Homilies on the Gospel of John

“He that believes in the Son, is not judged; but he that believes not, is judged already.”

Yet if He “came not to judge the world,” how is “he that believes not judged already,” if the time of “judgment” has not yet arrived? He either means this, that the very fact of disbelieving without repentance is a punishment, (for to be without the light, contains in itself a very severe punishment,) or he announces beforehand what shall be. For as the murderer, though he be not as yet condemned by the decision of the judge, is still condemned by the nature of the thing, so is it with the unbeliever. Since Adam also died on the day that he ate of the tree; for so ran the decree, “In the day that you eat of the tree, you shall die”; yet he lived. How then “died” he? By the decree; by the very nature of the thing; for he who has rendered himself liable to punishment, is under its penalty, and if for a while not actually so, yet he is by the sentence.

Lest any one on hearing, “I came not to judge the world,” should imagine that he might sin unpunished, and should so become more careless, Christ stops such disregard by saying, “is judged already”; and because the “judgment” was future and not yet at hand, He brings near the dread of vengeance, and describes the punishment as already come. And this is itself a mark of great lovingkindness, that He not only gives His Son, but even delays the time of judgment, that they who have sinned, and they who believe not, may have power to wash away their transgressions.

“He that believes in the Son, is not judged.” He that “believes,” not he that is over-curious: he that “believes,” not the busybody. But what if his life be unclean, and his deeds evil? It is of such as these especially that Paul declares, that they are not true believers at all: “They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him.” But here Christ says, that such an one is not “judged” in this one particular; for his works indeed he shall suffer a severer punishment, but having believed once, he is not chastised for unbelief.

2. Do you see how having commenced His discourse with fearful things, He has concluded it again with the very same? For at first He says, “Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God”: and here again, “He that believes not on the Son, is judged already.” “Think not,” He says, “that the delay advantages at all the guilty, except he repent, for he that has not believed, shall be in no better state than those who are already condemned and under punishment.”