3 Nephi 9:21 “Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin.”
The Lord declared this same message in John 12:47, when He said, “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”
My whole image of God made a mighty change when I read this verse of scripture and felt the Spirit witness to me that Christ’s first and foremost purpose was not to judge me (at least not yet), but to save me.
Suddenly, I understood that I didn’t have to hide from Him while I desperately (and futilely) tried to get my own act together, for fear He would judge what He saw if He saw me as I was.
Suddenly, I realized He was not sitting at the end of my trail of tears and pain and mighty change, waiting to judge how well I had done slogging through it on my own.
Actually, in Spirit and Truth, He has been walking with me all along, suffering with me, saving me. He is still giving His life for the opportunity to be with me in my darkest hour, my deepest sin, my worst defects of behavior and of character. Why should I fear my Savior?
As I awakened to this atoning, healing truth, I began “to enter upon a new relationship with my Creator,” as a “new found Friend”– even as stated on page 13 in the AA Big Book.
**text taken from Patterns of Light, Vol. 1, 196-197.
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