For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
God sent His Son into the world at His first coming not to condemn the world but so that the world through Him might be saved and salvation made possible. The sending reveals the intensity, greatness and unmeasured character of God's love, in giving His only begotten, beloved, sinless Son as His great gift for redemption. He sent Him when human sin and rebellion were at their height and destruction was expected, with heaven ready to strike, yet instead of sweeping away earth's inhabitants He sent His Son to rescue an undeserving race. As the bitten Israelites who looked at the lifted serpent lived, so whoever looks to the uplifted Saviour and believes in Him as personal Saviour should not perish but have eternal life, while those who refuse the gift remain condemned already because they loved darkness rather than light. As Christ met the needy, suffering and perishing with blessing and hope rather than denunciation, so those who share His love seek to reclaim rather than condemn.
Setting and Plain Meaning
This speaks of Christ's first coming, when God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved and its salvation made possible. Salvation comes through the Son, and the surrounding words join that sending to God's love and to belief in Him. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that every bitten Israelite who looked lived, so the Son of man must be lifted up as the world's Redeemer and Lamb who takes away sin, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Christ is the Healer of body and soul who speaks now as certainly as from the pillar of cloud then, and people find hope and peace by turning from their sins and wretched condition to the uplifted Saviour and believing in Him as personal Saviour. He saves people from their sins, not in their sins, giving hope and a way back to the Father's house with the path of holiness made clear, so that even scribes and Pharisees can be saved only by entering through faith in Jesus Christ. The innocent One bore the guilty's punishment as the gift of God's love and the means of redemption.
Jesus spoke this to Nicodemus in a secret private night interview on the Mount of Olives. He had gone there pale with weariness to seek retirement and repose after a whole day of healing the sick, relieving the afflicted, ministering to the poor and oppressed with pitying compassion like a loving father toward suffering children, working cures, removing sorrow, sending no suppliant away unrelieved, instructing the restless curious people, reasoning with the scribes, and silencing the rulers by the wisdom of His words. It was Christ's personal attentive teaching in which He opened precious instruction to one person whose heart and mind were receptive.
Nicodemus was rich and honored of the Jews, famous for wealth, learning, benevolence and liberal offerings to the temple, and a prominent member of the national council. Yet beneath an air of composure and dignity he was agitated and timid before Jesus. Having seen and heard these works of compassion, power and wisdom, and having searched the prophecies pointing to Jesus as the looked-for Messiah, he dared not disbelieve that Jesus was sent of God. What he needed was not learning nor controversy but the truth and a new heart, for until the heart is changed reasoning upon points of difference produces no saving results but strengthens resistance. Even one who considered his life correct and had confidence in his own upright life must humble himself, renounce self-reliance, self-righteousness and moral respectability, and depend wholly on Christ's righteousness, grace and strength, since Christ's light exposes impurity and disloyalty hidden in human motives and His blood alone cleanses from sin and renews the heart in His likeness.
The teaching belongs to Christ's vital instruction to Nicodemus on the plan of salvation, His mission to the world, and the way of life. It is joined to the necessity of being born again of water and the Spirit, to the Son of man lifted up as Moses lifted the serpent, and to eternal life to whoever believes, while condemnation rests on unbelief because men loved darkness rather than light. It lays out the terms of salvation in distinct lines and is of the greatest importance to every soul that lives, so full that if one had no other text in the Bible this alone would be a guide to the soul. Especially for everyone who accepts responsibility as a counselor and deals with human minds it is a grand beautiful truth to be a bright and shining light.
John the Baptist's public testimony about Jesus is almost its counterpart and corresponds in spirit. John stood irrespective of personal interest in defense of Jesus as the Promised One of Israel who comes from above, identifying fully with the cause of Christ and finding his greatest joy in its success. That testimony shows Jesus came from heaven with God's authority and that whoever believes in the Son has everlasting life.
God's Love in Giving
The sending shows how intense and great and unmeasured is God's love for the human family and for every soul, for He loved man first and gave His only begotten, beloved, sinless Son as His great gift for redemption. That gift was given for those who do not yet know Him fully, reaching even professed believers joined in church life who lack all the truth and obedience and who in many cases are backsliders, and it is discerned by following on to know the Lord step by step without seeing the end from the beginning as He leads and gives increased light. It is a lesson fathers and mothers are to learn from the Word and teach to their children, and a testimony to be told to those ignorant of God and unaware of their deep need, calling for teaching work in broad, almost unworked fields near at hand.
The Innocent bore the chastisement and punishment of the guilty as the means of redemption, with God's wrath against transgression of His law laid upon the righteous One in the severest suffering a human being could suffer. That suffering included poverty, oppression, grief, and shameful death on Calvary, for Christ the spotless Son of God took transgressors' guilt upon Himself, and His life was the only sacrifice that could atone for sin and save the sinner from ruin. Through His death He bore human guilt, offered forgiveness and salvation, and opened the way to eternal life.
