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Transcript 226B — The Meaning of "World" in John 3:16
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Camping. I want to ask you a question about John 3:16. What does it mean when it says "world"?
HC: The question is raised about John 3:16, where it says, "For God so loved the world." What does God mean by "the world"?
The word that is used there is the word cosmos. Now the word cosmos is found a great many times in the Bible, and ordinarily, when the Bible uses the word cosmos, it's speaking about unsaved, the world of unsaved men. But not always. There are places in the Bible where God uses the word cosmos in the sense of the hole universe, the whole creation.
In fact, we use it in our normal English translation in that sense. Cosmic means that it's universal in character. The word cosmic is derived from he Greek word cosmos.
Now Christ, you see, came not only to redeem those who are being saved, but He came to redeem the world. We read in Romans 8:20 or 21 (someplace in there) that the creation was subjected to futility, or to vanity, not of its own will, but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope. You see, the world was created good. It was perfect. But when man, Adam and Eve, who were the kings of this creation, who had dominion over it, rebelled against God, they became cursed. Now you could not have the curious situation of a cursed king and a perfect world. And so God cursed the world, not of its own will. That is, the world itself had not become guilty. But it was subjected to vanity by God, who subjected it in hope. And God indicates, in Romans 8 again, that the creation "awaiteth with eager longing the revealing of the sons of glory."
Why is this? On the Last Day, when the believers are revealed (they are the sons of glory), then the day will come that the creation itself will experience the redemption. God will destroy this present universe, and recreate it New Heavens and a New Earth, where righteousness dwells.
CALLER: Does that mean people or the earth?
HC: In John 3:16 the word cosmos means the whole creation, including people.
CALLER: God does not love all people, though, does He?
HC: Individually, unsaved people are hated by God because they have rebelled against God and are under the wrath of God, as we read in Psalm 5, for example. But we can know the love of God by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, by believing on Him.
Now God's hatred does not extend to the creation, because the creation, first of all, was not designed to be accountable to God for its conduct. It's not created in the image of God. And secondly, it did not rebel against God. Only mankind rebelled against God. And mankind was created in the image of God. They were created accountable to God for their actions.
And so mankind justly deserves God's hatred. But in the general sense, God so loved the world. He loved the whole world, the whole creation. But particularizing, it goes on to say that "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." That is isolating mankind now, that if we believe on Him we will experience His love.
CALLER: Do you have a verse that describes what you said about God cursing the world?
HC: Yes. Genesis 3. First of all, in Genesis 1 we read that God made everything and, in verse 31, "God saw everything that He had made and behold, it as very good." There was no curse, there was no sin.
But now we get to Genesis 3. And Lucifer has rebelled against God, and o he is cursed, in verse 14. ''Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle and above all wild animals. Upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." That's the curse on Satan.
And then the curse comes on man: "I will greatly multiply your pain in child-bearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your desire shall be for your husband. He shall rule over you." And it continues upon Adam: "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you." And here is the ground that is getting cursed here: "Cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you. And you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground. For out of it you are taken. You are dust and to dust you shall return." The twin curse, you see, on man and on the ground.
And this is what Romans 8:21 refers to, when it says that the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will.