What does it mean that Jesus did not come to judge the world (John 12:47)?

Next comes the final public testimony of our Lord, given in this Gospel. "But Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me; and he that beholdeth Me beholdeth Him that sent Me. I am come a light into the world, that every one that believeth on Me may not abide in darkness. And if anyone have heard My words and not kept (them), I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that slighteth Me and receiveth not My words hath one that judgeth him; the word which I did speak, that will judge him in the last day, because I did not speak from Myself, but the Father Who sent Me hath Himself given† Me commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life eternal. What things then I speak, as the Father hath said to Me, so I speak" (verses 44-50). φυλάξῃ cf. [Luke 11:28], ℵABDKLKΠ, etc.; πιστεύσῃ, "believed," EFGHMSUΓΔΛ, etc. † δέδ, ℵABMX, many cursives, etc.; ἔδ, Text. Rec., DLΓΛΔΠ, etc.

The Lord spoke with earnestness, as elsewhere and always;243 and it was due to men in His grace, considering the solemn issues at stake, and the Divine glory concerned. It was a question of His Father Who sent Him, no less than of Himself. To believe on the Son, to behold Him, was to behold and believe on the Father. They were inseparably one, as He had already declared; and he who had the Son had the Father also. Further, the Lord was come as light into the world (for it was no question of Israel only) that every believer on Him might not abide in darkness.244 He has the light of life, and not life only; He is light in the Lord. It was therefore ruin to have heard and not kept His words; but such was the grace in which He came, that He could add, "I judge him not, for I came not that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world." How, then, would His glory be vindicated in his case who slights245 Him and receives not His words? He has that which judges him — the word. "The word which I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day"; and the more surely, because Jesus spoke not from Himself, as if He sought His own will or glory, but was simply and uniformly subject to the Father, Who not only sent Him, but enjoined what He was to say and speak; the Father's commandment He knew to be life eternal. (Ps. 133:3.246) Jesus was as subject to Him in His utterances as in His doings, being here to declare Him and do His will.

Thirdly, we are warned of the judgment that must overtake the one who hears and believes not. It is true that the Lord came not to judge but to save the world. Nevertheless, His words, if rejected, would be a witness against the Christ-rejector in the last day, and so much the more that they were the words that the Father had given Him to speak — words, indeed, which were given for life and blessing, but, if rejected, would become words of condemnation.

Yet, though He was the Light that exposed evil, if men refused to believe on Him, He was not here to judge them (as He will in a future day); for He had come in pure grace, not to judge, but to save the world. Of course grace despised will bring eventual judgment, but salvation has been offered now to the world for nearly two thousand years, showing the great heart of this blessed Savior.

Nevertheless, one who rejected Him and His words is forewarned that the same word He has spoken will judge that person in the last day. For His word is absolute truth that cannot be frustrated: it will triumph.

At last Jesus declares that which His coming really was — that in fact, they who believed in Him, in the Jesus whom they saw on the earth, believed in His Father, and saw His Father. He was come as the light, and they who believed should not walk in darkness. He did not judge; He was come to save; but the word which He had spoken should judge those who heard, for it was the Father's word, and it was life everlasting.

Then the Lord speaks of the judgment of those who heard His words and did not believe. The mission of the Son on earth was not to judge the world, but to bring salvation. We see this when the woman taken in sin was brought to Jesus. He did not condemn her, it was not His mission, but He said to her, "Go, and sin no more." His grace was manifested in refusing to condemn the sinner condemned by the law of Moses; but the word which He spoke would judge, in the coming day, those who had rejected the grace of God made known in the Son. How very solemn it was that the One who brought the grace of the Father should be rejected by the world, and His words refused.

A word on this: what God has done in the coming of the Lord Jesus (I speak of His first coming) is this - all that would have to be dealt with in judgment at His second coming has been, for the believer, so dealt with on the cross: He who is to come as judge, has come as the Saviour. That is what I get in the gospel. He who is to come as judge, has come in an entirely different way and character: He has come as a Saviour. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself"; "He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin." Suppose I believe the testimony that the Lord is coming and am not ready for it, I fear judgment; then I turn to the first coming and see He has delivered me from the wrath to come. God has dealt with the world as to its sins in grace before He deals with it in judgment. He deals with them as sinners, as responsible and lost, but not in judgment - He came "to seek and to save that which was lost."

He had not come to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Nevertheless it had been judged, not by the Son of man sitting upon a throne, but by the Son of God walking through the world in grace and truth. Thereby, its moral and spiritual condition was revealed, and its hatred is recorded in the scripture for the guidance of the children of God, who are to walk through it even as He walked.

In these verses we see that as Son of God He was given: as Son of Man He was lifted up to die. God sent Him with the object of saving the world, not judging it, as He will when coming later in power and glory. Meanwhile, by virtue of His blessed sacrifice, salvation remains available for all the world.

But deeper purposes were in hand now that the Messiah is viewed as rejected by the Jews: eternal life in, and salvation by, the Son of God, Who dies atoningly on the cross. "For God sent not His Son into the world that He should judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (verse 17). And as a work beyond comparison deeper and with everlasting consequences was before God, so the objects of His grace are no longer within the circumscribed limits of the land of Israel. If He is to manifest Himself now as a Saviour God in His Son, it suits His love to send out the good news to the world as a whole. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. Granted that Christ thus present was rejected; but the errand of love was in no way abandoned; rather did it enter on a new ground whence it could go forth in the power of the Spirit. For Him Who knew no sin God made sin for us (that is, in the cross), that we might become God's righteousness in Him. The word αὐτοῦ ("his") is omitted by ℵBLTb, five cursives and some Fathers, but read by all other authorities [rejected by Edd.].

Inasmuch as the true light now shines — no longer the law in Israel, but the light come into the world, a criterion is in force which decides for every man. There is a far deeper question than a man's own state or conduct. Indeed, this, too, is already decided; man is no longer under probation, as the Jew was under law. He is lost: be he Jew or Gentile, he is alike lost. It is, therefore, a question of believing on Jesus, Son of God and Son of man, Who (as we saw before) has been sent of God, not as He will be shortly to judge the quick and the dead, but that the world (not the elect nation now, but the world, spite of its ruin, in His grace) may be saved through Him. This tests to the core. All thus depends on believing on Him. If one believes not, one has been already judged. It is not merely to fail in duty, but to fight against the grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. It is to reject life eternal, and the perfect love of God, in the Only-begotten Son of God, Whose name one disbelieves or makes light of.