Though He is the embodiment of purity, He came into a world marred by the curse and filled with deformity, impurity, and moral pollution, a world overwhelmed by sin, to heal human imperfections and to seek and save the lost. His saving work restores God's moral image in humanity and gives everlasting life to whoever believes, a life that measures with the life of God. That gift calls for personal choice to want to be saved and to cease building hope on a foundation that will be swept away.
He came to reveal the Father's love and forgiving power truly, countering Satan's false picture of God as severe, tyrannical, vindictive, and unforgiving. God is revealed in Christ as tender, sympathetic, and compassionate, not cold or heartless, and supreme in heaven and earth. Saving sinners remained the central purpose of His ministry.
From manger to cross He lived a sinless life in allegiance to the Father, having volunteered to come in humanity as the true light to meet and overcome the enemy and his devices. Through divinity combined with humanity He learned by actual experience the needs of humanity, reaching man and enabling him to lay hold upon the divine nature. Though rejected, mocked, and crucified under Satan's leading, He refused retaliation or self-deliverance so no stain would touch His humanity and the plan of salvation would not fail. By His shameful death on Calvary He proved false the claim that God's law cannot be kept and proved Satan's charges against God false, vindicating God before the angels as willing to make the greatest sacrifice for man. Because the Father sent the Son to live a life after the heavenly order, it is possible for all to live that life by faith, overcoming temptation, honoring God, and following His example without sin.
His manner of rule is established to counterwork the works of Satan and to bring the world back to loyalty to God; where Satan has set his throne Christ establishes His cross, the prince of evil is cast out, and Christ becomes the center of a redeemed world. Therefore the cross must occupy the central place, with every human ambition merged in Jesus Christ, trust placed in the One who is head over all things, and all who have received the Word living the truth as it is in Jesus. That gift makes human life a manifestation of God's love and a costly talent committed to human care, measured by the sacrifice of God's Son. People belong to God by creation and doubly by redemption, deriving life from Him as Creator and Source of all life, who as Author of the higher life desires beings formed in His image to have that higher life.
Crisis When Mercy Came
He was sent when corruption was deep and entrenched and rebellion stood at its height, after centuries in which messengers had been treated cruelly, law had been despised and trampled, and the earth had again been filled with transgression after the flood and after rescue from Egypt. Humanity was deeply corrupted and Satan seemed about to triumph, yet a way of recovery was provided through the Son and healing grace was poured out so the plan of salvation could be fulfilled. He entered a world overwhelmed by sin as an ambassador of divine mercy, and though men defied God His forbearance and love did not cease.
At that crisis justice and destruction were expected, with the voices of the slain crying for retribution, all heaven ready to strike with fire and flame and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes, and angels watching for God to punish. Sin had become deliberate, hatred against heaven most violent, and evil was even consecrated as part of religion, while Satan exulted that God would wipe out mankind. Satan stood ready to use such destruction to blame God and to spread his rebellion to the worlds above.
Unfallen worlds watched with intense interest, expecting God to arise and sweep away the inhabitants of the earth. Instead of destroying the world at that crisis He sent His Son to rescue it. That sending to an undeserving race was amazing grace that demonstrated love beyond all dispute, a love unmeasured, with no line to measure it, no plummet to sound it, and no standard to compare it.
That forbearance answered the claim that God would destroy sinners and gave no ground for extending rebellion to unfallen worlds. Rather than bringing death upon sinners God gave the Son as a sacrifice for sin. The Son's sacrifice also showed God's law to be unchangeable, eternal and as enduring as God Himself, whom Christ did not join in rejecting nor make void.
Although justice could have swiftly sentenced humanity, love and mercy gave another opportunity through Christ. By giving His life as a sacrifice He gave the world a second probation and an opportunity to return to loyalty to God. Full provision was made for sanctification, with strength and grace for every soul to be more than a conqueror, so that those who accept and practice truth reveal the power of grace to sanctify the heart by walking in obedience to the commandments as representatives and lightbearers.
Belief, Life and Condemnation
As Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness so that every bitten Israelite who looked lived, so the Son of man must be lifted up on the cross as the world's Redeemer and Lamb who takes away sin, and as Healer of body and soul He speaks now as certainly as from the pillar of cloud. God's call through His Word is to look and live. While sinners look at their sins and talk of and deplore their wretched condition their wounds remain, but when they take their eyes from themselves and fasten them upon the uplifted Saviour their souls find hope and peace. Whoever believes in Him as personal Saviour should not perish but have eternal and everlasting life, for He came to lift up humanity and save people rather than destroy their lives, revealing mercy, compassion and love.
Believing means trusting Christ continually, every day and at every step, taking hold of Him who died on Calvary. The sinner is to look to Him, confess sin, come to God through Him, and trust His saving grace, for He is the sin-pardoning Redeemer and a complete Saviour offering salvation to all. This living faith asks Him to cleanse from impurity and receives His divine robe of righteousness, bringing confidence and fruit. Assurance is grounded in God's Word, not in changing feelings or emotions, and is grasped by living faith with hope.
