"God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
(John 3:17)
I shared an illustration this past Sunday from Philip Yancey's book, "What's So Amazing About Grace?", in which he tells the story of a young prostitute in Chicago whose struggles not only placed her life in jeopardy, but her two year-old daughter's as well. When a counselor encouraged her perhaps to turn to a church for help, she responded, "Why would I ever go there?" One might consider her circumstance extreme and wrongly dismiss her concerns, but there are a lot of people in many different kinds of life circumstance who feel the same way..."Why would I ever go there?"
For all the grace we talk and sing about, we Christians can still be very judgmental in our attitudes. Jesus spoke quite clearly about this kind of attitude, telling his followers in Matthew 7, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Having just spoken the familiar words of salvation to Nicodemus that many of us learned as children in John 3:16, he immediately follows those words with our text for today. His purpose was not condemnation, but salvation. Perhaps that is why many of the outcasts of his day sought him and received him. He knocked down the barriers of self-righteous religion, focusing instead on the heart. Of course, he paid a price for it...he was often condemned by the pious people of faith around him.
To love, forgive, and accept those that others condemn will always demand a heavy price. For Jesus, the price demanded for such grace was a cross. If we are to take up that cross, can we expect anything less?
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for not sending your Son to condemn, but to save. Amen.
Jim Abernathy
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