For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
All Commentaries on John 3:17 Go To John 3
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For God sent not, &c. He confirms and intensifies the assertion of the infinite love of God to men, as proved by Christ"s being crucified. For God might justly have sent His Son into the world to destroy it for its great wickedness. For this was what His justice demanded, but the infinite love of God overcame justice in that it bestowed the highest blessing upon the world, which deserved the utmost extremity of punishment, in giving it salvation through Him.
Observe: the expression judge the world, as it is in the Vulgate, means to condemn, and destroy it in hell. It is opposed to the word saved. Hence S. Augustine observes that this was the end of Christ"s Incarnation, that all men might be saved, and that He earnestly desired and willed this. Wherefore it is of themselves, through their own fault, and not Christ"s, that many of them will be damned.
He that believeth . . . is not judged, shall not be condemned, but saved. But he that believeth not is judged, i.e, is condemned already. For such an one manifestly condemns himself by his unbelief; for by it he cuts himself off from the very pathway and beginning of salvation, i.e, faith; because he hath not believed in the name, &c, Greek, ει̉ς όνομα, which means the same thing as believing on the Son of God Himself. For name is here put by metonymy for the thing named. "He shows," says S. Cyril, "how dreadful a crime unbelief Isaiah , because He is the Only Begotten Son of God. For by how much greater is the excellence of that which is despised, by so much will he who despises be liable to severer punishment. Especially, because such persons make God a liar, because they believe not the witness which God hath testified of His Son" ( 1 John 5:10).
