GOD SEEKS TO SAVE

John 3:17 (NIV) “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

In the movie RUSH HOUR (1998) with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, there is a funny scene when they first meet where Tucker is speaking to Chan on the tarmac just after Chan has debarked his plane from Hong Kong. At one point Tucker says in a slow, semi-staccato voice “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” not realizing that Chan speaks fluent English. It is one of many funny moments in what I consider to be a thoroughly enjoyable movie. This illustration begs the following question: How many times do we read verses of scripture not understanding what God is saying to us? It’s as if God Himself is saying those very same words Chris Tucker spoke to Jackie Chan, only God’s words have eternal implications.

Focus clearly on the words in John 3:17 which I have italicized. God loved us before we ever even knew Him. He sent Jesus into this world; Jesus willingly went, but God, as part of His salvation plan, sent Him.

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 world wide, God did not send His son to condemn the world; to pass judgment on it. God knew what man’s malady 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 goat or lamb’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 had and has condemned itself. It needs a remedy for it’s’ sickness. It needs a savior.

Christ is that savior … once for all for all time. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

WALK WITH THE KING TODAY AND BE A BLESSING!!