Those who truly believe and rest in Him are not condemned. A casual acknowledgment that He is the Son of God is not enough to bring saving benefit, for faith must truly rest in Him rather than in human beings. Those who fail to trust God's Word may continue to bear a sense of condemnation and remain under condemnation when they do not believe in the Son.
Refusing God's gift of salvation leaves people without excuse when they are judged. Those who reject Him remain condemned already because they do not believe in the only-begotten Son, disregarding the salvation and privileges He purchased through bearing human guilt and opening the way to eternal life. Such disregard shuts them out from sharing His glory, for forgiveness and salvation are offered only to those who receive the Son.
Condemnation rests on unbelief because men loved darkness rather than light. People reject the light because they love darkness and evil, and their preference for darkness over light reveals evil deeds. By contrast those who do what is true come to the light and show that their deeds are wrought in God. Those who accept the light, even when it reveals and reproves their sins, come to Christ rather than choosing darkness, and His character reflected in a changed life testifies to His sending.
What is needed is not learning nor controversy but truth and a new heart by being born again of the Spirit. Until the heart is changed, reasoning upon points of difference produces no saving results but strengthens resistance. All must humble themselves before God, walk in the light received, surrender self-reliance, renounce self-righteousness, moral respectability and confidence in an upright life, and depend wholly on Christ for righteousness, grace and strength. His blood alone cleanses from sin and renews the heart in His likeness, exposing impurity and disloyalty hidden in human motives and actions.
He saves people from their sins, not in their sins, giving sinners hope and a way to return to the Father's house. His light makes the path of holiness clear, so that even scribes and Pharisees can be saved only by entering through faith in Him. His saving work does not excuse or minimize sin or lessen its seriousness, but reaches into human degradation, lifts up the guilty and penitent, and encourages reform. His treatment of the guilty woman threatened with stoning shows this purpose in action, meeting her with comfort and compassion, forgiving her, urging her to sin no more and to reform, and beginning in her a new life of purity, peace and service to God.
His mission of mercy is joined with the warning of judgment, illustrated by the parable of the barren fig tree showing how mercy relates to justice and judgment. His works were normally acts of restoration and healing rather than condemnation or destruction. The withering of the fig tree stood apart from His usual saving work as an unusual exceptional act that served a purpose and called for explanation, rather than contradicting His purpose to save.
Sharing His Saving Work
Christ came to save the world rather than to condemn it, and though He fearlessly denounced evil He regarded fallen people as children of God who could be restored to their divine relationship. He saw hope and possibility of restoration in those who were needy, defeated, suffering, degraded, tempted, lost and ready to perish, and met their need with blessing and hope to uplift and save them rather than with denunciation. Even while facing the suffering of the cross He pitied those who would reject Him and lose eternal life, and those who share God's compassionate love likewise seek to reclaim people rather than condemn them.
His work was not to erect barriers or keep reminding people that they were wrong and confronting them with their wrongs, but to come near and labor in love to enlighten those who are deceived and to rescue the lost and bring straying ones back to safety. Exposing the failures of those who have sinned or stumbled and condemning them can drive them toward ruin, while sympathy and forbearance can help rescue them. Christians are therefore to reach out to people in danger with compassion, prayer, loving help, encouraging words, and a consistent Christian life rather than reproach, encouraging them toward faith and hope.
The world is not to be condemned before it has received the light, and not until after it has had the light. People who have been receiving false ideas are therefore to be pitied and told the simple story of the cross and the love of Christ, approached closely and gently with the message softened as much as possible so that their hearts are softened and opened for the Spirit of the Lord to mold and shape them.
Workers are to deal with others as Christ dealt with Nicodemus, keeping to the affirmative and refusing to be led away into controversy on false theories or points of difference. What Nicodemus needed was not learning nor controversy but truth and a new heart, and Christ gave new light to bring him in contact with all light and to carry away practical points. Until the heart is changed, reasoning upon points of difference produces no saving results but strengthens resistance.
Together with the first chapter of John the verse plainly defines true higher education, which is the only education of saving value. Its full import can be understood only by one who is born again of water and of the Spirit through sanctification of the Spirit of God, and it must be read verse by verse thoughtfully and prayerfully. As part of Christ's lesson to Nicodemus it lays out the terms of salvation in distinct lines and is of the greatest importance to every soul that lives, so full that if one had no other text in the Bible this alone would be a guide to the soul. Especially for everyone who accepts responsibility as a counselor and deals with human minds it is a grand, beautiful truth to be a bright and shining light.
That lesson was opened in private night conversation to one person whose heart and mind were receptive, showing Christ's personal, attentive teaching. His saving mission embraced people of every station, speaking hope to the downcast and seeking the rich and cultured to reveal imperishable riches and win their hearts. He deliberately studied how to reach the rich, seeking the acquaintance of the wealthy and cultured Pharisee, the Jewish nobleman, and the Roman ruler, accepting their invitations, attending their feasts, and becoming familiar with their interests and occupations, so He could gain access to their hearts and reveal to them the imperishable riches.
