He that believeth on him is not condemned
Whether Jew or Gentile, because a believer is openly in Christ;
and there is no condemnation to those that are in him: and though
the sentence of death passed upon all in Adam, and judgment came
upon all men to condemnation in him; yet this sentence being
executed on Christ, the surety of his people, who has been
condemned to death, and has suffered it in their stead, his death
is a security to them from all condemnation: and they are
delivered by him from the curse and condemnation of the law: and
having in conversion openly passed from death to life, they shall
never enter into condemnation; and this is the happy case of
every one that believes in Christ:
but he that believeth not is condemned already.
The Persic version renders it, "from the beginning"; he remains
under the sentence of condemnation passed in Adam upon him; the
law accuses him, and pronounces him guilty before God; he is
under the curse of it, and it is a ministration of condemnation
and death to him; nor has he any thing to secure him from its
charge, curse, and condemnation: this must be understood of one
that is a final unbeliever, or that lives, and dies, in a state
of impenitence, and unbelief:
because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of
God;
whom God has sent to be the Saviour of lost sinners, and to
deliver them from wrath to come; and there is no other name but
his, whereby men can be saved; so that such that do not believe
in him, must be damned.