the word _so_, which is not preserved in the English version. The wonder of the Gospel is not that God loved the world, but that he loved it with such a love, a love which only the sacrifice of an only begotten Son can interpret. 17 For God[98] sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. [98] Luke 9:56. =17. Not ... to condemn the world.= The Jews believed (see _Lightfoot_) that the Messiah would save Israel and judge the Gentile nations. It was a Rabbinical interpretation of Isaiah 21:12, “The morning cometh and also the night.” “It will be the morning to Israel (when the Messiah shall come), but night to the (Gentile) nations of the world.” This error Christ refutes, in this his first private preaching of the Gospel, as subsequently in his first public preaching (Luke 4:25-27); he declares that he brings salvation to the whole world. Alford notices the peculiar construction of the close of the verse, not, That he might save the world, but, That the world through him might be saved. “The free will of the world is by this strikingly set forth in connection with verses 19, 20. Not that the Lord is not the Saviour of the world, but that the peculiar cast of this passage requires the other side of the truth to be brought out.” 18 He[99] that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [99] ch. 6:40, 47.