God's love and saving purpose extend to all mankind, for He sent His Son not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through Him, and Christ did not intend people to remain and die in their sins. That love reaches even professed believers joined in church capacity who do not have all the truth, who are not obedient to all the commandments, and who in many cases are backsliders, and discerning it comes by following on to know the Lord step by step, without seeing the end from the beginning, as He leads and gives increased light for the work ahead. Jesus came to save all who accept Him, not merely the lost sheep of Israel, for His mission was not limited by the prejudice that excluded other peoples, nor to merely a select group, but He went where people had strayed and entered the depths of human suffering with tender love toward all. The world's need of salvation, including the neglected cities that are part of that world, calls God's people to sacrifice and labor earnestly for those who are lost while probation lingers.
That call includes telling the testimony of God's great gift and love in sending His only Son to bear the punishment due for human sin with saving rather than condemning purpose, to those who do not know God, who are ignorant of Him and unaware of their deep need. It makes labor among the colored people and foreigners nearby a broad and almost unworked field for teaching work. Because God sent His Son to suffer a shameful death so souls might be saved, His followers are to be willing to labor and suffer in untiring efforts to warn those about them who are unwarned and have never heard the truths of the last warning message, since the end of all things is near. Since Christ's poverty, oppression, grief, and death on the cross were endured for the world's sake so people could be saved through Him, believers are to reach people who are dying without the truth.
Believers bear testimony that God sent His Son to die for the redemption of sinners and to save sinners rather than condemn the world, when the Holy Spirit controls minds and they are united with Christ and with one another under Christ as one Head. Their unity amid diversity, love and forbearance despite differences in disposition, higher standard in speech, ministry, and spirituality, and cheerful, holy efforts to preserve unity in the faith, with each person confessing his or her own mistakes rather than accusing others, make the mission plain and exalt divine truth as a burning lamp to be understood more and still more clearly. The redeemed thus become living witnesses showing the world what the truth can do, and their oneness, love and transformed obedient character are the most convincing evidence and credential to a discordant world.
That witness is given by representing Him to the world and revealing God's transforming grace, which shapes human character after Christ's likeness and cleanses the heart and refines the character to enable willing obedience, a change brought about by no other power. It requires love toward fellow creatures as enjoined in the last six commandments, for men will be held accountable for how they treat their fellows, and instead of magnifying defects, commenting on them, despising those who have them, picking flaws, condemning and stigmatizing brethren, followers must restore others and impart light and grace with a saving influence in time and eternity. They serve Him with cheerful obedience and not under oppressive restraint, striving daily to increase in knowledge and grow in usefulness while multiplying their powers through given grace, manifesting the mighty power of His grace to transform the heart and bearing the true imprint of His name. They willingly deny themselves and serve others so faith arises in unbelievers, live above the world's standards while letting heavenly light shine through Christlike actions rather than lowering themselves to the world's ways, and refuse sadness and gloom with faces illuminated with the light of heaven so that as they minister to the sick the sick are drawn to the great Physician who longs to restore them to health and impart His peace.
Fathers and mothers are to learn the lesson of God's gift from the Word and teach it to their children, educating and training them in a Christlike manner. God has done enough by giving Christ so people might hear the words of righteousness and the terms of salvation and understand what they must do as children, and this lays the basis for surrounding children with right impressions, helping them step by step to be intelligent about obedience, and bringing them directly to the Saviour in prayer. Parents must awake to their God-given responsibility, never speaking harshly or angrily to children or each other, representing God in spirit and word and act, doing what Christ would do in their place, choosing words well without impatience, keeping the tongue under restraint, revealing the sanctification of true godliness, refusing Satan control of the tongue, and serving as true missionaries in the home. The training they give makes children either Christlike in word and deed or like Lucifer, who was determined to have his own way and be above Christ and was cast out of heaven, and since Christ came to give power to resist the enemy's temptations while Satan strives to mold all into his likeness, parents in the little time left must be daily converted as the Saviour's helpers in speech and action, giving the enemy no advantage in the family, that by wise earnest work to glorify God many neighbors may by their example be won to Christ.
Christ has made full provision for the sanctification of His church, with strength and grace for every soul to be more than a conqueror, and He has gained a victory for all people so that not one human being needs to be lost. Those who accept and practice the truth reveal to the world the power of God's grace to sanctify the human heart, walking in obedience to the commandments of God as the Lord's representatives and lightbearers, while those favored with great light and many opportunities who do not accept the light or improve the opportunities will receive punishment in accordance with their sin. The Father sent His Son to live a life after the heavenly order and to make His love known as Redeemer, with saving sinners remaining the central purpose of His ministry, and because of that sending it is possible for all to live that life by faith of the Son of God, overcoming temptation by the blood of the Lamb, honoring God in words and works and exerting a winning influence for Him. This sending was an infinite sacrifice to be appreciated, the gospel of peace makes this saving purpose known, and the mission given to disciples shares that purpose: they are to represent Him and reveal the Father through their work and walk gently in His footsteps.
