For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)

Why the promise of eternal life if all have it?

The insistence of a few who have held up placards at sporting and other events displaying this passage of scripture has contributed to it becoming the most well-known Bible verse in the Western world. They seem to have a knack for getting on camera and being broadcast far and wide.

That this tiny verse would become the center of a discussion about Universal Reconciliation is an interesting prospect and one that I am eager to delve into. But first, the question must be asked in a manner consistent with the original. The word “eternal” does not appear in this verse. More than that, nothing that would allude to timelessness in any fashion is mentioned. The word rendered “eternal” in this passage is the Greek aionian – an adjective form of aion, meaning age-lasting, age-during, or of an age. The promise is life in the age to come. Not everyone will enjoy that.

for God did so love the world, that His Son — the only begotten — He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life [in the age to come]. (John 3:16 Young’s Literal Translation)

The word “perish” is rendered so from the Greek, apollumi, meaning “to loose away” (Young), “not extinction, but ruin or loss, not of being, but of well-being” (W. E. Vine), “to put out of the way entirely, render useless, to be lost, put an end to, ruin.” (NAS Greek Lexicon).

The same word is rendered “lost” to describe the one sheep of the 99, the one coin in ten, and why Jesus came – to save that which is lost. Jesus also restrained the disciples when going out two-by-two, telling them not to go to anyone but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Whether rendered “perish”, “destroyed”, or “lost” this Greek word does not carry with it the same sense of finality that it does in English.

In the context of John 3:16, “perish” is what happens to a sinner cast into the lake of fire but, as Vine said, “not extinction, but ruin or loss, not of being, but of well-being”. It is a corrective measure taken to rid the sinner of his unbelief, cleanse him of sin, and reconcile him to God by the blood of the cross, the power of which goes beyond the grave, all the way to the end of the ages.

The promise of life in the age to come in John 3:16 is not the contrast between the forever perishing lost and the eternally saved, but the possibility of age-lasting life in leu of suffering in the lake of fire. So, not everyone has life during the age to come, as great multitudes will suffer the second death being cast into the lake of fire.