What Was Jesus' Mission on Earth?預覽

Jesus did not (yet) come as a Judge

“I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” (John 12:47)

When John the Baptist announced Jesus' coming, he warned the people, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). In other words, Jesus will judge mankind.

That's right; Jesus Himself says so in Matthew 13:30, for example. But that comes later, at Jesus' second coming. Only then will He act as Judge. The purpose of His first coming was not to condemn the world, but to save it. He offers us humans a way out to escape the judgment we have earned through our own sins. And He is the only possible way out; therefore, anyone who does not believe in His Name is in fact condemned already (John 3:18).

God is just, therefore He will bring fair judgment. But He is also loving, which is why He gives us humans every opportunity to change our lives before the judgment comes. In Peter's 2nd letter, we even read that this is why God allows this world to continue, because He wants everyone to repent and no one to be lost.

Are you already saved?