A Layman’s Thoughts

John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His One and Only Son. He did this, the Scripture goes on to say, so that anyone who believes in Him could have eternal life.

A lot of times we stop right there, and if we would really meditate on what that actually means, that would be OK, but people like me miss a very important implication. God in His providence saw that this would be the case, so He inspired John to write the next sentence too. John went on to write that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world.

This is a message that many in the Church seem to have lost. For most of my life I was taught that I should point out people’s sinful actions. That I should be salt in the world by making clear, verbally and by my own conduct, exactly what the behavioral standard set by God Himself required of people.

But this is not what Jesus Christ did when He walked the earth. Moreover, it is not what He teaches that I am to do–if I am willing to be honest about what I read. If I am willing to trust Him with the ramifications of what Scripture actually does teach, if I will have faith rather than fear, I will remember that the salt to which Jesus Christ referred was not for rubbing into wounds, but rather for seasoning and bringing out flavor. Scripture makes this point with significant clarity in Colossians 4:6 where we read, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

The message that God was sending was this, “¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” II Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV)

This message of reconciliation is nothing like the message of hell-fire and brimstone I heard preached in my youth. First of all, it says that God was not counting men’s sins against them. That is a dangerous sounding thought to the ears of a good Christian fellow such as me. While anyone who believes—that is to say, anyone who believes and thereby accepts the reconciling act of God in Jesus Christ—may have eternal life, it’s important to note that this is very different from saying that “everyone” may have eternal life. Anyone may, but not everyone will.

So God is not saying that sin doesn’t matter. Sin committed by our forefather Adam caused each of us to have a sinful nature. It did this because it gave to God’s enemy the authority (or dominion) over the world that God had given to mankind in the Garden of Eden. God’s record of having given this dominion is found in Genesis 1:26-28 where we read, “²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

This giving over of our authority over the world caused us each to be slaves to the (so called) god of this world. We sold ourselves into bondage.

The radical thing that God is saying is that forgiveness has already been given. He’s saying that payment of the sin debt of every person, has already been made. All that anyone needs to do is believe Him and thereby receive the gift God has made available. This is why the Word says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12)

There’s more to come… stay tuned.