Christ Offers Salvation to All

"For I came not into the world to judge the world, but to save the world."

"Why then does Christ not choose to condemn them? It is because he lays aside for a time the office of a judge, and offers salvation to all without reserve, and stretches out his arms to embrace all that all may be the more encouraged to repent. And yet there is a circumstance of no small moment, by which he points out the aggravation of the crime, if they reject an invitation so kind and gracious, for it is as if he had said, 'Lo, I am here to invite all, and, forgetting the character of a judge, I have this as my single object, to persuade, and to rescue from destruction those who are already twice ruined.'"


- John Calvin (1509-1564), commenting on John 12:47.