Jesus Saves, Not Condemns by John Frattarola

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

All of the world’s religions, even some sects of Christianity, are based on a man-centered premise. Simplified, the assumption is that man is intrinsically good and only need discover his goodness through some sort of self-realization; or that man somehow lost his goodness and must regain it by appeasing God through ritual and self-atoning works; or that man is morally neutral and will eventually become one with the universe.

But true, biblical Christianity begins and ends with God. True Christianity rightly understands and recognizes that man, the highest being in God’s creation, fell from a state of spiritual, physical, and moral perfection when he freely and willfully chose to disobey God. Consequently, with the exception of Jesus, the Son of God, every human who has ever been conceived since that initial fall from grace, including the present generation and continuing through the end of time, is a sinner. That is why we, as humans, sin—because we are sinners. The sins we commit don’t make us sinners; they simply demonstrate that, indeed, we are sinners. And as such, we have absolutely no hope to save ourselves in this life or in the life to come, no matter what religious view we hold (and we all hold one).

Jesus, Himself, tells us that God the Father did not send Him to condemn the world because the world is already self-condemned by man’s act of disobedience (John 3:17-19). God sent Jesus to save the world—that whoever would exercise trusting faith in His life, death, and resurrection would not be lost eternally but would have eternal life in and with Him. The scenario can be likened to condemned humanity floating helplessly, and in many cases, ignorantly, downstream towards a Niagara Falls of eternal punishment. While many promising flotation devices are continually being tossed into the moving current, only one preserver is able to securely rescue someone out of that deadly flow. The choice, though, is up to each individual to reach out and grasp that life preserver. Refusal to do so is to surely perish. No one else can be blamed.

In every other religion, man finds himself trying to do something for God, or the gods, in order to save himself. Only in true Christianity has God Himself done all to save man. Nineteenth century British minister J.C. Ryle put it this way, “Although man’s salvation is entirely of God, his ruin, if he is lost, will be entirely from himself.”

Sadly, too many refuse God’s offer of life. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The roar of the falls is getting louder with each passing day. Reach out today for the only life preserver that can save—Jesus Christ (John 3:16).