16 December, 2019

Prof. David J. Engelsma on 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 (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 …


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(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).


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(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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