In (John 3:18), the writer of this Gospel narrative claimed that anyone who rejects Christ isn’t judged (krino – G2919) for not believing him, because he is already judged (G2919). In John 3:19 we are told what that judgment (krisis – G2920) is. Krino (G2919) is the verb form of the noun krisis (G2920). The judgment (krisis – G2920) is that Light (Christ) has come into the world (cp. John 1:9; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46), yet men loved darkness, vis-à-vis being without Christ, because their deeds were evil. In other words, they want to remain separate from Christ, because Christ (the Light) would shed light upon their deeds, showing they are evil, and, as a rule, men don’t want to be corrected. They wish to remain the authority in their lives (cp. Genesis 3:6).
The one who is a rebel, vis-à-vis the one who seeks independence from God, sees no profit in associating with the Lord. Man, in his present condition, is a rebel. That is, he has chosen not to bring his deeds into the Light (John 3:20), because he wants to be the judge of what is good for him and what is wrong for him (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6-7). If, indeed, he permitted his deeds to come under the authority of Jesus, they would become manifest for what they are, because this is what light does. Light manifests or makes things known. Therefore, he who rejects Christ wants above all else to be his own judge, his own master, his own lord. He doesn’t want to know the Light nor live in his way or be his image (Genesis 1:27; cp. Job 24:13). Rather, he would gain or retain power over others by working in the shadows. Believing his dishonest and dishonorable behavior could remain unknown, he uses what light he has to work evil against his neighbor, when he is able to do so undetected, in an effort to add to what he already has (Job 24:14-17; cp. Matthew 6:23; Luke 11:34).
Therefore, to reject Jesus doesn’t change one’s life, because that one’s life is already without Jesus. He is spiritually dead, and, if one is already dead, that one is already under the judgment of death! In order to put judgment into the future, one has to invent something more terrible than death, something like an eternal hellfire, which has no basis in scripture. The judgment of rebellion is death and those without Christ are already spiritually dead. Only a gospel of fear would require more, and such a gospel would itself be a ‘rebellion’ against the truth, a desire to bring others under one’s own authority, rather than that of Christ.
The Lord has given mankind the authority to eat of any tree in the Garden, except the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil (the tree of rebellion). Sin of and by itself isn’t a problem with God, just as a babe learning to walk is expected to fall, as he or she learns to walk. In the Spirit, life is much the same. In the process of becoming an image of God (Genesis 1:27), one eats of the trees of the Garden (what one’s heart desires), but brings them all into the Light, or the fellowship of the Lord (John 3:21). He manifests what we’ve placed in our hearts, vis-à-vis what is evil and what is good, and we are corrected in his presence. No one is able to do evil continually and at the same time bring one’s behavior under the scrutiny of the Light (cp. 1John 5:18). If one loves evil, that one will reject Christ, because he cannot endure being corrected. The one who receives Christ will submit to the work of the Light and be corrected (John 3:21).
Thus, no one who isn’t born again would be able to perceive the presence of the Kingdom of God, because he who rejects Christ, neither knows God (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22) nor comes into the Light, that he may come to know him (cp. 1John 4:6-7). It is manifestly impossible to see the Kingdom of God and not be born again (John 3:3).
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