God Is Not In The Condemnation Business

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17)  When the mob brought the woman taken in adultery to Jesus, Jesus told the woman that He did not condemn her. God is not in the condemnation business. His plan is a plan of Salvation, not a plan of condemnation. God is a God of light, a God of power, a God of freedom. If we are condemned it is a prison of our own making. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3: 19). We condemn ourselves when we become obsessed with the idea that our evil is more powerful than God’s goodness, that our sins are stronger than Christ’s atonement. We grow to love darkness more than light. After all, if not even God Himself can fix us, then we simply can’t be fixed and thus we no longer need to try to repent or come into the light. We imagine ourselves in some black hole that not even light can get out of, and we grow to love it there because we have no power and thus no responsibility. But this prison that we have fashioned for ourselves is a weak and flawed and imperfect prison, because we as the architects are weak and flawed and imperfect people. We may find it easy to accept that we can never be as good or as strong or as perfect as God, but why should we ever assume that we can condemn ourselves so thoroughly and completely and perfectly that not even God in all His wisdom and might and majesty can find a way to save us? We tried to build a fortress of righteousness against the powers of Satan and we failed and let in the enemy of our souls, so why do we think that when we build a prison of darkness that Christ will be powerless to penetrate the walls of our dungeon and speak peace to our soul? We may be weak and miserable creatures, quick to do evil and slow to remember the Lord our God, but we are not half so quick in our evil, nor half so slow in our remembrance that the Light of Christ can not shine into the darkness of our soul and fill us with hope and power and love. When the Savior pointed out to the adulteress that there were none left to accuse her and that not even God himself did condemn her, He was also inviting her to stop condemning herself. Go, and sin no more. Leave the prison, shake off the chains, pick yourself up and walk in the light. I have not condemned thee so stop condemning yourself. We worship the Savior, not the Condemner. We love the light, not the darkness.