John 3:18 (NIV) teaches us:
Whoever does not believe stands condemned already!
…but what exactly does that mean?
Let’s find out!
It is not God Who condemnes us but our own conscience that condemns us.
The context of John 3 is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you do not believe that Jesus died for you, you cannot rise with Him in a new life.
For….
Romans 6:6-7 (BSB)
….we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
If we do not believe that we are free from sin, we condemn ourselves in our conscience.
Therefore, whoever does not believe is already condemned.
Jesus therefore did not come so that our sins could finally be forgiven, but to free us from our sins.
Jesus is the Lamb who was slain for us.
What lamb is slaughtered in the Old Testament for the forgiveness of sins?
None!
Jesus is the lamb that is slaughtered just before the exodus from Egypt.
Egypt is a picture of slavery.
There, people had to work very hard for Pharaoh.
Pharaoh was seen as a god.
So there was hard labor for the god of this world.
But God wants to bring us into His rest. (Hebrews 4:1)
He does it for us.
We cannot do it from ourselves; we must expect it from Him!
Isaiah puts it like this:
Isaiah 26:12 (ESV)
O LORD, you will ordain peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
Jesus is therefore the lamb that was slaughtered for deliverance from sin.
Sin are dead works.
It is the works we do to justify ourselves.
They are works we do to reach heaven.
You see this depicted in the story of the tower of Babel.
They were trying to reach heaven from earth.
But God comes from heaven to earth to exalt us to heaven.
He came to reveal to us our true identity so that we may be changed from the inside out.
But the thoughts of the flesh are at enmity against God (Rom 8: 7).
The thoughts of the flesh condemn ourselves!
These thoughts from the flesh is satan.
You see this, for example, with Jesus in the desert.
God says about Jesus:
Matthew 3:17 (NKJV)
This is My beloved son!
Then Satan comes,
the thoughts from the flesh,
and says to Him:
Matthew 4:3 (NKJV)
If you are the son of God….
But Jesus didn’t live according to the flesh, He lived according to the Spirit.
And the Spirit had made known to Him His true identity: You are the Son of God!
It is our conscience that condemns us.
But when we let God judge us we are free,
for His judgment is grace.
Hebrews 9:13-14 (NKJV)
For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer,
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
