16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall 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 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."
Reflection:
Context is extremely important when dealing with Biblical passages. Imagine someone reading Romans 3:23 and nothing else. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” What type of faulty assumptions could come from taking a verse out of context? Based on Romans 3:23 only; Perhaps a person would presume that there is no hope for any type of reconciliation with God. But, when the person reads the entire context of Romans 3 including the very next verse which says “we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,” the reader will see that there is hope for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
John 3:16 is probably the most popular Bible verse in the entirety of scriptures. All glory be to God, it is a tremendous verse. But, I fear that some people have read John 3:16 and perhaps John 3:17 while purposely ignoring John 3:18.
I see many people quoting John 3:16 emphasizing that God LOVES the world. That is absolutely true; God did love the world so much that He gave His only son. But, many people are using this verse to convey a view of God that is completely one-sided, and that can be very harmful. If they only choose to tell sinners about the love and forgiveness of God while completely ignoring the justice and wrath of God; it can in so many cases lead not only to false conversion, but also complete idolatry. People could actually be led to believe in a false god.
Some people are being led by false teachers to believe that God is a kind loving God who loves the world… and that’s about it. There is barely any mention of sin, justice, or the wrath of God at all in their preachings. This type of witnessing/preaching leads to a misunderstanding of God, doctrine, and even salvation. We must preach, not a partial truth, not a halfway truth, not a flat out lie, but the true gospel of Jesus Christ as presented to us throughout the Bible.
Acts 21:20 - I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
I was talking with an internet friend (let’s say... Shandra) who preaches one of these ‘halfway gospel’ presentations. Shandra preaches that Jesus loves everybody and all they have to do is basically, through prayer, say that they love Him back and immediately they are SAVED. Throughout our conversations, Shandra never once mentioned the wrath of God, payment of sin, the righteousness of God or repentance. Clearly she wasn’t presenting the entire gospel to people.
Shandra quoted “Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn it” from John 3:17 to try and defend her affectionate theological position on salvation. So, I ran off to the scriptures to read the context of the passage. After reading most of John 3, I came to the verse in question, which was John 3:17, and also the very next verse John 3:18. In John 3:18, Jesus clearly explains that the world is already condemned for not believing in God’s one and only Son. While trying to run away from the sin-condemning truth of God’s righteousness, Shandra had successfully backed herself into a Biblical corner of contextual consciousness.
+ Jakab +
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