God Doesn't Condemn Us

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

                                                         John 3:17 

          Pretty much everyone is familiar with John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But let’s look at the following verse and focus clearly on the words in John 3:17. God loved us before we ever even knew Him. He sent Jesus into this world as part of His salvation plan, as the required payment for our sins.

1 John 4:10 (NIV) “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

          In spite of all the judgment passed down by the organized church worldwide, God did not send His son to pass judgment on it. God knew what man’s problem was. He knew his soul’s condition. He knew what was necessary to correct the situation that existed and still exists to this very day. Based on the payment system He Himself set up to pay for ones’ sins (for a sin must be atoned for), blood had to be shed to cover the sin made. The NT difference is that Christ’s blood did what no animal’s blood could ever do; it obliterated or erased a sin rather than covering it up, which is all the OT sacrificial system did for an individual. And the wiping clean, as it were, was done once for all time. He came to SAVE the world, not CONDEMN it. By its’ own actions, the world has condemned itself. It needs a remedy for its sickness. It needs a Savior. Christ is that savior, the One and only … once for all for all time.

Atone defined: To make amends; to reconcile. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.)