Originally Posted by Tim
Apart from sufficiency for the reprobate, I don't understand how the text above can say "because." Certainly, original and actual sin is enough ground for condemnation, but this "because" adds to that condemnation. It seems to logically follow that apart from sufficiency for them, the "because" is meaningless.
The CONTEXT is not addressing the atonement but rather the condition of man and man's negative response to the Christ. The emphasis here is upon man's responsibility and his lack of fulfilling it by believing.

Let's look at vs. 18 in CONTEXT:

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John 3:14-21 (ASV) "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him. He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God."
The Son wasn't sent into the world to judge the world because it was already under the just judgment/condemnation of God. Again, the emphasis in this passage is upon man's lost condition, inability, and rejection of his only means of salvation, the person of the LORD Jesus Christ. Both the innate inability to believe (they loved darkness and hated the light) and their overt refusal to believe (he that believieth not, cometh not to the light) justify their condemnation. The positive side of all this is that those who have and will believe are not under judgment because they are united to Christ.

There is no implication whatsoever about a 'potential/hypothetical/possible' salvation because Christ has atoned for everyone's sins.

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simul iustus et peccator

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