Sometimes it seems that people have this idea of Jesus as a lifeguard who exists mainly just to blow his whistle at people. Everyone is doing fine and things are moving along fine, and then Jesus shows up and yells, “No running!"

What John 3:17 tells us, however, is that this is dead wrong: Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but to save!

The truth is, the world is *currently* lost, currently in the water, thrashing and desperate, and Jesus comes to pull people from death to life. He’s like a lifeguard diving in again and again, trying to save as many people as he can.

Our role in this—to tell the drowning world that there is hope, and that Jesus saves.