One of the most poignant and beautiful sentences in God’s
classic statement concerning His gift of salvation is; “For God did not send
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved.” (John 3:17 NKJV)
Christ goes on to explain in the next four verses exactly
what causes condemnation. The word
“condemn” is not an accusation or an insult, but a judicial term. The Greek word is krino, which means to properly and lawfully adjudicate the sentence
of a guilty person. Jesus Christ is
declaring that He did not come for that purpose. All followers of Jesus Christ should
understand this truth and order their attitudes toward sinners accordingly.
The reader might be wondering, “Then who is it that condemns
me?” First, one has to understand that
there is no condemnation without a conviction.
An individual goes from innocent to guilty when the verdict by a judge
or jury is announced. At that point he
or she is awaiting condemnation. It is
the Holy Spirit that convicts a person of breaking God’s law. The law of God is not the Mosaic Law that He
gave Moses in the Old Testament.
Instead, His law is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. A reference to this law is found in Romans
8:2-3 (NKJV);
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death.”
What does this mean?
It means that when Jesus came into the world He presented the pattern of
how one should live in obedience to God.
In those four verses that I mentioned is the explanation of how and why someone
can be convicted and condemned of ignoring that pattern.
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does
not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God. And this
is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light
and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light,
that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
(John 3:18-21 NKJV)
Light and truth are inextricably tied together with the
person of Christ Jesus. The declaration
is that Christ exposed the rebellion against, and actually the contempt of, the
nature of God expressed as righteousness.
Righteousness is right to the fullest and most extreme limit. Humanity was brought into existence by the
will and design of God for His purpose.
However, people decided that they will exist for Satan’s purpose, which
is against everything that God represents.
In fact, all humanity was found guilty, stands convicted, and condemned to death for the crime of rejecting God. Some people attempt to wiggle out from under this condemnation by
declaring that God accepts their rebellion against His righteousness, but the Light,
Truth, Way, and Life, exposes them. One
may twist, misrepresent, misinterpret, or discard, some of God’s Word in order
to justify his or her sin. One may even
find a church, a preacher or bishop, or a denomination of professing Christians
that will help him or her deny their sin.
But when the pattern of Jesus Christ is placed over the pattern of our
lives, we have to admit that we are not righteous. If we are honest, we must submit to the
condemnation that we have not surrendered our lives to the light and
truth. If we are convicted of sin, we
are guilty of sin and are condemned to pay for it. The only penalty is death.
Consider the example of a man who is accused of murder. He is prosecuted in a court of law, and
convicted. Immediately after conviction,
he stands before a judge and receives condemnation. He is condemned to die. But suppose a man rose up from the crowd in
the courtroom and asked permission to speak.
He asks the judge what it would take to pay the man’s debt to
society. The judge declares that it is
impossible for him to pay that debt because of two reasons. First, the debt is death and second, only the
convicted one can pay it. The man looks
at the judge and says, “Sir, I was the one who committed that murder and I am
prepared to pay the price for that crime.”
In a human court, the man’s claims would be tested by
law. They would question him; judge his
confession by the evidence, and his availability to commit the crime, among
other things. In God’s court, the man’s
statement was accepted. Christ Jesus
asked for the sins of the entire history of humanity to be charged to Him. He was the only one that could have done
this. If someone else had come forth to
do it, as a sinful individual he or she would have been charged, convicted, and
condemned for crimes they had committed.
Only a man with no guilt, a sinless man, had the means to pay such a
debt. That is what Jesus Christ was on
this earth, a sinless man, a man with no earthly father, God in the flesh. He stepped before God the righteous Judge and
offered to pay the sentence of death for all of us. His offer was accepted.
But there is another twist to this life and death
drama. Even though the condemned man now
has the opportunity to escape the punishment for his crime, he is still in
custody as a convicted and guilty man.
What if he says, “No, that man did not commit the crime; I did,” and
refuses to allow anyone to take his place before the court? Of course, there would be no choice for the
judge but to pass the man into the hands of the authorities so that they may
execute the sentence. The truth is that
right now, as you read these words, if you have chosen darkness and rejected the
Light, have ignored or rejected the truth, and have chosen to do what you
desire, you have been charged, convicted, guilty, and condemned to death as
God’s Word declares in those four verses in John. You are not alone. I was also a condemned man, and millions more
are condemned because they choose darkness over light.
Jesus Christ has already done His part. He accepted the guilt and responsibility for
every sin that has been or will be committed. (Is. 53:6; 1Cor. 15:3; Gal.1:4; 1Pet.
2:24; 1Pet. 3:18; 1Jn. 2:2)
He was judged and sentenced by the very
individuals He came to die for.
Afterwards, He was horribly beaten and crucified, and excruciating and
torturous death. It was the greatest
injustice ever committed by mankind. A
sinless man died in our place for our wicked deeds. Because the debt was paid in full, death
could not continue to have power over His sinless life, and God raised Him from
the dead.
In our scenario, the guilty man stands before the judge
condemned to death when an innocent man offers to accept his guilt and takes
his place. The judge has to ask the man,
“Do you accept this man’s claim to be guilty of your crime? And do you accept his offer to die for that
crime?” Now here’s the twist. God has been asking each person for the past
2000 years, “Do you accept My Son’s claim to be guilty of your crime? Do you accept His offer to take your sins and
die in your place?” Well…do you?
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