God sent His Son into the world at His first coming not to condemn the world but so that the world through Him might be saved and salvation made possible. The sending reveals the intensity, greatness and unmeasured character of God's love, in giving His only begotten, beloved, sinless Son as His great gift for redemption. He sent Him when human sin and rebellion were at their height and destruction was expected, with heaven ready to strike, yet instead of sweeping away earth's inhabitants He sent His Son to rescue an undeserving race. As the bitten Israelites who looked at the lifted serpent lived, so whoever looks to the uplifted Saviour and believes in Him as personal Saviour should not perish but have eternal life, while those who refuse the gift remain condemned already because they loved darkness rather than light. As Christ met the needy, suffering and perishing with blessing and hope rather than denunciation, so those who share His love seek to reclaim rather than condemn.
Setting and Plain Meaning
This speaks of Christ's first coming, when God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved and its salvation made possible. Salvation comes through the Son, and the surrounding words join that sending to God's love and to belief in Him. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that every bitten Israelite who looked lived, so the Son of man must be lifted up as the world's Redeemer and Lamb who takes away sin, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Christ is the Healer of body and soul who speaks now as certainly as from the pillar of cloud then, and people find hope and peace by turning from their sins and wretched condition to the uplifted Saviour and believing in Him as personal Saviour. He saves people from their sins, not in their sins, giving hope and a way back to the Father's house with the path of holiness made clear, so that even scribes and Pharisees can be saved only by entering through faith in Jesus Christ. The innocent One bore the guilty's punishment as the gift of God's love and the means of redemption.
Jesus spoke this to Nicodemus in a secret private night interview on the Mount of Olives. He had gone there pale with weariness to seek retirement and repose after a whole day of healing the sick, relieving the afflicted, ministering to the poor and oppressed with pitying compassion like a loving father toward suffering children, working cures, removing sorrow, sending no suppliant away unrelieved, instructing the restless curious people, reasoning with the scribes, and silencing the rulers by the wisdom of His words. It was Christ's personal attentive teaching in which He opened precious instruction to one person whose heart and mind were receptive.
Nicodemus was rich and honored of the Jews, famous for wealth, learning, benevolence and liberal offerings to the temple, and a prominent member of the national council. Yet beneath an air of composure and dignity he was agitated and timid before Jesus. Having seen and heard these works of compassion, power and wisdom, and having searched the prophecies pointing to Jesus as the looked-for Messiah, he dared not disbelieve that Jesus was sent of God. What he needed was not learning nor controversy but the truth and a new heart, for until the heart is changed reasoning upon points of difference produces no saving results but strengthens resistance. Even one who considered his life correct and had confidence in his own upright life must humble himself, renounce self-reliance, self-righteousness and moral respectability, and depend wholly on Christ's righteousness, grace and strength, since Christ's light exposes impurity and disloyalty hidden in human motives and His blood alone cleanses from sin and renews the heart in His likeness.
The teaching belongs to Christ's vital instruction to Nicodemus on the plan of salvation, His mission to the world, and the way of life. It is joined to the necessity of being born again of water and the Spirit, to the Son of man lifted up as Moses lifted the serpent, and to eternal life to whoever believes, while condemnation rests on unbelief because men loved darkness rather than light. It lays out the terms of salvation in distinct lines and is of the greatest importance to every soul that lives, so full that if one had no other text in the Bible this alone would be a guide to the soul. Especially for everyone who accepts responsibility as a counselor and deals with human minds it is a grand beautiful truth to be a bright and shining light.
John the Baptist's public testimony about Jesus is almost its counterpart and corresponds in spirit. John stood irrespective of personal interest in defense of Jesus as the Promised One of Israel who comes from above, identifying fully with the cause of Christ and finding his greatest joy in its success. That testimony shows Jesus came from heaven with God's authority and that whoever believes in the Son has everlasting life.
God's Love in Giving
The sending shows how intense and great and unmeasured is God's love for the human family and for every soul, for He loved man first and gave His only begotten, beloved, sinless Son as His great gift for redemption. That gift was given for those who do not yet know Him fully, reaching even professed believers joined in church life who lack all the truth and obedience and who in many cases are backsliders, and it is discerned by following on to know the Lord step by step without seeing the end from the beginning as He leads and gives increased light. It is a lesson fathers and mothers are to learn from the Word and teach to their children, and a testimony to be told to those ignorant of God and unaware of their deep need, calling for teaching work in broad, almost unworked fields near at hand.
The Innocent bore the chastisement and punishment of the guilty as the means of redemption, with God's wrath against transgression of His law laid upon the righteous One in the severest suffering a human being could suffer. That suffering included poverty, oppression, grief, and shameful death on Calvary, for Christ the spotless Son of God took transgressors' guilt upon Himself, and His life was the only sacrifice that could atone for sin and save the sinner from ruin. Through His death He bore human guilt, offered forgiveness and salvation, and opened the way to eternal life.
