Bible Verse of the Day Sunday October 29th, 2023

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

John covers the themes of life eternal and condemnation in John 3, verses 17 through 21. The essential issue is that God sent His Son Jesus to save those condemned to hell. The seventh verse states the intent of the Father sending His Son. He also expounds on what sending His Son was not.

God’s resolution in sending His Son Jesus from eternity was to save souls and allow them to spend eternity with Him in heaven. That was the son’s commission and designated authority from Father God. His aspiration is that everyone becomes a saved believer in Christ Jesus (John 12:47; Luke 19:10). Jesus did not come into the world to declare condemnation on the world. He went to a world that was already condemned and separated from God. John duplicated the word “world” in this verse of scripture three (3) times to assure all eyes that fell upon this writhing to indicate that God excluded no one from his master plan of salvation. God has an explicit and clear-cut purpose for humankind. The intended objective of the first coming of Jesus was to offer the kingdom to the people of Israel. However, they foolishly rejected Jesus as the long-awaited promised Messiah. When the people of Israel rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah, God then turned to offering salvation to anyone in the world who would accept Jesus as the promised Messiah. God’s intention of the second coming of Christ Jesus will be to provide salvation again through Jesus to the Kingdom of Israel, where He will establish His worldwide kingdom in the end times.

The intent of this verse of scripture is not that if someone does not believe, they will become lost; the truth of the scriptures is that if someone does not believe in Jesus and surrender their lives to Him, they are already lost. If someone is lost, they have rejected the gift of God that is available to all people. The first coming of Jesus was redemptive and not to condemn people of the world.

Christ’s first coming to earth did not add any further guilt or condemnation to humanity; the people of the world were already in a state of unbelief. His coming was redemptive rather than punitive. God’s purpose was to redeem and not condemn people.  A noteworthy concern regarding those who do not believe is, “What about the people who never had the chance to believe because they never had the opportunity to hear the good news of the gospel of Christ Jesus?” This message is a significant but separate inquiry, spoken of best by the Apostle Paul in his letters to the Roman Christians (Chapters 1 and 2). In Paul’s writing to the Romans, he clarified that the focus was on those who intentionally and consciously rejected the message of salvation.