Neither do I condemn you

Published on Updated on Catholic, Fear, God the Father, Holiness, Jesus Christ, Sin

Today’s Christian leaders could learn from the Lord Jesus. Unlike them, Jesus did not condemn sinners.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

God desires all people to be saved. He takes no delight in people being condemned.

However, many Christians have this backwards. They imagine the LORD God gets a sort of sadistic delight from damning people.

They see the Lord Jesus Christ as a sort of “Condemner-in-Chief.”

They fear him as their judge. They dread that he will be angry with them. They want to keep him as far away from themselves as they can.

They feel Jesus is so exalted and holy and fearsome that they need to find some sort of an intermediary between themselves and Jesus Christ.

Medieval Catholic clerics exploited that fear as a way of promoting devotion to Mary. They preached messages like this:

Jesus will be the judge of the living and the dead. So flee to Mary, who is merciful.

People get Jesus Christ so twisted around that they live in angst.

In our day, plenty of preachers play into that angst. They center their message on the anger of God.

They focus on God’s wrath, his righteous indignation, his offense at sin. They use those as a sort of scare-tactic to frighten you into becoming a loyal member of their congregation.

 

But those intuitions miss the whole point of what God the Father was doing in Jesus Christ.

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. The mission of Jesus Christ is not that of condemnation.

 

The Lord Jesus undoes condemnation. He saves.

Who is targeted for that salvation? The world.

God’s free offer of salvation is extended to all people. God reaches out to all people of all time. He desires that all people be saved.

See, for example, 1 Timothy 2:4.

 

Yet God does not force eternal salvation upon anyone. People have complete freedom to accept God’s generous offer. Or to decline it.

We hope you wish all people to be saved:

  • People like you
  • People who are different from you
  • People in your nation
  • People in other nations

The LORD God desires that they all be saved.

 

BIBLE VERSES

 

Isaiah 55:7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Ezekiel 33:11. Tell them, ‘ “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?” ’

Sirach 21:1. My son, have you sinned? add no more thereto; And make supplication for your former sins.

John 3:17. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

John 8:11. She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”

1 Timothy 2:3-4. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.