God is Not Condemning You!

God gave you emotions. Part 3
See more of the seminar here!

I have seen a large increase of fear and depression, especially among young people.
Many believe that to get Norway and Europe to repent, we must preach the law (The 10 Commandments and morality) to them so that they feel judged and condemned, and then they will turn to God. We hear some preachers say or express: If you do not repent, God will punish you, or you will perish if you do not repent of your sin.

I don’t think preaching the law and the threat of punishment is the right approach to get people to repent. 
You may have been raised up by: When we feel bad, you will get better and do what is right, but to a large degree, this was not Jesus’ message to the lost, although He did preach The Law to the ‘Religious Leaders” who preached ‘The Law’ to the people (for their own greedy ends), but themselves lived a secret life of sin in their thoughts and judging attitude.

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Many have a picture of a judging God – God is not condemning you!
I live outside Norway and the Western World, and it can be an advantage sometimes, for I can easily see how Norway and the Western World have changed in recent years.
One of the things I’ve seen is that more and more people rebel against God, and they try to eliminate Him and the Bible as the truth.

I have seen a large increase of fear and depression, especially among young people.
Many believe that to get Norway and Europe to repent, we must preach the law (The 10 Commandments and morality) to them so that they feel judged and condemned, and then they will turn to God. We hear some preachers say or express: If you do not repent, God will punish you, or you will perish if you do not repent of your sin.

I don’t think preaching the law and the threat of punishment is the right approach to get people to repent. 
You may have been raised up by: When we feel bad, you will get better and do what is right, but to a large degree, this was not Jesus’ message to the lost, although He did preach The Law to the ‘Religious Leaders” who preached ‘The Law’ to the people (for their own greedy ends), but themselves lived a secret life of sin in their thoughts and judging attitude.


The law can be of help to people who are very self-righteous and think that they never make any mistakes and that they deserve to get to heaven because of their good works, as the Pharisees did. And you can see that Jesus sometimes confronted the Pharisees with the law. But the way Jesus used to get sinners to repent was not condemnation, but it was love and forgiveness. He caused them to feel loved and forgiven not condemned! ‘Can this really be so?’ ‘And do you have scriptures on this?’ You may ask? Yes I do.

The most obvious story is about the woman that was caught in the act of adultery. Let us read what it says here in the Gospel of John, after the Pharisees, who wanted her stoned, had gone away.

Jn. 8:10-11(NKJV)
10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “ Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “ Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more

(Feel free to read the full story if you are not familiar with it. John 8:1-11)



What did Jesus use as a motivating factor so that this woman should not be sinning again? Was it condemnation? Did He say to her that she should really feel shame and condemnation for what she had done, and if you really show this, then He would forgive her in a few days? No! Jesus forgave her right there, and showed God’s love to her. 
He got her to experience God’s love and feel that she is valuable to Him. 
Jesus did say to her,” Go and sin no more”. So Jesus did not say that it’s ok to sin, and neither do I.

But God did not use the feelings of condemnation, guilt and shame as a method to get her to repent, on the contrary; forgiveness and love.

Other stories I can think of from the life of Jesus, where He uses the same motivation are:

• The tax collector Zacchaeus who had stolen money from others by taking too high taxes.  
• See Luke 19:1-10.
• The Samaritan woman who had had five men and she was now living with a man that was not her husband
• See John 4:5-29.
• This prostitute woman could have been the one who washed Jesus’ feet. (because it only says that she was a sinner)
• See Luke 7:36-50. See also Tit 2:11-12 and Rom 2:4

Because we have seen so many bad things happen in Norway and Europe when it comes to morality, fear etc., or with the World economy, there are many Christians who think: ‘ God is punishing us for our rebellion, and that is why it has come upon us’.


If you think and say this you will share a wrong picture of God, for this is not the truth and not the solution to the problem.
This helped those in the Old Testament to some degree to not sin, but we have entered a new and better times (a New Covenant), as the Hebrews writer tries to explain to us.
The fact that you have chosen to turned your back on God means that God cannot help you, and that’s your choice not God’s.
You will provide an open door for the enemy with your sin, but it’s not God’s punishment, you just are reaping what you have sown. God can never support you in your rebellion; it would be to support the devil. Sin brings with it consequences, and one of the greatest fruits is; fear, but it’s not God’s punishment, it’s a result of sin in your life or other peoples life.  
Jesus took the punishment for your sin 2000 years ago.


In James it says the following:

Jas 4:7
(NKJV) 
“Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. 



If you do not want to follow God’s instructions, the devil will not flee from you, you give him the right (permission) to come against you with his lies and fears. But when you submit to God (trust Him), and know that He is good and faithful, the devil has to flee and can no longer harm you!

I will also mention that Jesus came not to judge you! But to set you free from judgment.


Jn. 3:17-18,
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Luke 9:53-56
53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.



Because of Adam and Eve’s sin; it is a built-in judgment which is in effect when we do not want to believe and trust in God, and commit sin! (the reason why we sin is because we do not trust Him.)

There will always be an effect when you sin, and this effect is the built-in judgment. But the good news is that Jesus came to set you free from the judgment, and when you believe in Him, the curse of sin is lifted off. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but God’s gift, that is Jesus, is eternal life. We can easily see this when it comes to salvation, but it’s not just about that! It applies to every sin you do as well.
As you see I encourage you not to sin, for it will lead to negative things in your life. And the negative things are called: Curses.

But what I want to say is that Jesus came to help you to not sin, not to judge you when you do sin.

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