There is an unwarranted emphasis these days on the love of God. I suppose you too have seen the lapel buttons with the words “Smile, God loves you” or the bumper slickers – “If you love God, blow your horn.”
Evangelists addressing large audiences say to the people in mass, “God loves you,” Many of our own people involved in city mission work are also beginning to say to the people in mass, “God loves you.” This gives the impression that, no matter how ungodly a person is, God still loves him.
This distorted conception of God’s love inculcates a sickly-sentimental attitude which “thinks no evil, sees no evil, and speaks no evil” of others. In this age of apostasy, instigated by a weakening conception of sovereign grace, it is of the utmost importance to revitalize the biblical conception of the nature and the power of God’s love.
Also a God of wrath – From the outset, we might say that Cod is not only a God of love but also a God of wrath. The Bible speaks about the wrath of God, the fierceness of His wrath, the grapes of his wrath, and the winepress of His wrath.
In referring to the ungodly in Hebrews 3:11, God says, “I sware in my wrath that they will not enter into my rest.” In Psalm 59:13, the psalmist says that God will “consume the ungodly in His wrath.” In Ephesians 2:3, Paul says concerning Christians that they were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Consequently the question arises: how then are we to understand John 3:16, which says, “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”?
An apparent contradiction – Many have concluded on the basis of John 3:16 that Christ died for the sins of every living person and that, therefore. it can be said that God loves everybody. However, John 3:16 does not say that God loves everyone. It says, “God so loved the world.”
To understand John 3:16 we must first of all determine what the Bible means when it speaks about the worlel. Exegetical research reveals that there are many apparently conflicting statements in the Bible relative to this concept, which must be resolved in the light of Scripture.
For instance, John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). This gives the impression that Christ died for the sins of everyone. But in His High Priestly Prayer, Christ said, “I pray not for the world but for those whom thou hast given me.” In John 3:17 we read, “God did not send his Son to condemn the world but that through Him the world might be saved.” This text might give the impression that salvation was made possible for all the people in the world. However, in John 9:39 Christ said, “For condemnation I came into the world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind.” In John 6:51 Christ said, “And the bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” But in John 18:36, we read, “My kingdom is not of the world.”
These seemingly conflicting statements relative to the world must be resolved in the light of Scripture in order to understand John 3:16. Does God love the world or does He hate the world? Did Christ come to save the world or to condemn the world? Did Christ die to take away the sins of everyone in the world or only for His elect people? What does John 3:16 mean when it says, “God so loved the world”?
Four kingdoms – When God created the world, He created four kingdoms—the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the kingdom of human beings. These four kingdoms form an organic whole. They are interrelated and interdependent. They cannot he separated. Plants send their roots into the mineral kingdom for food. Animals are sustained by the plant kingdom. Human beings are dependent upon all the other kingdoms for food, clothing, shelter, and for all the comforts and necessities of life. These four kingdoms constitute the world.
Tn the very midst of these four kingdoms. man occupies a high and unique position. God mandated Adam to have dominion over all created things. His work was to arrest from nature her secrets, to exploit and discover her potential, and to bring all created things to their appointed end so that ever increasingly God might receive the glory from the works of His hands. This is known as the “cultural mandate.”
Mundanely speaking, man is the vital center around which the created world revolves. In a sense, from this point of view, it can be said that man determines the destiny of the whole world. The way man gocs morally and spiritually. so goes the created world. For when man (Adam) took of the forbidden fruit and disobeyed God, God pronounced the curse of sin upon the created world (Gen. 3:17). The destiny of the entire world is inextricably related to the spiritual status of man before God. By the same token, if man (human race) is saved, then the created world will also be saved.
God’s purpose realized – Since Adam fell into sin, the question arises, what is God going to do with the created world? As it is under the curse of sin, it cannot glorify God, as He originally purposed it. Will God permit the sin-cursed world to go its sin-cursed way? Will God permit Satan to be the supreme ruler of the world? Sin cannot thwart the purposes of God. God determined to save the world. His original purposes will be realized and God will receive the glory in spite of sin.
To accomplish God’s purpose, it is first of all necessary to save the human race, for man is the vital center around which the world revolves. Of course, this does not mean that every person in the world must he saved. Even though vast numbers will he lost throughout the ages, yet if a representative number from every nation, race, and tribe arc regenerated through the preaching of the Gospel and the working of the Holy Spirit, it can be said that the human race as such has bee n saved. It is for this reason that Christ will not return until the Gospel has been preached to every nation, race, and tribe. The world must he saved. God so loved the world.
Permit me to use an illustration to clarify these points. A certain man had a very beautiful estate.
There were all sorts of trees, flower beds, and shrubbery to grace the property. In the very center of this estate stood a very beautiful oak tree. The owner of this property was very fond of this tree. However, on a certain day, he noticed that the leaves of this tree were beginning to wither. Upon closer examination, he discovered a fatnl disease in the trunk of his tree. He knew that his tree was doomed. However, he determined to save the tree. He severed the tree at the roots and burned all the branches, twigs and leaves. As the years went by, a new tree gradually grew from the roots, until eventually his tree was standing there again in all its former beauty. His tree was saved. This does not mean that all the branches, the twigs, and leaves of the former tree were saved. No, these were burned.
Two worlds – So also with this world. Because of sin, millions upon millions will perish in everlasting hell. However, through the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus a vast number, which no one can number, will be saved. The Lord Jesus is the second Adam, the Root which came forth from Jesse. And from this root a new human race will come forth the elect from every tribe and nation. And when the human race is thus saved, the created world will also be saved. Thus there are two worlds—the world that will be saved and the world that will be lost.
When John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world,” he referred to the world that will be saved. When Christ said, “I pray not for the world,” He referred to the world that will be lost. When Christ said, “I did not come to condemn the world,” He referred to the world that will be saved. When He said, “For condemnation, I came into the world,” He referred to the world that will be lost. Thus the apparent conflicts in the Bible relative to the word “world” have been resolved.
The world God loves – What docs John 3:16 mean? This: God so loved the created world of which man was the vital center, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that through the salvation of the elect, the created world might be saved. The saved world is the object of God‘s love. It is precisely for this reason that it is unscriptural to say to people in mass, “God loves you.” God loves the righteous and hates the workers of iniquity. In the preaching of the Gospel, we must command believers to repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus as their only Lord and Savior. In Acts 17:30–31 Paul says, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness . . . .”
Thus, the cultural mandate of Genesis 3:28 can be realized only through the Great Commission, as expressed in Matthew 28:19. For us as Christians, every aspect of culture—art, music, literature, vocations, etc.—must be transformed by obedience to the Gospel and to the commandments of Christ, the crucified and resurrected Lord.
Cornelius J. Van Schouwen of Sioux Center, Iowa served as professor of Bible at Dordt College from 1954 until his retirement in 1968.