This one verse tells us the world is under condemnation; lost, ruined, and undone. Men are exercised about the world today, and alarmed at its condition. Many see the social evils, and hope they can remedy the grievous state the world is in. But, alas! all the evil, and suffering, and affliction is the outcome of SIN. Sin is in the heart of man, and the result we see all around us. The world is lost; and you were born in that condition, and nothing in yourself, or in your fellow man can remove it. You are a lost sinner.
But God’s eye is on this scene; His heart is full of love and compassion for it; verse 16 tells us, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Why did He give Him? Why did He spare Him from His side to come down here to suffer, bleed, and die? Because He loved lost sinners, loved you. Our verse tells us His object in sending His Son was “that the world through Him should be saved.” God is concerned about this world’s lost estate. He, the Just and Holy God, He it is Whose affections are moved that this lost world might be saved! And in order to effect it, He sent His Son into it. “God is Light”; and if He sends His Son, not to condemn, but to save the world, He must be consistent with Himself as Light in doing it. The Son of God might come into this scene, and walk through it to the glory of God the Father; His feet ever going about, doing good; and His hand outstretched to heal countless complaints; but that would not retrieve the dire condition the world was in, LOST.
But he went to the cross, hanged there between two malefactors; God’s wrath was poured on Him there, and He died there, not for Himself, but for the sins of His people. Paul could say, “The Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me”; and the saved sinner who pens this can reiterate it today, and say, “He gave Himself for me.”
But the world has no confidence in God. It rests on its own works, for it lacks that wherewith it can trust God, although he loved it, and sent His Son. But the world does not trust Him. Oh, how man misjudges God! Have you done so? Have you thought of Him as One Who demands this, that, or the other? He does not; He desires you should accept what He has given.
Man’s heart is full of sin, and because of that he loves his evil deeds. “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” The blessed Lord Jesus, although “Love” is also “Light,” and when alone in His presence the light shines on the conscience, and reveals one to be a sinner, lost, and without hope, without power to retrieve the position. And men prefer to stay in the darkness, for they love their sins, their evil.
Oh, blessed statement, one of the grandest ever written! We have seen that “all have sinned,” all are under condemnation; and now we see that all in Christ are free from condemnation! Blessed be His Name, this is true of the worst sinner who reads this, if he is resting on the finished work of Christ on the cross. Why? Because such an one is “in Christ.” This is God’s word: this is true. What assurance! What safety! What peace! No judgment because in Christ. This shall stand, when heaven and earth flee away.
“There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ.” Christ died for sinners; Christ paid the penalty for sinners; Christ is risen and gone into glory for the sinners for whom He died. The question of sin cannot be settled in heaven; it must be settled, and it has been settled, on earth; and I, for one, know it is settled; and I know there is no condemnation for me because I am in Christ. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.” Yes, God justifies the sinner who believes in His Christ. Oh, but what a sinner he has been! Never mind; “it is GOD that justifies.” “Who is he that condemneth?” “It is Christ that died; yea rather, that is risen again; Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.”
QUARTUS.