He whom God has sent [Jesus] speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

—John 3:34-36 (NRSV)

Here we have the reason why we call the Good News “good news.” Without Jesus we remain alienated from God and if we remain alienated from him we ultimately die. God knows this. Our sin is terribly grievous to him, but he created us to have a relationship with him rather than to destroy us and so he gave us himself in the person of Jesus to rectify our terrible plight. We do not earn this gift of life; it is God’s gracious gift to us. It is our by faith.

So how can John say in one clause that those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life but those who disobey Jesus will not? Is this not contradictory? Which is it? Faith or works? The answer, of course, is both because real faith always manifests itself in works. As we saw yesterday, we desire to do the things that we know please our beloved.