<p>3:18 <i>He that believes in him is not condemned. He that does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God</i>- Condemnation was not God's aim (:17); condemnation is therefore always self-condemnation. Whenever we encounter the message of salvation in Him, we face our judgment; and some even now are &quot;condemned already&quot; by their rejection of salvation in Him.</p><p>For we who believe, it is in this sense that in prospect we can be assured that we are saved by being in Christ. We can therefore live as &quot;the sons of God, without rebuke... blameless&quot; (Phil. 2:15) in God's sight (being so in the eyes of the world is almost impossible for a true believer), in the same way as at the judgment we will be presented &quot;holy and unblameable and unreproveable&quot;. It must be significant that the language of forgiveness in the New Testament constantly alludes to judgment: justification, appeal, counsel for the defence, advocate, accusation etc. are common ideas, especially in the Greek. The point of this may be to teach that the experience of forgiveness now does stand related to the judgment which we will receive at Christ's return. Thus if we are convicted of sin now, but aided by Christ as our advocate and therefore justified, we will have the same experience at the judgment seat.</p>