Introduction

We are presently working through a series on the doctrines of grace that are summarized by the tulip acrostic: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. Last time in this series we put limited atonement in perspective by viewing it within the context of the eternal covenant of redemption. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it: God entered into a covenant of grace to deliver His elect out of sin and into salvation by a redeemer (cf. Q 20: Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer).

Therefore redemption is limited in design since its purpose is to deliver God’s covenant people, the elect that were given to Christ in the eternal covenant of grace. But redemption is unlimited in power because the redeemer is Jesus who is God the Son. Strikingly, sinners are redeemed by the blood of God (Acts 20:28, that "blood of God" is original, cf. Metzger, Text of the NT, 234-236).

However, some people find the idea of limited atonement counter-intuitive and un-biblical. It seems to them to be as simple as citing John 3:16-17, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. But things are not that easy. We must balance what we have in John 3:16 with other teachings of our Lord like John 17:9, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

In John 17:9 Jesus told us plainly that in going to the cross as intercessor by priestly sacrifice He did not pray for the world. Three things can be said about this text. 1) When it is said that Jesus "died for" someone, we should inquire as to what is meant. One thing this text tells us is that it means to offer Himself in sacrifice on the cross for. From this fact the conclusion of limited atonement is stated by our Lord: I do not pray for, die for, offer myself to the cross for, and sanctify myself for the world but for those given to me (cf. vs. 1-2). 2) What drives this contrast? It is driven by the covenant arrangement (cf. the given ones, v. 2, 9, 20, and 24). In other words, it is because He has been given a covenant people that Jesus goes to the cross. 3) Third, this means that the cross is particular and personal. Jesus went to the cross to deal with the sins of a particular covenant people, to deal with the particular and personal sins of particular persons. Even here the point is not a limitation of number, such that it is for some not all. The point is that it is personal: it is for particular persons, the covenant people. These were the Father’s elect who were given to Christ in the covenant of grace (17:9c). In this usage of world, Jesus did not die for the world. He did not die for every single individual. He did not die for the world of fallen sinners but only for the elect given to Him as His covenant family of brothers and sisters.

So we have to try to figure out what is being taught in John 3:16 while not losing sight of what is being taught in John 17:9. It may be difficult to interface loving the world with not praying for the world but we have to try our best to bring them together. After all, this is God’s word and it is all true without contradiction. So we have to do justice to both passages as we concentrate on John 3:16 today.

To get a title for this message all we need to do is think verbally (cf. approaching these passages personally, historically, and verbally). That is, all we have to do is accent the verbs or action words. Here that means that we will stress the word and idea of love more than the word and idea of the world. From, "God so loved" the theme may be stated to be God’s great love for the world. The greatness of God’s love for the world is developed in four ways in this passage (3:16-17): by the character of the world, by the gift of the Son, by the promise of life, and by the purpose of salvation.

1A. The character of the world that is loved

This is not a greatness of scope accenting world as something vast that God’s love must be great if it takes something so big into it. Here the thought is that we see how great God’s love is by seeing how great the world is, that is, great in scope, size, dimension, or number. But the point is not one of volume. The point is not the greatness of the world but the greatness of God’s love as that is seen in relation to the world. We learn about God’s love by learning about the character of the world; we learn about God and the greatness of His love by looking at the world qualitatively not quantitatively (at least the quality of the world should be given due consideration if not exclusive status).

There are many verses in John that show the character of the world. In His coming Jesus was Light that shined in darkness (1:5); the world did not know Him (1:10). This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil (Jn. 3:19-20). The world hates Christ (Jn. 7:7). Satan is its ruler (12:31). The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit (14:17). It rejoices at Christ’s death (16:20). In the book of First John, all that is in the world is described as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16).

"World" is a synonym for all that is evil and disgusting; it has nothing that attracts God’s love; it is the very contradiction of God; it is associated with fleshiness and devilishness (Warfield, Biblical Studies, 514). It is not then that God loves these things that are contrary to Him. But He loves us despite these things and He loves in a way that is intended to do something about them and for us. Thus, despite its evil, despite our evil, it is this world that is loved by God. His love is so great that it is extended to the unlovely that has no merits but only demerits.

2A. The gift of the Son

Here two things are critical: who He is and what He does. He is the begotten of the Father; the preeminent Son, not first in chronology but in eminence. The meaning of "only son" or only begotten son" is helpfully illustrated by the example of Abraham and the offering of his only son, By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son (Heb. 11:17). In a literal and chronological sense, Isaac was not Abraham’s only son. Ishmael was born before Isaac and there were other sons born after Isaac. But Isaac was unique; he was the son of promise in a special way like no other child. He was the preeminent son of Abraham.

What He does is die for the world. The Father gave His son to die for the world. He gave His son—to the cross. The work of Christ as redeemer is almost lost in the hymn, "The Love of God." The famous verse about the scroll would fail (and does fail) to have real substance if it were not for the other verses that indicate the redemption of the guilty:

• Could we with ink the ocean fill
• And were the skies of parchment made
• Were every stalk on earth a quill
• And every man a scribe by trade
• To write the love of God above
• Would drain the ocean dry
• Nor could the scroll contain the whole
• Tho’ stretched from sky to sky.

