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Not To Condemn

            For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:17)

Today’s passage takes me back to yesterday’s passage. If anyone in or out of the universe has a right to be angry, it’s God. Yes, He knew that if He created all that we perceive as being reality, we would rebel against Him, but that doesn’t change the fact that we did. It also doesn’t change the fact that if we were in His place, as we so often try to be, that our response would be to condemn the world, or at least most of the individuals in it, for their crimes against us. We would be angry. We might claim we wouldn’t be, that we would do a better job of loving everyone than God does, but as soon as someone rejected our preferences for the universe, we would be sorely tempted to solve the problem by removing the person.

But Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world. That wasn’t His purpose 2000 years ago, and it’s not His purpose today. He will, ultimately, condemn the world (and in a sense, He already has) but His goal was and still is to save. This is one of those cases where we should really spend some time meditating on the orders of magnitude of difference between Jesus and ourselves, and with it, to stand amazed, in awe, ashamed, and repentant. While we would (and often do) point our fingers, He extends His hand.

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