And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. – John 3:19
If we take God seriously and read His Word as He intends us to read it, He may seem to be angry, unjust, harsh, and difficult. After all, as this verse indicates, there is judgment because if our sins and works of evil. But what God is saying here is that He has come to cancel all charges against us, to turn His judgment away from us who truly deserve His judgment, and instead focus His wrath and judgment onto His only Son the Christ so that by His death on the cross we no longer have to mourn or fear judgment.
God no longer remembers our sins, none of them, not the sin we were born with nor the sins we’ve committed since. “Everything is settled,” says the Lord, “simply believe in my Son.”
Yet there is still judgment looming over this world. Why? Because people continue to reject the Christ.
What would we say of a person who drank deadly poison but refuses to be helped and cured by a physician? What would we say of that person if he refuses treatment, insists he’s not sick or going to die, that the poison isn’t harmful, and even threatens the physician’s life for offering the cure? Would we not call him mad? Likewise, when people reject the eternal cure from sin and death – the blood of Christ – they are spiritually mad, and spiritual madness is a thousand times worse than poison, because rejecting Christ means eternal judgment to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Your only son to cure me of my disease of sin and evil. Keep me in the one true faith for all my days so that I may enter into my eternal rest in heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen.
CLEAR, CONCISE, CONSISTENT… Issues, Etc. is a radio-talk show and podcast produced by Lutheran Public Radio in Collinsville, IL and hosted by LCMS Pastor Todd Wilken. This week’s teachings include: God’s Word in the Christian home, the hymn “Lord of Our Life,” the Religiously Unaffiliated Spiritual Nones, Witchcraft and more. You can listen at your convenience at issuesetc.org, the LPR mobile app and your favorite podcast provider.