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For God So Loved The World....


          For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:16-21)

          There’s good news! God loved the world enough to send His Son! Eternal life is possible! God didn’t send His Son to condemn the world! We can all sit back with a sigh of relief, everyone can go to heaven! That’s as much as some of us get from this passage. The rest of the news isn’t so good, so we brush it aside. Let’s just focus on the positive.
         Of course, there’s a problem with that sort of thinking. The good news we enjoy so much is only good news because the bad news exists. The reason God sent His Son was to save the world, but that means that the world is broken. His Son didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, because the world was already condemned. The Light came into the world, but people loved darkness. As John mentioned back in chapter one, He came into the world, but the world didn’t know Him or receive Him. To those who did receive Him, He gave eternal life. All that means nothing if everyone receives eternal life.
          Why should I bother to love anyone, if love isn’t necessary in order to go to heaven? Why should you obey any laws? Why did Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Jude, James, Paul and the author of Hebrews – or any of the writers of the Old Testament bother to write any of it down? Some will claim because people wanted control, but every one of them failed to gain control. If what we believe, and what we do doesn’t matter, if heaven is guaranteed to all of us anyway, then what was the purpose of Jesus’ death? Was is just some meaningless gesture?
          If it was just to suggest to us that kindness is better than meanness, why was it necessary? Are we so stupid that we can’t figure that out on our own? Except, we can’t seem to stop being mean. We aren’t enough. We need something more. That’s why Jesus came. He is the something more.
          So what’s the problem? He came. He solved the problem. We all go to heaven. What about the people who rejected, or who do reject Him? Oh, well, they just realize their error and it’s all good. Let me ask you a brutal question. If a man forces himself on a woman who rejects him, is she supposed to realize the error of her ways and it’s all good? What do we call someone who doesn’t give other people any real choices or respect those real choices? How can a loving God send people to hell? Quite simply because the alternative is repugnant – spiritual rape… spiritual slavery.

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