For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
(a)
[Source: The
“World” of John 3:16 Does Not Mean “All Men Without Exception”]
It is now common among Reformed people that, when
one confesses God’s election of some persons to salvation, God’s particular
love for the elect, and God’s exclusive desire to save the elect, his
confession is immediately contested by an appeal to John 3:16: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Indeed, this is almost
the rule. The one who thus appeals to John 3:16 intends to assert
that God loves all men without exception and that God desires to save all men
without exception. The basic assumption underlying this appeal to John
3:16, as an argument against election, is that the word, world, in John 3:16 means “all men without exception”
We do here announce, declare, and proclaim that
this assumption is false. It is unbiblical. It commits one to a teaching that
deviates from the gospel, fundamentally. The word, world, in John
3:16 does not mean “all men without exception.”
We plead with our Reformed brothers and sisters who
insist on understanding “world” in John 3:16 as “all men without
exception” and on using this text against the confession of God’s particular
love for the elect to face up to the doctrinal position that they are taking.
This, now, is their position:
—God loves all
men without exception, with a love that gives His only begotten Son for their
salvation, that is, with the (saving) love that desires their salvation from
sin and their eternal life in heaven.
—God gave His
only begotten Son for all men without exception, that is, Jesus died for all
men without exception.
—Nevertheless,
many people whom God loves, whom God desires to save, and for whom Jesus died
perish in hell, unsaved.
—Therefore, 1)
many persons are separated from the love of God; 2) God’s desire to save is
frustrated in the case of many persons; and 3) the death of Jesus failed to
save many for whom the Son of God, in fact, died.
—The reason for
this sad state of affairs is that those persons refused to believe in Jesus,
although they were able to do so by virtue of their free will.
—On the other
hand, the reason why the others are saved is not that God loved them, desired
their salvation, and gave His Son to die for them (for He also loved those who
perish, desired their salvation, and gave His Son for them), but that they, by
their free will, chose to believe.
—In conclusion,
the damnation of the wicked is the defeat and disappointment of God, whereas
the salvation of the believers is their own work.
When the all-men-without-exception-people
quote John 3:16, this is how they are reading it:
For God so loved
all men without exception, that he gave his only begotten Son to die for all
men without exception, with the desire that all men without exception be saved,
so that whosoever believeth in him, of his own free will, should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
Whenever anyone challenges the confession of God’s
particular, exclusive love for His elect by quoting John 3:16, we must
regretfully conclude that he holds the doctrinal position set forth above and
wishes to confess it publicly, in order thus to overthrow the Reformed doctrine
of predestination, limited atonement, total depravity, effectual grace, and the
preservation of the saints (which is only an elaborate way of saying, salvation
by grace alone—the gospel).
The word, world, in the gospel of
John does not mean “all men without exception.” Proof:
—John 1:29:
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Did Christ by
His death take away the sin of all men without exception? If He did, all men
without exception shall be saved.
—John 6:33. “For
the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the
world.” Does Jesus give life (not, ineffectually offer life,
but, efficaciously give life) to all men without exception? If
He does, all men without exception have eternal life.
—John 17:9: “I (Jesus)
pray not for the world.” Does Jesus refuse to pray for all men without
exception?
This last text points out that the word, world, in
the gospel of John does not always have the same meaning. In John 3:16,
the world is loved by God, with a love that gives the Son of God for its sake;
in John 17:9, the Son of God refuses to pray for the world. The saints
must not come to an understanding of the world of John 3:16 by a
quick assumption, but by careful interpretation of the passage in the light of
the rest of Scripture.
What then is the truth about the world of John
3:16? Loved by God with Divine, almighty, effectual, faithful, eternal love,
the world is saved. All of it! All of
them!
Redeemed by the precious, worthy, powerful,
effectual death of the Son of God, the world is saved. All of it! All of them!
The salvation of all the persons included in the
world of John 3:16 is due solely to the effectual love of God and the
redeeming death of Christ for them; whereas the persons who perish were never
loved by God, nor redeemed by Christ, that is, they are not part of the world
of John 3:16.
The world of John 3:16 (Greek: kosmos, from
which comes our English word, cosmos, referring to our “orderly,
harmonious, systematic universe”) is the creation made by God in the beginning,
now disordered by sin, with the elect from all nations, now by nature children
of wrath even as the others, as the core of it. As regards its people, the
world of John 3:16 is the new humanity in Jesus Christ, the last Adam
(I Cor. 15:45). John calls this new human race “the world” in order
to show, and emphasize, that it is not from the Jewish people alone, but from
all nations and peoples (Rev. 7:9). The people who make up the world
of John 3:16 are all those, and those only, who will become believers
(whosoever believeth); and it is the elect who believe (Acts 13:48).
This explanation of John 3:16 is not some
strange, new interpretation dreamed up by latter-day hyper-Calvinists, but the
explanation that has been given in the past by defenders of the Faith we call
Reformed, that is, by those who confessed the sovereign grace of God in the
salvation of sinners …
------------------------------------------
(b)
[Source:
Protestant Reformed Theological Journal, vol. 51, no. 2 (April 2018), p.
80]
“[W]orld”
in John 3:16 does not mean every human without exception, but rather the world
of Gentiles as well as Jews … [A] leading theme in John’s gospel is the
extension of salvation to the world of the Gentiles … [T]he immediately
preceding context restricts the loving, saving purpose of God in the cross of
Christ to those who believe (vv. 14, 15); … John elsewhere definitely limits
the extent of the atonement of Christ to the elect (John 10:11, 15).
------------------------------------------
(c)
The world of John 3:16 (Greek: kosmos, from
which comes our English word, cosmos, referring to our “orderly, harmonious,
systematic universe”) is the creation made by God in the beginning, now
disordered by sin, with the elect from all nations, now by nature children of
wrath even as the others, as the core of it. As regards its people, the world
of John 3:16 is the new humanity in Jesus Christ, the last Adam (I Corinthians
15:45). John calls this new human race “the world” in order to show, and
emphasize, that it is not from the Jewish people alone, but from all nations
and peoples (Revelation 7:9). The people who make up the world of John 3:16 are
all those, and those only, who will become believers (whosoever believeth”);
and it is the elect who believe (Acts 13:48). (DJE, date unknown)
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