“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”              John 3:16-17

 

It’s time to remember the truth of salvation

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Traveling through life, we sometimes forget the truth of Christ’s sacrifice. We love John 3:16, but you can’t have 16 without the truth of 17: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” God sent His Son to die for us because He loved us, because He wanted us to be reconciled to Himself. He came to save us!

 

Let’s admit it… when you do something to correct or reconcile a situation, it can’t help but point out that there is a problem. Something needs correcting or righting. It would be pretty foolish to go through all the turmoil of correcting something if there was nothing wrong in the first place. So yes, the world stood condemned. Yes, there was a big problem, but Jesus didn’t come for the purpose of pointing that out; He came to fix it—He came to save us!

 

Jesus’ death and resurrection did not put condemnation into play. Condemnation has been in play since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. We are not condemned because we refuse the forgiveness Christ makes possible; we remain condemned if we refuse His forgiveness. So often we forget that perspective.    

 

There once was a boy who was born into poverty. His family was poor due to a very bad choice of a distant ancestor. The choice had been so devastating that there was no way for the family to recover on their own. It was into this family that the boy had been born. He was poor; that was the condition of his birth. Thankfully, a man full of love and boundless wealth had seen the circumstances of the family and made arrangements for a fund that would provide for all their needs. The only condition was that they needed to recognize their poverty and ask for help. Poverty was the reality for the boy. Dying in the same condition was his destiny. The kind man’s fund didn’t make the boy poor, but it did provide a way for the boy’s destiny to change.

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We are born condemned. Our destiny is set… except, scripture tells us that God has provided the way to change our destiny. He loved us enough to sacrifice that which was most precious to Him in order to make that change possible—His Son. The condition is that we must recognize our need and ask for His forgiveness.

 

Reminder: It is because of Christ’s sacrifice that I am saved and no longer stand condemned.