The attempt is to use spatial categories to describe the immensity of the love of God. It is trying to quantify. What redeems the verse cited above from pure sentimentality is the reference to Christ in the first verse: "The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win…" by "redeeming grace" (2^nd verse). Thus God loved the world and therefore Jesus was given to die for the world. We intuitively know that the giving of His Son is ultimately the giving to the cross as the supreme display of the love of the Father and the Son. What makes His love great is that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom. 5:10).

3A. Promise of eternal life (16b)

It is also great love because of the promise of life that is given to the unworthy world. The world is promised the goal of eternal life and thus eternal Sabbath rest in fulfillment of the covenant of creation (cf. the covenantal six and one). The world will reach that goal by faith in Christ: "whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

The promise is to faith and offered to all. It is offered to all without exception on the condition of faith. No sinner is so sinful that he is beyond the reach of this offer. Whoever believes receives everlasting life. God stretches out His arms with open hands to the world like He did to Israel (Rom. 10:21). He says, "Turn, turn, why will you die in your sins?" (Ezek. 33:11).

We should comment on what the passage does not teach: it does not teach that all have the ability to believe. It makes a promise to those who do believe. It does not tell us how they come to faith given their love for darkness and their hatred of the light (cf. Jn. 3:19-20). That is by the new birth (Jn. 3:3). What is emphasized is the offer to all and with it the promise to faith. This is the means that God has appointed in bringing His purposes to pass.

Eternal life is received by faith and at the moment of faith. So it is received now but consummated at the end of history. A great gift is given by great love to those who are utterly unworthy. He gives us Christ and with Him rest of soul now and eternal Sabbath rest hereafter.

4A. Purpose of salvation (the world will in fact be saved!)

We must maintain a bond between God’s love for the world and the death of Christ: He so loved…that He gave His son. At the same time we must do justice to God’s determination to save the world (v. 17). We have the language of determined purpose (in order that). The point is that in sending Christ into the world (cf. per the covenant of grace) God resolved, purposed, intended, and determined to save the world. Therefore, it must be that case that the world that is loved by God and for whom Jesus died will in fact be saved certainly, and without failure.

But there is one more "must avoid." We must also avoid absolute universalism, the teaching that all without exception will be saved (that no one will perish; not even Pharaoh or Judas). The fact that some perish is taught in Scripture and it is Jesus who says the most about this fearful fact.

The solution is to interpret world here by means of the two Adam scheme (cf. Rom. 5:18; 1 Cor. 15:22, 47). In this scheme the world is lost because of failure of the first Adam. All in him die. But all in Christ, the second Adam, will be made alive. That is the sense in which the world will be saved: "today you are a little flock, tomorrow you will be the world" (Warfield). In the end there will be a saved world, a new world, a redeemed world. Using an illustration from Kuyper, the saving of the world or human race is organic and solidaric; it is like saving a tree even though many branches are pruned and burned. The human family, the evil, God hating world, will be saved though that does not mean that every single person will escape final judgment. Again, we see the greatness of God’s love: not only does He love the unlovely world by giving His preeminent (only) Son to the cross to give life to those deserving death but He will in fact save the world He loves. That is the great power of God’s love.

Two areas of concluding remarks

A. About the usage of the word world

There are nuances that should be identified for clarity.

1. World is used of individual fallen sinners in contrast to the given ones. "I pray for them" (Jn. 17:9) indicates particular individuals beginning with the apostles and extending to the entire church (17:2, 20, 24). Likewise, fallen sinners who were not given to Christ are referred to as individuals as well. They make up a world of individuals who live in rebellion, ignorance, and disobedience.

2. World is used of the fallen race as an organic whole.

In this sense, God loved the world and Jesus went to the cross for the world. He came to save the fallen race. The human race is preserved from just judgment and utter extinction. What about John 17:21, 23? These verses are difficult for any position, why? The problem is that all believers of all time are referred to in the prayer for their union with God and Christ in order that there may be more believers! In resolving this difficulty we do not want to weaken the following notions: 1) the purpose of our Lord stated here in His high priestly petitions, 2) the meaning of "believe" and "know," and 3) the universalism of world.

This is a difficult text for all of us to interpret. But it seems best to take it to mean that Jesus uses the term world in more than one sense in the chapter. It refers to fallen man, particularly the world of fallen sinners for whom Jesus did not die, that is, the world in contrast to the given ones for whom He did die (17:9). And it refers to the redeemed world, the new human race that will stand in faith and knowledge beholding the glory of Christ in heaven (21, 23 with 24; in Jn. 3:16-17 world refers to the human race as fallen and evil but loved and saved by the cross without the nuanced distinction between "the world of fallen sinners" and "the given ones").

B. About the gospel

1. This is good news for the human race (as a fallen world)

Good news is that the world will in fact be saved because God loved the world, the fallen human family, and Jesus died for the world as a fallen race. Jesus did not come into the world to judge and destroy the world forever with no mercy. He did not come to execute only absolute justice that is fully deserved. He came to save the world and that is what He will in fact do. In the end He will save "a great multitude that no one could number" (Rev. 7:9).

2. It is good news for individual sinners (in the fallen world)

He loved and died for sinners. Whoever believes in Him receives the declaration of justification and everlasting life. This means that whoever believes in Christ receives eternal life. Thus we can personalize and individualize: Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is risen Lord and you will be saved. If you repent you will receive forgiveness here and eternal joy hereafter, rest of soul now and eternal Sabbath rest at the end of your life journey.