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Joh_3:36. All the more weighty in their results are faith in the Son and unbelief! Genuine prophetic conclusion to life or death.
ἔχειζ . αἰ .] “he has eternal life,” i.e. the Messianic ζωή , which, in its temporal development, is already a present possession of the believer; see on Joh_3:15-16. At the Second Advent it will be completed and glorified; and therefore the antithesis οὐκ ὄψεται ζωήν , referring to the future αἰών , is justified, because it presupposes the οὐκ ἔχει ζ .
ἀπειθῶν ] not: “he who does not believe on the Son” (Luther and the Fathers), but: “he who is disobedient to the Son;” yet, according to the context, so far as the Son requires faith. Comp. Act_14:2; Act_19:9; Rom_11:30; Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 17. Contrasted herewith is the ὑπακοὴ πίστεως , Rom_1:5.
ἡ ὀργή ] not punishment, but wrath, as the necessary emotion of holiness; see on Rom_1:18; Eph_2:3; Mat_3:7.
μένει ] because unreconciled, inasmuch as that which appropriates reconciliation, i.e. faith (Joh_3:16), is rejected; comp. Joh_9:41. This μένει (it is not termed ἔρχεται ) implies that the person who rejects faith is still in a moral condition which is subject to the divine wrath,—a state of subjection to wrath, which, instead of being removed by faith, abides upon him through his unbelief. The wrath, therefore, is not first awakened by the refusal to believe (Ritschl, de ira Dei, pp. 18, 19; Godet), but is already there, and through that refusal remains.[180] Whether or not this wrath rests upon the man from his birth (Augustine; Thomasius, Chr. Pers. u. Werk, I. p. 289), this text gives no information. See on Eph_2:3.
That the Baptist could already speak after this manner, is evident from chap. Joh_1:29.
ἐπʼ αὐτόν ] as in Joh_1:32-33.
[180] This is also against Hengstenberg. But certainly the μένει must, according to the context, be an eternal abiding, if the ὑπακοὴ πίστεως never occurs.