#DailyDevotion If The Gospel Isn’t For Everyone, Then It Isn’t Gospel.
Lent Day 26
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
While many people like verse 16 I prefer verse 17. Too many people have turned verse 16 into law by making believing in that verse to something you have to do instead of a descriptive condition. Instead of God giving you the gift of faith as in Ephesians or something God gives you through the hearing of the Word of Christ, (Roman 10), they get you thinking faith must be something you must gin up in yourselves.
Now verse 17 here is something God can use to give you the gift of faith, a Word of Christ which the Holy Spirit uses to create faith in you. Like the preceding verse we do have the wonderful statement concerning the world. God loved the world. That means everyone and everything in it. God sends his Son into the world to save it, not to condemn it. So unless you’re not of this world, this cosmos, then Jesus here is talking about you. God loves you. God saved you through Jesus.
This is the wonderful all inclusive Gospel. Salvation has been obtained for you because you are part of this world. Paul in 2 Corinthians tells us much of the same thing when he writes, God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. Our doubts can only be erased by such universal coverage of Christ’s saving work. Only when we can point to Jesus and say there in, by and through him alone is the certainty of my salvation can our uncertainties be crushed and be replaced by a certain and abiding hope.
Now don’t not like verse 16. It is a wonderful verse when properly understood. We still have God’s love for the world. As long as we understand faith is a gift from God it can be wonderfully comforting.
Heavenly Father grant unto us such faith that we can be comforted in your primary will towards us in your Son Jesus Christ which is love and not condemnation, so we may overcome all sin and darkness in our hearts and expose ourselves to your marvelous light without fear. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.