Though He is the embodiment of purity, He came into a world marred by the curse and filled with deformity, impurity, and moral pollution, a world overwhelmed by sin, to heal human imperfections and to seek and save the lost. His saving work restores God's moral image in humanity and gives everlasting life to whoever believes, a life that measures with the life of God. That gift calls for personal choice to want to be saved and to cease building hope on a foundation that will be swept away.
He came to reveal the Father's love and forgiving power truly, countering Satan's false picture of God as severe, tyrannical, vindictive, and unforgiving. God is revealed in Christ as tender, sympathetic, and compassionate, not cold or heartless, and supreme in heaven and earth. Saving sinners remained the central purpose of His ministry.
From manger to cross He lived a sinless life in allegiance to the Father, having volunteered to come in humanity as the true light to meet and overcome the enemy and his devices. Through divinity combined with humanity He learned by actual experience the needs of humanity, reaching man and enabling him to lay hold upon the divine nature. Though rejected, mocked, and crucified under Satan's leading, He refused retaliation or self-deliverance so no stain would touch His humanity and the plan of salvation would not fail. By His shameful death on Calvary He proved false the claim that God's law cannot be kept and proved Satan's charges against God false, vindicating God before the angels as willing to make the greatest sacrifice for man. Because the Father sent the Son to live a life after the heavenly order, it is possible for all to live that life by faith, overcoming temptation, honoring God, and following His example without sin.
His manner of rule is established to counterwork the works of Satan and to bring the world back to loyalty to God; where Satan has set his throne Christ establishes His cross, the prince of evil is cast out, and Christ becomes the center of a redeemed world. Therefore the cross must occupy the central place, with every human ambition merged in Jesus Christ, trust placed in the One who is head over all things, and all who have received the Word living the truth as it is in Jesus. That gift makes human life a manifestation of God's love and a costly talent committed to human care, measured by the sacrifice of God's Son. People belong to God by creation and doubly by redemption, deriving life from Him as Creator and Source of all life, who as Author of the higher life desires beings formed in His image to have that higher life.
Crisis When Mercy Came
He was sent when corruption was deep and entrenched and rebellion stood at its height, after centuries in which messengers had been treated cruelly, law had been despised and trampled, and the earth had again been filled with transgression after the flood and after rescue from Egypt. Humanity was deeply corrupted and Satan seemed about to triumph, yet a way of recovery was provided through the Son and healing grace was poured out so the plan of salvation could be fulfilled. He entered a world overwhelmed by sin as an ambassador of divine mercy, and though men defied God His forbearance and love did not cease.
At that crisis justice and destruction were expected, with the voices of the slain crying for retribution, all heaven ready to strike with fire and flame and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes, and angels watching for God to punish. Sin had become deliberate, hatred against heaven most violent, and evil was even consecrated as part of religion, while Satan exulted that God would wipe out mankind. Satan stood ready to use such destruction to blame God and to spread his rebellion to the worlds above.
Unfallen worlds watched with intense interest, expecting God to arise and sweep away the inhabitants of the earth. Instead of destroying the world at that crisis He sent His Son to rescue it. That sending to an undeserving race was amazing grace that demonstrated love beyond all dispute, a love unmeasured, with no line to measure it, no plummet to sound it, and no standard to compare it.
That forbearance answered the claim that God would destroy sinners and gave no ground for extending rebellion to unfallen worlds. Rather than bringing death upon sinners God gave the Son as a sacrifice for sin. The Son's sacrifice also showed God's law to be unchangeable, eternal and as enduring as God Himself, whom Christ did not join in rejecting nor make void.
Although justice could have swiftly sentenced humanity, love and mercy gave another opportunity through Christ. By giving His life as a sacrifice He gave the world a second probation and an opportunity to return to loyalty to God. Full provision was made for sanctification, with strength and grace for every soul to be more than a conqueror, so that those who accept and practice truth reveal the power of grace to sanctify the heart by walking in obedience to the commandments as representatives and lightbearers.
Belief, Life and Condemnation
As Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness so that every bitten Israelite who looked lived, so the Son of man must be lifted up on the cross as the world's Redeemer and Lamb who takes away sin, and as Healer of body and soul He speaks now as certainly as from the pillar of cloud. God's call through His Word is to look and live. While sinners look at their sins and talk of and deplore their wretched condition their wounds remain, but when they take their eyes from themselves and fasten them upon the uplifted Saviour their souls find hope and peace. Whoever believes in Him as personal Saviour should not perish but have eternal and everlasting life, for He came to lift up humanity and save people rather than destroy their lives, revealing mercy, compassion and love.
Believing means trusting Christ continually, every day and at every step, taking hold of Him who died on Calvary. The sinner is to look to Him, confess sin, come to God through Him, and trust His saving grace, for He is the sin-pardoning Redeemer and a complete Saviour offering salvation to all. This living faith asks Him to cleanse from impurity and receives His divine robe of righteousness, bringing confidence and fruit. Assurance is grounded in God's Word, not in changing feelings or emotions, and is grasped by living faith with hope.
