John 3:16-18 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. 18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
What was the root reason that God sent His only Son to die for the world? Because He loved the people of the world. What was the purpose for Him and coming and dying for the world? It was so that whoever believes in the Savior will not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus would later say that the reason He came to the world was “to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) There is a fundamental condition in V3:16, the person who would be saved must believe in the work and person of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8 explains “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” The way, the only way that God made for man to have peace between He and us, is through faith in Jesus. This is the plan of the one and only God. To reject this plan in which God gave Himself, is to reject God. But to believe this plan and path that God made for us to receive Him, is to receive His eternal favor and in that, His eternal life.
To receive God is to receive His eternal life. That is the life that is within Him is given through Jesus to all who believe God the Father and Jesus the Son. To not believe either of them is to not believe both of them. In that unbelief is the act of calling God a liar. That person cannot have peace because He denies it and prefers to be in darkness. Those who reject Jesus are rejecting the eternal life, the essence of God, that He is offering through Jesus. To reject Jesus is to say to God that He is not fully wanted.
These verses are statements of truth. They are not the opinion of a man that can be discounted. They are statements from God and His statements are infallible. Clearly God is here saying that Jesus His Son did not come to judge the world but to save it. The next verse will allude to something that explains this.
The reason that the one who believes in Jesus will not be judged is because the grace of God fully covers that man and has washed away His sins. That person God declares will not be judged. However the non-believer has been judged already because that person does not believe. How is that person already judged? Because that person has revealed the desires of his heart and that desire is to relish the life of this dark world rather than to receive and cling to Jesus the Light of the Word. (John 3:19, John 8:12) God did not make an alternate path to Jesus. (John 14:6) It was receive Jesus or die one’s sins.
Jesus came to save. That means that everyone, absolutely everyone, needs saving. All men are born with the stain of the sin of our shared parent Adam. The sin he did separated him from God’s presence and so we inherit that stain and condition. So all people were born with sin upon them and therefore are on a path to Hell. Imagine a huge people move and every person born on earth is upon it. The destination of the people mover is Hell and there it dumps all people aboard into it. That is the destination of every person born on earth. Many of the people have wanted off the people mover but could not free themselves from it. When someone bows before Jesus and pledges love and allegiance to Him, He plucks them off the people mover to Hell and sets them on a path to eternal life with God. And the eternal life is not a singular and independent eternal life, but God’s own eternal life. He shares His life with us. He gives us the eternal life that is within God. And beautifully true is that everything of God remains one with Him. To have the eternal life that God gives is to have the eternal God eternally. Only God Himself can lift us from the wrong path to the right one and He does it by giving us Himself.
From the moment we become lovers and obedient followers of Jesus the eternal life of God lives within us. So instantly we receive it and may enjoy it, but not till we are with Him in Heaven will we fully appreciate and understand what we have. Our perception is now seen through a cloudy perception, but then we will see fully and understand fully. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Because God has loved all of us He made the way off the path of Hell onto the path of Heaven. His love and eternality does and will live in us eternally. Our God is good all the time and He loves us. Amen! Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.