Saved, Or Condemned? John 3:16-17

Text:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish (Eternally), but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16.

Good morning, Eternally SAVED Christian!  Did the Lord God save you, but now depends on your ‘good works’ to keep you saved?  When the Lord God saved you, did He give you Eternal life, or was His gracious gift merely temporal?  When you are feeling depressed, do you doubt God’s love for you?  When you fall into sin - and all we sinners do - does God take His gift of Eternal life from us again?  Can we be given the gift of believing faith in Christ Jesus and end up condemned by our Holy Lord God of absolute wrath against sin? 

All these questions are successfully asked and answered in the verses of today’s selected Scripture as we continue Journeying With John through his account of the Gospel.  Praise God it is so!

“Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ASK for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls…”  (Jeremiah 6:16)

Only those seeking truth from God’s Word are blessed with enlightenment from Him.  If we do not ask for such Scriptural wisdom, we will never find it.  Therefore, we must learn to continually ask that we might continually receive of the Living Lord God.     (James 1:5)

Salvation:  The only real Salvation for sinful mankind is in God’s free gift of Salvation - and exclusively through the Cross of Christ Jesus.  Salvation is God’s gift to us, we cannot earn it; work our way towards it; pay for it ourselves; or do any other deed to keep the Salvation gift we are given.  Fact.

“For by grace and ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man/woman should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Eternal Salvation:  Our text today - one of the most universally well known Bible texts internationally - clearly teaches us the fact that God gives all who trust in Christ Jesus’ Sacrifice at the Cross ‘…everlasting life…’.

Arminian believers (adhering to the teachings of Joseph Arminius 1560-1609), on the other hand, set forth the idea that one can be saved by God and then eventually lost! 

The ‘…everlasting life…’ aspect offered by Christ in our text today is thereby - in some contradictory manner - reduced to a mere transient period!  The gift of Eternal (or ‘…everlasting…’) life offered by the Living Lord Jesus is demoted to something that is much less than a free gift of God’s grace; more of a conditional hint that we might have everlasting life, but only as we are humanly able to keep ourselves in a ‘…state of continuing grace…’!  What nonsense!

We are saved and kept by the power of God, or we are not saved and kept at all!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you, who are KEPT by the power of God through faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  (1 Peter 1:3-5)  Hallelujah!  Saved and kept by the Lord!

Saved Or Condemned?: (V.18)  Verse 18 of our Bible passage for today is startling in its clarity and precision of understanding.  Whosoever believeth (I.e.  trusts and keeps on trusting) on Him (Christ Jesus and His Sacrifice at Calvary’s Cross) is NOT condemned. 

Whosoever does NOT believe, does not trust and keep right on trusting completely on Christ and His finished work of Redemption on the Cross, is condemned already!  Why?  Because he/she does not believe in the Name of the only begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus.  What Divine clarity!

Light Or Darkness?:  (Vs.19-20)  Why is so much evil done in the darkness?  Because mankind since the Fall of Adam/Eve in the Garden have tried to hide our evil deeds from the light of God’s Presence. (Genesis 3:7-8)

When we are given faith to believe the truth of the Gospel of Salvation in Christ alone, we immediately come to the Light; confess our sins; and repent from them.  We ask the Lord God to help us not to sin against Him any more - and come promptly to Him in progressive confession when we do, in order to be cleansed from all sin and renewed to full fellowship with Him again.

If this is your personal experience, dear friend, then rejoice.  For the Lord God has taken you and I from the darkness and taught us to love the Light.

Thought:  Is your Salvation experience Eternally secure in the Blood?