Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 1 Study # 13
October 22, 2023
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: All of the issues of "Legal Justice" are clarified in regard to "believing".
Introduction: In our last study we considered what it means to be "saved" -- forgiveness of sins; exemption from Legal Justice; participation in the quality of experience called "Life"; and to be granted entrance into The Kingdom of The God when it comes.
Today we are going to look into Author-John's "Recap" of the "Judgment" issue.
- I. The Clarification Of The Purpose Of God For Sending His Son.
- A. The "For" ("gar", found in 62 of John's texts) is the fourth of John's uses and follows his pattern of use: to introduce "an explanation".
- B. The God did not send...
- C. God did send...
- D. Recap.
- 1. The one believing into Him is not being judged [Present Passive Indicative].
- a. The "believing" is "into Him" (Romans 10:10).
- b. The "believing" is present tense (not relying upon a past "belief", nor anticipating a possible future "failure of belief").
- c. The "judging" is present tense, but passive voice: someone else is "not judging".
- d. The exemption is real (Romans 8:1).
- 1) The focus of "not being judged" is rooted in Law.
- 2) The issue of "Law" is the issue of being rejected by God in respect to being an heir of His Kingdom. Jesus' first issue with Nicodemus in this context is whether, or not, a man will see and enter into the Kingdom.
- 3) The outcome of "judgment by Law" is more than "rejection" regarding the Kingdom; it is also the imposition of the consequences of legal failure (failure before Justice).
- a) In Author-John's first mention of Moses (1:17), the issue of the difference between Law and Grace is declared.
- b) Then in 5:45 Moses is declared to be the one who accuses men because they, according to 7:19, do not carry out the Law: Jesus says, "...none of you carries out the Law...". To "set your hope" upon Moses who "accuses you" is a fool's game.
- c) This "outcome" is not just a "proving of one's total disqualification for being accepted by God"; it is the imposition of the consequences of "dying in one's sins" (John 8:21 and 24). This is the basis for Revelation 20:15.
- 2. But the one not believing already has been judged [Perfect Passive Indicative].
- a. The "not believing" is present tense (wiping out any earlier claim to faith without denying a future possibility of faith).
- b. The "has been judged" is an "already" reality rooted in the past (denying that judgment is the result of personal failures of performance requirements).
- 1) The failures of performance is a demonstration of the reality of standing under judgment.
- 2) The question of timing exists: is the Perfect Tense only referring to a short time prior entrance into judgment?
- 3) John's statements that address this "timing" question.
- a) In 1:9 he wrote that Jesus, The Word, is the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world.
- i. The question of whether the "coming into the world" refers to The True Light or to every man needs our thought.
- i) The issue of "every man" pretty much eliminates tying the phrase to The True Light because there is no real sense to the notion that it was the coming of The True Light that "enlightens every man" (Jesus was not in contact with "every man" in the physical presence that He manifested by "becoming flesh and dwelling among us").
- ii) The text of 1:10 indicates that Jesus' presence as the Light is rooted in the "creation of the world", not in His "becoming flesh" (with this Paul agrees in Romans 1:20 where he claims that it is creation that makes His eternal power and divine nature known).
- iii) However, 1:11 indicates that even when Jesus actually did come into the world as a human being, the response was the same: His physical, bodily presence made no greater impact upon the world than did His metaphysical presence before the incarnation. In other words, the "problem" was not that there was not sufficient content of Truth for men who did not believe -- the increase of specificity did not change men's attitudes.
- ii. Thus, the "judgment" is not related to man's "sins" which the Lamb was to deal with; it is related to man's deeply ingrained antagonism toward the God Who was to become that Lamb.
- i) That the Lamb was to deal with the "sin" issue is a proof of the Love of God.
- ii) That men reject "faith in the Lamb" means that they are committed to "loving darkness" (3:19).
- b) In 1:12-13 John makes it very clear that the "believing" is rooted in the "birthing" that has no roots in human effort or activity: the "birthing" is "BUT of God".
- i. This concept of the second birth is as old as Genesis 15:6.
- ii. The truth of Genesis 15:6 is heavily emphasized by Paul as he used Habakkuk 2:4 to disassociate men's "right standing before God" from his performance issues to faith as a completely distinct issue from behavior.
- iii. "Faith" in Jesus is not primarily a "performance-producer"; it is primarily a question of the issue(s) of how one comes to have a right standing before God after being in the condition of being "already judged".
- c) Author-John's use of Witness-John's message is to strongly clarify that the Lamb was to lift the Sin issue off of men's shoulders: it is not man's "sins" that condemn him; it is his refusal to return to God by faith into Him. Man holds his antagonism toward God tightly in his chest so that "light" from an external source makes no difference; it is only when that "light" penetrates the "heart" that "faith" is generated in the heart (2 Corinthians 4:6). Even when all "sins" are addressed, there remains the fact that no reconciliation can occur in the presence of "unbelief".
