John 3:17

John further clarified God’s purpose in sending His Son by explaining what it was not. It was not to judge or condemn (Gr. krino) humankind. Judging as John spoke of it here is the opposite of saving (cf. John 3:18; John 5:24). God could have condemned human beings without the Incarnation. Jesus will judge everyone, but that was not God’s purpose in the Incarnation. Rather it was to provide salvation for everyone through His death on the cross.

How can we reconcile this verse with John 9:39 where Jesus said that He came into the world for judgment (cf. John 5:27)? Judging was a secondary duty involved in saving, which was Jesus’ primary purpose (cf. Daniel 7:13-14). Jesus came into an already condemned world to save some. He did not enter a neutral world to save some and condemn others. Anyone who brings light casts a shadow, but the bringing of shadow is only an attendant circumstance that is inevitable when one brings light.