Judges 19:1-30; John 3:16-21; Psalms 104:8-23; Proverbs 22:17-19
NT: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.” (John 3:16-21 CSB)
Isaiah 53:6 says that we all, like sheep, have gone astray and turned to our own way. The Apostle Paul explained in Romans 3:23 that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Sin entered the human race at the fall of mankind, and all of mankind since then has had sin etched in their DNA. Just like a virus invades our bodies and injects its harmful genetic material into our cells… just like cancer causes our cells to mutate away from their original design and purpose, so sin has infected us and caused our entire race to mutate into something other than our original intent and purpose. Because of sin, we are all condemned to death, unless we are provided with a cure. Enter the one and only Son of God. God loves us deeply and does not want us to suffer the fate of our condemnation – so He sent His one and only Son as the one and only cure that can eradicate the virus and cancer of sin. Jesus didn’t come to condemn sinners – we were and are already condemned. He came to save sinners from their condemnation. Just as if we will die if we refuse the only cure for our disease, if we refuse Jesus, our condemnation remains… sin continues to ravage our lives until we eventually experience eternal death. When mankind sinned, the earth was cast into darkness – manipulated by the kingdom of darkness. Eventually, darkness leads to blindness – and we see the effects of that blindness all around us. The only remedy to darkness is light… and the Light has come. For those who have suffered in darkness for a while, light can be painful… and as such, many prefer the blinding darkness than to deal with the healing, yet painful consequences of coming into the light. To come into the light, one has to actually acknowledge their shortcomings and sin… they actually have to stop catering to their carnal desires and learn to live a righteous and disciplined life in the Lord… they have to stop being the lords of their own lives and surrender to the Lordship of Christ – so for many, they prefer the anonymity and unaccountability they have in the dark. If you desire to have life, the only way out of the condemnation of death is through the Son. If you desire to fully see and fully know the truth, the only way out of darkness is to come into the Light. The choice is yours.
Jamie Hicks 