For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.
John 3:17 AMPC
The verse before this one is the universal invitation to all men to accept the free gift that has been offered, in order to enjoy the eternal benefits also promised. There is an eternal consequence to every man's choice, whatever it turns out to be. I cannot make a choice for anyone else; I must decide for myself alone.
Why the gift, the conditions and the eternal consequences? We were made for eternity. Our lives were not meant to end; at least, that was the original plan in the Garden of Eden before sin came to distort the original. God created us for fellowship and communion with him, and this eternal purpose still stands, no matter what the devil does to distort it.
Sin came with condemnation; Christ could not have come to perpetuate the same conditions. His coming was to restore man to his original state, as originally established by God. Christ didn't come to hold an axe over our lives by judging our cases and holding us guilty, without first offering us a way out of the consequences of our sin. He came in our own human form, offered a once-in-a-lifetime and valid-for-all-time sacrifice to deal with the roots of sin and plant the seed of Righteousness through his Life in us.
It does not matter what the world offers you: you are only safe and sound in Christ. The world does not have the answer to the question of eternity. Only the Word of God does. You can only provide a solution when you understand the origin of the problem or you are older, wiser and bigger than the problem. That is what Christ is. He is God's standards- bearer, the One who can bring us to the place of eternal hope and rest. Do you know him? Have you surrendered to Him? Does he know you as his own? His time of favour is here.
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