The has
been much confusion about the above two verses, some have interpreted this as God's
condemnation of people who do not believe, but this is not the nature of God.
Much like a New Year's resolution, it is so common to condemn ourselves when we
fail to measure up to a higher expectation to be better than we are, we tend to
beat ourselves up with guilt and shame when we fail to meet that set standard
or expectation.
God knows we are human and prone to failure because of the
weakness of our imperfect, fallen nature; it is when we project that guilt upon
God that He gets an undeserved bad rap for something He did not do.
The previous
verse to today's verses is John 3:16 which describes the nature of God at its
fullest:
"For this is how much God loved the world—he gave
his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him
will never perish but experience everlasting life."
John 3:16-18 (TPT)
The nature of God is love, and it's never to condemn but
to love unconditionally and continuously.
He gave something so precious and
dear to Him which was His Son as payment (or ransom) for
our redemption from Satan. Satan is the one who played the dirty trick on us to
deceive us into believing that we could be like God and have all knowledge,
it's not necessarily a good thing to know good and evil for it sets us up to
fail, which was Satan's plan all along.
Humanity was not created to deal with
evil from the outset; humankind was created to be a caretaker of all of God's
creation. God saw humanity as a companion for Himself to be a reflection (or image) of
who God is; it is at that point that Satan intervened and corrupted humanity.
Humanity has struggled with guilt and shame from that day forward.
The main struggle is believing that we can be as God
Himself and make decisions that only He can make; we are not greater or higher
than the God who created us.
God's ultimate plan was for us to put our trust
and confidence in Him alone, not in His decision or thoughts but actually in
Him.
In the book of Genesis, this is why it is said that God walked in the
garden in the cool of the evening, He walked and talked with Adam. There was a
relationship between the God of creation and the imager that He created; God
wanted Adam to be like Him. There was an intimacy between them both as they
shared the details of their thoughts and ideas; the original intent was that
they were one and the same, much like a marriage, the two becoming one.
"Marriage is the beautiful design of the Almighty, a
great and sacred mystery—meant to be a vivid example of Christ and his church." Ephesians 5:32
(TPT)
In our day we have the loving example of Jesus Christ who
is not just our savior, He is everything to the believer because (like God in the Garden) He desires that we be like Him and become His
imagers once again, reflecting the very nature of God Himself.
"In this new creation life, your nationality makes
no difference, or your ethnicity, education, or economic status—they matter
nothing. For it is Christ that means everything as he lives in every one of us!" Colossians 3:11
(TPT)
This new life in Christ Jesus is all about being
transformed into a new man, shedding off the old sinful nature and letting
Christ transform us into what God intended for His imagers to become living
reflections of His glory.
"And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious
Christ-within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has
re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong
to him in the realm of true holiness." Ephesians 4:24
(TPT)
So you see, there never was a time when God wanted to
condemn humanity, His thoughts were only to restore every man, woman, and child
into right relationship with Him, that they might reflect who He is to the
world and draw all men unto Himself.
"And I will do this when I am lifted up off
the ground and when I draw the hearts of people to gather them to me." John 12:32 (TPT)
It is the love of God, which is the motiving factor in
His desire to reach out to all of humanity. When we say God is love, we mean He
is the embodiment of all love, that He would do anything possible to restore us
into a relationship with Him, even to go as far as to die for us.
That is
amazing love.
Be Blessed;
Stephen Barnett
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