–George Sheffield “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17).
In John 3:16, God sent Jesus into this world to save this world, a world drowning in sin, plagued with rebellion against God. This world shakes its fist at God declaring “we will not have this man to reign over us” (Lk 19:14). This world does not want God ruling over it. The world doesn’t want God’s way; it wants its own way. To do what seems right in its own eyes.
Yet God, despite the word’s rebellion, loves us.
And sent Jesus to save us from sin, from that rebellion, from the judgment God will pour out on a Christ rejecting life. While on the cross, Jesus took the judgment meant for each of us, paying the sin penalty.
Jesus didn’t arrive on this planet on that first Christmas day to pronounce condemnation on each of us. The condemnation was already pronounced back in Gen 2:17--“in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.” Man has been eating the forbidden fruit ever since and we all have been condemned to death ever since.
So Jesus had no need to condemn us. We are already condemned. He came to rescue us from that condemnation, sent into this world that that the world through Him might be saved.
