“ I was not sent, he says, as the teacher Moses was, to condemn the world with the law or to introduce a command to convict people of sin. Nor do I do the ministry of a servant. Rather, I bring the love for humanity that befits the master. As Son and heir of the Father, I free the slave. I transform the condemning law into justifying grace. I forgive the sins of those who are strangled by the cords of their own transgressions (Cf. Proverbs 5.22). I came to save the world, not to condemn it. As a servant, Moses had to-had to, he says-become a minister of the law that condemns, but as Son and God, I had to free the whole world from the curse of the law and, by surpassing love for humanity, heal the disease of the world.” St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Book 2, On John 3.17.
How often do we contemplate our sins as being that very thing which strangles us and suffocates us of life, of true Life. St. Cyril points out that it is not by some arbitrary external sentence that this happens but by the very definition of our being and what sin does to it. Sin does truly strangle off Life from our life. To the degree that we struggle to cling those things we believe we find life in, we draw the chains more tightly around our own necks. The Law (ie the books of Moses) made explicit this reality and gave form to it so that we could begin to comprehend this, but it could not offer Life. Christ comes that we might have life and that we may have it abundantly (Cf. John 10.10). In His love for humanity (Philanthropos) He comes to free the whole world from the chains we have tangled ourselves in and which the law may have highlighted to us. Our humanity has received its wholeness in Him Who comes to heal us. We discuss this further here: God Saves His People.
An Ancient Faith For a Modern World 