Those who truly believe and rest in Him are not condemned. A casual acknowledgment that He is the Son of God is not enough to bring saving benefit, for faith must truly rest in Him rather than in human beings. Those who fail to trust God's Word may continue to bear a sense of condemnation and remain under condemnation when they do not believe in the Son.
Refusing God's gift of salvation leaves people without excuse when they are judged. Those who reject Him remain condemned already because they do not believe in the only-begotten Son, disregarding the salvation and privileges He purchased through bearing human guilt and opening the way to eternal life. Such disregard shuts them out from sharing His glory, for forgiveness and salvation are offered only to those who receive the Son.
Condemnation rests on unbelief because men loved darkness rather than light. People reject the light because they love darkness and evil, and their preference for darkness over light reveals evil deeds. By contrast those who do what is true come to the light and show that their deeds are wrought in God. Those who accept the light, even when it reveals and reproves their sins, come to Christ rather than choosing darkness, and His character reflected in a changed life testifies to His sending.
What is needed is not learning nor controversy but truth and a new heart by being born again of the Spirit. Until the heart is changed, reasoning upon points of difference produces no saving results but strengthens resistance. All must humble themselves before God, walk in the light received, surrender self-reliance, renounce self-righteousness, moral respectability and confidence in an upright life, and depend wholly on Christ for righteousness, grace and strength. His blood alone cleanses from sin and renews the heart in His likeness, exposing impurity and disloyalty hidden in human motives and actions.
He saves people from their sins, not in their sins, giving sinners hope and a way to return to the Father's house. His light makes the path of holiness clear, so that even scribes and Pharisees can be saved only by entering through faith in Him. His saving work does not excuse or minimize sin or lessen its seriousness, but reaches into human degradation, lifts up the guilty and penitent, and encourages reform. His treatment of the guilty woman threatened with stoning shows this purpose in action, meeting her with comfort and compassion, forgiving her, urging her to sin no more and to reform, and beginning in her a new life of purity, peace and service to God.
His mission of mercy is joined with the warning of judgment, illustrated by the parable of the barren fig tree showing how mercy relates to justice and judgment. His works were normally acts of restoration and healing rather than condemnation or destruction. The withering of the fig tree stood apart from His usual saving work as an unusual exceptional act that served a purpose and called for explanation, rather than contradicting His purpose to save.
Sharing His Saving Work
Christ came to save the world rather than to condemn it, and though He fearlessly denounced evil He regarded fallen people as children of God who could be restored to their divine relationship. He saw hope and possibility of restoration in those who were needy, defeated, suffering, degraded, tempted, lost and ready to perish, and met their need with blessing and hope to uplift and save them rather than with denunciation. Even while facing the suffering of the cross He pitied those who would reject Him and lose eternal life, and those who share God's compassionate love likewise seek to reclaim people rather than condemn them.
His work was not to erect barriers or keep reminding people that they were wrong and confronting them with their wrongs, but to come near and labor in love to enlighten those who are deceived and to rescue the lost and bring straying ones back to safety. Exposing the failures of those who have sinned or stumbled and condemning them can drive them toward ruin, while sympathy and forbearance can help rescue them. Christians are therefore to reach out to people in danger with compassion, prayer, loving help, encouraging words, and a consistent Christian life rather than reproach, encouraging them toward faith and hope.
The world is not to be condemned before it has received the light, and not until after it has had the light. People who have been receiving false ideas are therefore to be pitied and told the simple story of the cross and the love of Christ, approached closely and gently with the message softened as much as possible so that their hearts are softened and opened for the Spirit of the Lord to mold and shape them.
Workers are to deal with others as Christ dealt with Nicodemus, keeping to the affirmative and refusing to be led away into controversy on false theories or points of difference. What Nicodemus needed was not learning nor controversy but truth and a new heart, and Christ gave new light to bring him in contact with all light and to carry away practical points. Until the heart is changed, reasoning upon points of difference produces no saving results but strengthens resistance.
Together with the first chapter of John the verse plainly defines true higher education, which is the only education of saving value. Its full import can be understood only by one who is born again of water and of the Spirit through sanctification of the Spirit of God, and it must be read verse by verse thoughtfully and prayerfully. As part of Christ's lesson to Nicodemus it lays out the terms of salvation in distinct lines and is of the greatest importance to every soul that lives, so full that if one had no other text in the Bible this alone would be a guide to the soul. Especially for everyone who accepts responsibility as a counselor and deals with human minds it is a grand, beautiful truth to be a bright and shining light.
That lesson was opened in private night conversation to one person whose heart and mind were receptive, showing Christ's personal, attentive teaching. His saving mission embraced people of every station, speaking hope to the downcast and seeking the rich and cultured to reveal imperishable riches and win their hearts. He deliberately studied how to reach the rich, seeking the acquaintance of the wealthy and cultured Pharisee, the Jewish nobleman, and the Roman ruler, accepting their invitations, attending their feasts, and becoming familiar with their interests and occupations, so He could gain access to their hearts and reveal to them the imperishable riches.
