No Condemnation - Himalayan Heights – July 11 Readings: John 3:17-18 – Condemnation

John 3: Born Again

All Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but there are some Scriptures that we can consider the Himalayan mountaintops of the Bible. In the next few months, we will be looking at a series of great texts that inspire and move us - the "Himalayan Heights" of God's Word.

Today's Reading:  John 3:17-18 

It is one of the strangest and most powerful confrontations in Jesus' life. A Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to him by night to discuss his teachings and Jesus blows his mind by telling him he must be born again. There is som much power and theological importance in these verses. We will spend the entire week looking at this encounter. Each day, read the entire 21 verses and then come back to meditate on the highlighted section.

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.

14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Through the Bible Readings: Ezra 3-4, Acts 11, Psalm 81:1–3, Proverbs 17:7–8

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional: No Condemnation     

This passage forms an odd juxtaposition for me. I have been studying and preaching through Revelation, looking at how Jesus takes the scroll containing God's plan of judgment on the world, breaks its seals, and releases the wrath of God on this wicked world. Then, I read verses 17 and 18, which tell me that Jesus did not come into the world for the purpose of bringing condemnation, but to save the world. The concepts seem almost contradictory. They are not.

God demonstrated his love for us when he sent Jesus into this world and gave us the opportunity to believe in him. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ is immediately forgiven of sin, given a home in heaven for all eternity, and the condemnation which our sin has brought on us from the moment our lives began is gone. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." It is the good news of the gospel that sins are forgiven in Christ.

There is another side to this, though, one that we cannot ignore. Our religious culture has ignored and even anathematized the second half of verse 18. Those who refuse the grace of God, who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation are choosing to remain in their sin and the condemnation that their sins deserve will be theirs.

"All roads lead to the same place." Perhaps there is no more ridiculous statement ever made. It is not true in life and it is not true in eternity. If all roads led to the same place, we wouldn't need road signs and we wouldn't need GPS systems. If you turn north, you head north. If you turn south, you go south. Different turns take you different places.

There are two roads we can take in this life, and only two. Those who believe in Jesus Christ are taking the narrow road that leads to everlasting life. Their sins are forgiven and they have no fear of condemnation. Those who do not believe have chosen a different road, a dark road. It is a wide road and many walk it, but it ends in condemnation and eternal death.

The question I would ask, which has no real answer, is why anyone would reject the amazing love of Christ and choose condemnation instead.

Father, I thank you for the love you showed me in Jesus and for the grace that is mine through faith. Because of him, my sins are forgiven and there is now no condemnation. 

Think and Pray:

If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then take some time to thank him for the forgiveness you have, and the fact that there is no condemnation in Christ.