God is Angry with the wicked every day; if he turns not, He will whet His sword; He has bent His bow, and made it ready.” God is more Angry with some of you than He is with some in Hell! Are you startled by the assertion? “It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for you.” The sins you have already committed are greater than those of Sodom and Gomorrah, and God’s Anger is in proportion to the guilt. An Angry God holds you over the gulf of Hell; Justice demands that you fall into it—and it is nothing but His Merciful Will that keeps you out of it! He has but to Will it, and you who are condemned already would be forever where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched, before next time the clock shall tick!

Up to this time, let me remind you, you have done nothing to appease the Divine Wrath; you have gone on sinning. Or if you tell me you have reformed, that you have thought of these things, that you have prayed—do you think that such things will remove the Divine Wrath? The Lord has told you that the only way of Salvation is to believe in Jesus, but you try to find another; do you think that such conduct will please Him, that such a procedure will make Him less Angry with you? You insult His Son when you suppose that you can save yourself by your tears and prayers—will this turn away the Lord’s Anger? When you imagine that your church attendance and chapel attendance will save you, you set a low estimate upon what Jesus did; you do despite to the Cross as long as you remain unbelievers. You say, “We are doing what we can.” You are doing nothing that can appease the Anger of God! You are rather, by these very actions of yours, which you think to be good, setting up in opposition to Him an Antichrist upon which He will look with abhorrence! He says He will save by Christ, and no way else; and so long as you seek another way, you, as it were, spit into the very face of the Only-Begotten by the insolence of your self-righteousness!

The Swelling Wrath of God

Meanwhile, let me remind you that God’s Wrath, though it comes not on you yet, is like a stream that is dammed up; every moment it gathers force—if it bursts not the dyke—yet every hour is swelling; each day and each moment of each day in which you remain an unbeliever, you are treasuring up His Wrath against the Day of Wrath when the measure of your iniquity is full! How earnestly would I persuade you to escape from condemnation! If you dream that to be condemned of God is a trifle, undeceive your souls, for those who have passed where the sentence is executed, could they come back to you, need not tell the tale of woe; the very sight of them would convince you that to be lost is an awful thing!

On their heads must fall the Wrath of God, who, by softening down the punishment, become the means of hardening sinners in their sins. It is not within the power of thought to conceive what God’s Wrath is; no language, even though it should make both ears tingle, can ever fully express it. I am not one of those who would so delude your poor souls, O unbelievers, as to make you think it a light thing to fall into the hands of the living God! O turn, turn, turn! Why will you die? Why will you reject Him whom you have such reasons to receive? Concerning whom His very Person is the best argument for Love?

The Call to Immediate Faith

The Christ of God must be worthy of our hearts’ affections—His very errand on earth as it seems to me, would if we were not mad, ensure our confidence, for He came to SAVE, to PARDON, to pass by the sin of the past! Oh, why do you stand out against Him, and in this way pull down upon your heads the Wrath of an Angry God? Let me point out to you the way to escape. The only way of escape for any man or woman here is to believe in Jesus Christ. “I am praying about it,” says one. My text says nothing of the sort. “I will think of it.” Think of it? You will think yourself into Hell before long! Immediate Faith is what I, as God’s Ambassador, demand of you in the name of the Christ of God—immediate, instantaneous Faith in Jesus! Behold the emblem of the Gospel minister and of his message! Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness upon the great central standard in the very midst of the camp where men were dying all around him; they are bitten with the serpent, and what has Moses to declare to them as a remedy? He bids them look and live! Some of them will think of it; some of them will consider it; others of them will pray about it; but he has no commission to console any of these—his one command is an immediate look—he has no Promise to those who will not look! Even thus is Jesus lifted up among you! There is life in a look, life now, life at this moment!

I cannot guarantee you that the serpent’s bite shall not be your eternal ruin if you linger for a single hour; the Prophet’s one word is, “Look now.” Today, God in Mercy sends to everyone in this house this message—“The times of your ignorance God winked at,” but now commands all men everywhere to repent; He sends His Gospel message, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” That message I cannot be certain will ever come to you again. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of Salvation.” Every moment you do not believe, you are sinning against God by that unbelief; I cannot, therefore, tolerate that you should wait one more moment! Jesus is God! He became Man! He died! He lives and bids you trust Him—promising that you shall live. Trust Him now! He is worthy of your confidence! Sin not against Him; sin not against your own souls by rejecting Him! Remember what it was which Moses lifted up—it was a serpent—the image of that same serpent which bit them! Were they healed by looking to that which poisoned them? Assuredly they were! What is that which has poisoned you, Sinner? It is the curse of sin! What is that which I hold up today in the Gospel? It is Christ made a curse for us! He takes upon Himself our sin! Though in Him was no sin, yet He was made sin for us—and if you trust Him to be the sin-offering for you, to suffer for you, to bleed for you, and so trust in Him as to take Him from now on as your standard, resolving to follow the uplifted Crucified One throughout life, even until He brings you to God Himself in Heaven, you are NOT condemned!

Conclusion: The Consequences of Unbelief

But if Jesus is lifted up, and you refuse to believe, on your heads is your guilt, I say, with trembling solemnity, on your own heads is your guilt! Those words of mine, O unbelievers, will be swift witnesses against you at the Last Great Day; as truly as ever Christ came to Jerusalem, so truly does He come to you this morning, in the preaching of the Word. I am a poor feeble man, but I speak to you as best I can. Nevertheless, if you refuse my word it is not me you reject; that were nothing; you reject the Gospel which I preach to you! In the name of Him who made Heaven and Earth, who made you, and holds you in life, against whom you have sinned, these terms of Mercy are presented to you—will you have them? This Grace is brought home to you, and I am bid to press it upon you, even as the Word says, to “compel them to come in.” If you reject the Only-Begotten Son of God, there must still abide against you this solemn sentence, “He who believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed.”

Did I hear you say, “I hope I shall believe”? Sir, I have nothing to do with that, and I have no hope for you! “I hope I shall repent one day.” I despair of you while you talk so! It is TODAY that God separates this congregation into the two parts, the Believer and the unbeliever. Today He blesses the Believer, and testifies that he is not condemned! Today He curses the unbeliever, and tells him he is condemned already! My business is not with tomorrows, nor can I promise that the white flag of Mercy will be hung out tomorrow. Today the Cross is the banner of Grace; look to it and live! It is the ladder which reaches to Heaven! The Crucified Savior is the Gate of Salvation! O that you would receive Him! May God grant you will, and He shall be glorified by you in this life, and in the world to come! God bless you. Amen.

Portion of Scripture Read Before Sermon—John 3
Charles Spurgeon