God's love and saving purpose extend to all mankind, for He sent His Son not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through Him, and Christ did not intend people to remain and die in their sins. That love reaches even professed believers joined in church capacity who do not have all the truth, who are not obedient to all the commandments, and who in many cases are backsliders, and discerning it comes by following on to know the Lord step by step, without seeing the end from the beginning, as He leads and gives increased light for the work ahead. Jesus came to save all who accept Him, not merely the lost sheep of Israel, for His mission was not limited by the prejudice that excluded other peoples, nor to merely a select group, but He went where people had strayed and entered the depths of human suffering with tender love toward all. The world's need of salvation, including the neglected cities that are part of that world, calls God's people to sacrifice and labor earnestly for those who are lost while probation lingers.
That call includes telling the testimony of God's great gift and love in sending His only Son to bear the punishment due for human sin with saving rather than condemning purpose, to those who do not know God, who are ignorant of Him and unaware of their deep need. It makes labor among the colored people and foreigners nearby a broad and almost unworked field for teaching work. Because God sent His Son to suffer a shameful death so souls might be saved, His followers are to be willing to labor and suffer in untiring efforts to warn those about them who are unwarned and have never heard the truths of the last warning message, since the end of all things is near. Since Christ's poverty, oppression, grief, and death on the cross were endured for the world's sake so people could be saved through Him, believers are to reach people who are dying without the truth.
Believers bear testimony that God sent His Son to die for the redemption of sinners and to save sinners rather than condemn the world, when the Holy Spirit controls minds and they are united with Christ and with one another under Christ as one Head. Their unity amid diversity, love and forbearance despite differences in disposition, higher standard in speech, ministry, and spirituality, and cheerful, holy efforts to preserve unity in the faith, with each person confessing his or her own mistakes rather than accusing others, make the mission plain and exalt divine truth as a burning lamp to be understood more and still more clearly. The redeemed thus become living witnesses showing the world what the truth can do, and their oneness, love and transformed obedient character are the most convincing evidence and credential to a discordant world.
That witness is given by representing Him to the world and revealing God's transforming grace, which shapes human character after Christ's likeness and cleanses the heart and refines the character to enable willing obedience, a change brought about by no other power. It requires love toward fellow creatures as enjoined in the last six commandments, for men will be held accountable for how they treat their fellows, and instead of magnifying defects, commenting on them, despising those who have them, picking flaws, condemning and stigmatizing brethren, followers must restore others and impart light and grace with a saving influence in time and eternity. They serve Him with cheerful obedience and not under oppressive restraint, striving daily to increase in knowledge and grow in usefulness while multiplying their powers through given grace, manifesting the mighty power of His grace to transform the heart and bearing the true imprint of His name. They willingly deny themselves and serve others so faith arises in unbelievers, live above the world's standards while letting heavenly light shine through Christlike actions rather than lowering themselves to the world's ways, and refuse sadness and gloom with faces illuminated with the light of heaven so that as they minister to the sick the sick are drawn to the great Physician who longs to restore them to health and impart His peace.
Fathers and mothers are to learn the lesson of God's gift from the Word and teach it to their children, educating and training them in a Christlike manner. God has done enough by giving Christ so people might hear the words of righteousness and the terms of salvation and understand what they must do as children, and this lays the basis for surrounding children with right impressions, helping them step by step to be intelligent about obedience, and bringing them directly to the Saviour in prayer. Parents must awake to their God-given responsibility, never speaking harshly or angrily to children or each other, representing God in spirit and word and act, doing what Christ would do in their place, choosing words well without impatience, keeping the tongue under restraint, revealing the sanctification of true godliness, refusing Satan control of the tongue, and serving as true missionaries in the home. The training they give makes children either Christlike in word and deed or like Lucifer, who was determined to have his own way and be above Christ and was cast out of heaven, and since Christ came to give power to resist the enemy's temptations while Satan strives to mold all into his likeness, parents in the little time left must be daily converted as the Saviour's helpers in speech and action, giving the enemy no advantage in the family, that by wise earnest work to glorify God many neighbors may by their example be won to Christ.
Christ has made full provision for the sanctification of His church, with strength and grace for every soul to be more than a conqueror, and He has gained a victory for all people so that not one human being needs to be lost. Those who accept and practice the truth reveal to the world the power of God's grace to sanctify the human heart, walking in obedience to the commandments of God as the Lord's representatives and lightbearers, while those favored with great light and many opportunities who do not accept the light or improve the opportunities will receive punishment in accordance with their sin. The Father sent His Son to live a life after the heavenly order and to make His love known as Redeemer, with saving sinners remaining the central purpose of His ministry, and because of that sending it is possible for all to live that life by faith of the Son of God, overcoming temptation by the blood of the Lamb, honoring God in words and works and exerting a winning influence for Him. This sending was an infinite sacrifice to be appreciated, the gospel of peace makes this saving purpose known, and the mission given to disciples shares that purpose: they are to represent Him and reveal the Father through their work and walk gently in His footsteps.