My apologies if this has been addressed. I did a search and it popped up in a few threads but reading through them I did not quite get an answer to what “whoever does not believe stands condemned” in John 3:18 means to EU.
Thanks in advance for your patience if this has been covered and I am just not seeing it.
that is an odd one, because one of those condemned ones could easily become a Christian years later. it doesn’t appear to allow for a change of mind.
or perhaps it means that we are all under condemnation until we believe…i think personally that this view is closer to the truth.
also if weighed against Paul’s statement that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, it sounds like we may be condemned in a way, but God doesn’t actually choose to condemn us. sort of like when Jesus stopped the mob from stoning the adulteress, when He said “neither do I condemn you” which i find to be startling evidence of how judgemental God really is…ie not at all.
this verse must hint at some further truths, i think.
The condemnation is to remain in the darkness. There is no mention of being consigned to eternal torment forever.
Those who believe can see light even in the midst of this dark evil age. Those who don’t can’t.
Hi Joel,
Yes I think corpselight and davidbo are on the right lines there. Verse 17 clearly states God’s intention in sending Jesus was to save the world, not just a few individuals out of the world. And although God’s will to save everyone may be temporarily frustrated by the human tendency to love darkness rather than light, and to try to hide their evil ways from God (verse 19), there is every reason to believe this state of affairs will not continue for ever, considering the endless love and patience of God. The sooner people get out from their self-inflicted condemnation and join in the transforming kingdom movement, the better. We, like Nick O’Demus, need to be born from above, not to get a free ticket to paradise, but so that we can start living from above, right here and now. Good question though - I wonder what others think…
Cheers, Drew
Perhaps this happens here - “As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.” ?
Perhaps this is where we all move into the light if we have not already chosen to do so?
that time could be different for everyone, but yeah, that could be it
The passage, I think, is not talking about what can be “someday” but about what is “today”. Those who have faith walk in darkness and those who do not have faith walk in the dark. Those who have faith in the love and forgiveness of God do not feel condemned, but accepted. And those who do not have faith often feel condemned. The passage is meant to encourage people to repent and have faith in God.
Nick O’Demus was a famous Irishman, yes? 
I agree; The word “condemned” means “down-judged”. We are less than we could be if we stand in the darkness rather than the light.
To be sure! I believe he’s the first Irishman to be mentioned in Holy Scripture. Which prompts me to offer an Irish joke, quite out of context. An Irishman applied for a job as a lumberjack and assured the interviewer that he was extremely capable and well qualified. The interviewer asked if he could name any particular jobs he had worked on. The Irishman replied “The Sahara Forest”. Don’t you mean “The Sahara Desert?” asked the interviewer. “Is that what they are calling it these days,” he replied. 
Clever… 
Andrew! Love it.
My take on this verse. The mention of Jesus’ response to the adulteress brought this to mind. Both are written by John, quoting (by memory) what Jesus spoke. This implies that John is at least likely to have meant the same thing by condemn/condemnation in both stories. “He that believes not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” and “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
Now when you take this to Romans; “The end (result) of sin is death,” it begins to make sense (to me, anyway).
What is the condemnation that Jesus does NOT level on the adulteress? Her condemnation (sentence) was death. And sin always does lead to death.
All who continue in sin are doomed to die; but Jesus said to Martha, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who is believing in Me, even if he should be dying, shall be living. And everyone who is living and believing in Me, should by no means be dying for the eon. Are you believing this?”(Joh 11:25-26 CLV)
So the one who believes in His name is not under the condemnation, and the condemnation he is not under is death. (note: not eternal torment.) The condemnation HAS to be death, because Jesus is the life and there is no other. Apart/detached from Him, the Vine, we cannot but die. However, we are all in that situation UNTIL we are grafted in to the olive tree. After that, we draw our life from the tree (Jesus is the Tree of Life).
Therefore the one not believing IS condemned, but he can and will escape that condemnation by believing.
I grew up Baptist. As a kid, Jesus was made of cloth and on his best days clung to felt.
I am sure I heard this story a few hundred times. The conclusion always included an invitation to be Born Again. All I had to do was say a prayer and I was “In”.
Rereading this story now, I am not sure Jesus was telling Nick how to be born again. It looks to me that he was saying Nick was condemned on his own. Nick’s faith system and head knowledge were not going to save him. It reads to me that Jesus was making him aware that he would never be God. Nick was a man born of flesh. Flesh gives birth to flesh. Nick was stuck. He was chasing the wind. He was a teachers teacher. He worked extremely hard to achieve his status. He had studied hard, lived a difficult and disciplined life. It was not working.
I am beginning to believe the condemnation is trying to work our way to God.
Jesus was a man born of Flesh and Spirit. Jesus was the only one born of flesh, he and he alone, that could see the kingdom of God because he was also born of Spirit. Only in him will we be able to enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus is the only way. Letting go of all our other beliefs, creeds, works, religions… and trusting in Jesus alone sets us free.
We, mankind, know something is missing. We do all kinds of extreme things to find what is missing. We are condemned to searching and failure on our own.
These ideas are very new to me. This is a foreign way of thinking. I am not sure I have this right.
I think you’re on the right track with that thought, Joel. I think this is an important point that a lot of people miss. In order to have the aionios life, one must be born from above; and we have no more control over this than we did being born of flesh the first time. Self effort has nothing to do with it.