17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
The purpose of God in sending His Son into the world was not to condemn or judge the world, though the world was lost in sin. Even after God had judged the world through the universal flood of Noah’s time, people continued to walk in sin. The sins of the rebellious world had been growing and had reached an appalling situation by the time Christ was here on earth. From time to time, God’s prophets were sent to warn Israel to repent and turn to God. They were also chastised, sometimes severely for many years, that they might repent. However, even Israel continued to defy God with their deeds. John the Baptist’s message to the people revealed how rotten and ripe the world was for God’s judgment, for he said, “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10).
When the Son of God was here on earth, the world was hostile to Him. Most people were unrepentant when He rebuked their sins. They were antagonistic towards Him and sought to kill Him. Condemnation of a world that would hate the Son of God would be most fitting. The world that rejected and killed the prophets whom God had earlier sent to call unto repentance, the world that subsequently ridiculed and taunted the Son of God who condescended to this world, was certainly deserving of divine judgment! Jesus Himself had repeatedly reminded the Jews of the inexcusable nature of their actions. Once He said, “Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them … Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation” (Luke 11:47-49).
Notwithstanding the world’s open rebellion against God, the mercy and love of God was manifested through the sending of His Son into this world. Christ came that the world might be saved through Him. If He did not come to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29), the world would never have a Saviour. Let us believe on Christ, the only divine Saviour who came from heaven to this world, that we may be saved from the coming judgment of the world.