Scripture Reference: John 3:1-18

The Incarnation’s Purpose (John 3:16-18) – Continued

From last lesson: The fact that Jesus provided this life does not mean that everyone automatically has it. It is available, but as stated earlier, only to the ones who believe in Jesus.

The next verses (17-18) stress the individual nature of salvation. “Condemn” literally means “to judge.” The purpose of the incarnation was not that the Son should come to judge the world. It was that through Him the world (whoever) might be saved. At His second coming the authority will be given Him and He will then judge the world. Those believing in Him are not judged, they are not condemned. They have already been judged in Christ, in His baptism of death, when He died for their sins. But the ones not believing in Him are already judged (perfect tense, a fixed, completed state). Why? Not because they are such terrible sinners. Rather, they are judged because they have not taken advantage of the given promise and have not believed (perfect tense again, has not and does not believe, a fixed state) in the only begotten Son of God.

So, the one sin that will send your soul to hell is an active, conscious choice, a fixed refusal, to believe in Jesus as your Savior. You can believe in Him, if you will to do so. But in what or in whom do we believe? The only way to be saved is through our personal faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).

We hear many sermons on what we must do to be saved. But what about what we must do to be lost? My conclusion has always been that you don’t need to do anything to be lost. Because of your sins you are lost already.

So then, the world’s problem is not how to be lost but rather, how to be saved. I was saved a few months before my seventeenth birthday. The Lord has been very, very gracious to me. I still remember the preacher’s text; “[God] who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

This presents your all-important choice. How will you respond to God’s desire for all men (personally, yourself) to be saved? The ball, as it were, is in your court. Understand this, faith and believing are not so much nouns when it comes to spiritual things, as they are verbs. They require actions. Upon your action and your answer hangs your eternal destiny.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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