NOTES for Joh 3:19
The fear of being condemned at the last judgment, which is commonly called "fearsome," is familiar to every person. Yet we are used to perceiving this judgment as a legal process in which our actions are examined and the Lord issues a decision, which thus comes to us as if from outside. In such a picture of the world our actions are connected with our fate after death, but in some mediated way. But Jesus' words show us an entirely different picture.
The Lord is unchanging in His love for us; in Him there is no evil and no desire to condemn humanity. A little earlier, in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, we see a prediction of how far He is ready to go in His love for people: to the torment and suffering of the cross. But in the light of His sacrifice our pettiness, the suffering we cause others, and our malice become so clearly visible that it is truly frightening; we want to go into the shadows, to become unnoticed. And so, fleeing from His all-illuminating love, we instinctively cling to our human darkness and become our own condemnation.
It is striking that Jesus says this not before a large crowd, but in a nighttime conversation with one disciple, and a secret one at that: Nicodemus. Perhaps because His words are addressed to each of us separately. Because by His coming to earth the Lord not only changes our understanding of the world, but also calls each of us to the transformation of the heart and the path of our life; He calls us to choose between light and darkness.