Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
That whosoever - This shows the fulness and freeness of the gospel. All may come and be saved.
d Believeth in him - Whosoever puts confidence in him as able and willing to save. All who feel that they are sinners, that they have no righteousness of their own, and are willing to look to him as their only Saviour.
Should not perish - They are in danger, by nature, of perishing - that is, of sinking down to the pains of hell; of being "punished with everlasting destruction" from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, II Thessalonians 1:9. All who believe on Jesus shall be saved from this condemnation and be raised up to eternal life. And from this we learn:
1.That there is salvation in no other.
2.That salvation is here full and free for all who will come.
3.That it is easy. What was more easy for a poor, wounded, dying Israelite, bitten by a poisonous serpent, than to look up to a brass serpent? So with the poor, lost, dying sinner. And what more foolish than for such a wounded, dying man to refuse to look on a remedy so easy and effectual? So nothing is more foolish man for a lost and dying sinner to "refuse" to look on God' s only Son, exalted on a cross to die for the sins of men, and able to save to the uttermost "all" who come to God by him.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing John 3:15:
Numbers 21:8
John 10:28
Romans 2:12
Romans 14:15
Jude 1:11
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