Thursday: Condemnation
Daily Lesson for Thursday 28th of November 2024
“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. . . . Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that [his] deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light” (John 3:18-21, NIV; compare with John 1:10).
Why do people come into judgment? John 3:18,36; John 5:24,38; John 8:24; John 12:47.
The rejection of Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, leaves us open to doubt and to the temptations of the devil. It is to turn from light to darkness.
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Eve was given light on how to relate to the tree in the center of the garden. Satan tempted her to bring the light into question. She tested God’s word by reasoning that a God of love would not destroy the creatures whom He created. She also relied upon the data of her senses. The serpent has eaten of the fruit and now has the power to speak. Perhaps the serpent is right. If I partake of the fruit, I may become like God! Deceived, she turned away from the light. And her husband chose the same path.
Read Matthew 4:1-4. What principles did Christ use in the wilderness of temptation to combat the deceptions of Satan?
Christ had at His disposal the same humanistic tool of thought used by Adam and Eve, the antediluvians, and Israel at Kadesh Barnea. He could have asked why a God of love would leave His Son in the wilderness for 40 days and nights without food and protection. He also could have determined to prove His Sonship by turning stones into bread! Instead, He answered with the Word of God. He operated on the level of heavenly things rather than on earthly patterns of thought. How easily He could have rationalized His way to a wrong decision, which so many people, even people of faith, often do.
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I taught computer programming back in the days when real people programmed computers. One of the goals of my classes was to teach students to write maintainable code. This was in the early days of personal computers where every kid that was interested in computing had conned their parents (or grandparents) into buying them a Commodore 64 or a Tandy TRS-80. If you wanted to do anything with these computers you had to write the code. If you wanted to play a sophisticated game like Tic-tac-toe, you bought a book of computer games and typed it in yourself. These kids would arrive at my class sure that they knew all about computer programming after having self-taught themselves to write programs in BASIC. The problem was that non of their programs were maintainable. You needed to be a crypto-analyst to work out what they had written. And in the real world of serious computing you had to write maintainable code.
I remember one particular student who stubbornly refused to learn how to write maintainable code. I set an assignment to create a year calendar with a 3x4 layout of the months. They were to write it in a series of modules with each module doing a particular task. He wrote it with no modules at all. His excuse was that his program was much shorter than mine. I explained that shortness was not what we were after. I wanted maintainable code that other people could look at and modify when he could no longer do so. (I also reckoned that he would not be able to maintain it himself 6 months down the track)
I failed that student, or did I? The problem for him was that he was so sure that his program was better than mine that he did not understand the lesson I was trying to teach him. His perception of himself blinded him to a new and better way of programming.
Condemnation in the spiritual sense is something we bring on ourselves because our opinion of ourselves is blocking our vision of Jesus. Satan's big temptation for Eve was that she could be better than God. The history of the Hebrews is filled with examples of where they thought they could be better than they could with God. Some Christians are warned that we, too, can have a false sense of being better than God.
The message to the Laodacieans, "Get your eyes fixed! You have an inflated opinion of yourselves!"
A prayer for growing Christians: "Lord keep me humble and teachable!" There is no condemnation in that.
Why do people come into judgement? I would like do a 180 cause there is a cumulonimbiform cloud ahead. So why do people do things that bring themselves to distruction? My answer is:
Proverbs 28:1 MSG
[1] The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off even when no one’s after them; Honest people are relaxed and confident, bold as lions.
Spiritual condemnation is the result of sin and rejecting the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Rejecting Jesus Christ, the Light of the world is what brings condemnation. It is the state of being separated from God and under His judgment due to sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). It is not merely a future punishment (e.g., eternal separation from God after judgment) but begins in the present for those who reject Christ. This is a spiritual reality.
We stand condemned for deliberately ignoring what God has intentionally purposed for our salvation. God will hold us accountable for not responding to the truth which we ought to know. “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” Romans 1:18-20 – NLT).
Why does rejecting Jesus bring condemnation? In John 3:19–20, Jesus is described as the "light" that has come into the world. Rejecting Him means rejecting the very source of truth, life, and reconciliation with God. Jesus is the only means by which humanity can be reconciled with God (John 14:6). Rejecting Him means rejecting the only available remedy for sin, leaving individuals in their condemned state (John 3:18). Condemnation is not something God imposes unfairly. It results from human choice. Those who reject Jesus choose to remain in their sin and separation from God.
To avoid condemnation, we must place our faith in Jesus Christ, acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior. This faith involves repentance and trust in His redemptive work. The Gospel of Jesus Christ offers hope: through belief in Him, we can be freed from condemnation and brought into eternal life.
Jesus didn't arrive on planet Earth innately knowing the Scriptures from cover to cover. He had to learn and memorize Scripture like us (Luke 2:40, 52). Jesus is God so everything He said was God's Word, and yet He always referred to what was already written, both in making sense of His own life and in His ministry for other people (Luke 4:4, 8, 10; Mark 7:6; Matthew 21:13; Mark 14:21).
How did Jesus know Scripture so well?
And Sinclair Ferguson’s chapter on “The Spirit of Christ” (in his book The Holy Spirit) says:
And one more passage, this one from Pr. David Mathis in his article "How Jesus Knew the Word", shares how for Jesus, taking in and processing Scripture throughout His years before His public ministry began was like taking in oxygen....and continued to be His lifeblood until the end. We can infer that Jesus spent so much time with Scripture because He trusted it.
Yes Esther, Jesus had a wonderful home schooling experience.
Romans 8:1 says that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ...., but the qualifying phrase in the text is that we must be in Christ and also be walking in the Spirit. The text is saying that we must accept Christ as our savior and we also need the Holy Spirit to be able to walk in the path that Christ has set for us.
I agree with the lesson that rejecting Jesus leaves us open to doubt and temptation, but I would argue that the situation is even more dire. When I look at John 3:18, I feel it strongly suggests that those who reject Jesus are already condemned. It's not that they may end up that way, but they are that way.
If we live apart from God, He doesn't need to condemn us - our state of sin has already done that. I feel that's why Jesus said that He doesn't judge those who don't believe. He doesn't need to - they have judged themselves and their fallen state condemns them.
And yes, the result of this is doing many bad things, but the root problem is much more serious.
Thinking.
Thanks Christina for your typical insightful comment. It was our father Adam 1, our federal head/representative, who completely exposed us to “doubt and temptation”, even to condemnation (Rom 5:16-21; Eph 2:3). We are by nature “children of wrath” under condemnation. Such that rejection of Christ leaves us “abiding under the wrath of God”(Jn 3:36). Unless God actually intervenes (Jn 6:39,43-45,65) we will always reject heavenly things, naturally.
There's no condemnation to those who believe,that's the punchline.
It is really true that our sins condemn us, and is high time we changed our deeds as Christians.
Believing in Jesus by receiving Him is the process of being born again. "He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. John 1:10-13 NLT.
Without the new birth, humans cannot escape the condemnation of having rebelled against God. How marvelous it is to receive Jesus.
God is truly amazing. He did not send Jesus to condemn us for being sinners. Instead, His condemnation comes from our rejection of the Light that He has sent to reveal our sins and save us from them. As a result, no one will have an excuse for their condemnation, as the opportunity for salvation has been given to all.