John 3:16-18 - All the World?

INTRODUCTION

Let’s open our Bibles this morning to the gospel of John, chapter 3.

I will read verses 16 through 18 of this chapter:

[READ JOHN 3:16-18]

Almost 100 years after the beginning of the Reformation, in 1610, a group calling themselves “The Remonstrants” wrote a document they called “The Five Articles of Remonstrance”

In it, these followers of Jacobus Arminius, who died in 1609, outlined five new ideas that ran contrary to the early confessions of the Reformed Church - the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism.

One of those articles is their idea of Unlimited Atonement - that Jesus Christ died for the whole world, everyone, and that He leaves it up to man to choose to follow Him.

Their idea, still popular today, is that God MAY have elected people, but it was only those who He knew because of His foreknowledge that would follow Him in faith.

It is the idea, ultimately, that God simply made salvation POSSIBLE on the cross, and possible for all people.

So it could be said, according to them, that Jesus died for EVERY SINGLE PERSON, but some of them might not be saved because they reject His gift.

A group of Dutch Reformed men replied a year later in a document called ‘Counter-Remonstrance of 1611”, where on this point they stated:

that to this end He has first of all presented and given to them his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, whom He delivered up to the death of the cross in order to save his elect, so that, although the suffering of Christ as that of the only-begotten and unique Son of God is sufficient unto the atonement of the sins of all men, nevertheless the same, according to the counsel and decree of God, has its efficacy unto reconciliation and forgiveness of sins only in the elect and true believer.

Now if you’re not sure which one we teach here, based on the overwhelming evidence of Scripture - it is this latter position.

That the salvation God provided through Jesus Christ was not limited in power, since it’s able to save ALL who come to Him in faith,

But is limited by God in its effect, only bringing to salvation those God had chosen before the world began.

And, as I am sure some of you are aware, this debate rages today.

With both sides lining up Bible verses and passages to support their belief in the extent of Christ’s atonement on the cross.

And it should come as no surprise that BOTH sides use these verses in John to support THEIR understanding.

And before we dive in to this passage, I would like to give us all a few warnings:

1. You CAN be a believer and hold to this idea of unlimited atonement.

I know for many of us, we have had those moments where we just can’t understand how anyone can read their Bible and come to think that God, somehow, dispenses HIS grace based on OUR actions,

But that’s what qualifies this passage as a “difficult passage”.

But we should never allow our zeal for the truth obscure the grace and mercy of the gospel to anyone.

The fact that you might have a belief about the extent of the atonement that I might question doesn’t change the fact that salvation is by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ alone.

It’s not about being able to pass a theological exam or understand all the mysteries of the faith.

And it is possible, even common, to have true faith in Christ and be mistaken on important doctrines for a time.

2. So much so that I think MOST new believers, who have not been thoroughly catechized beforehand, come to Christ as Armenians.

It describes what they have seen, what they’ve experienced.

If you as them “How were you saved?”

They might reply, “I repented of my sin and followed Christ, asking Him to save me.”

It is all THEIR actions that they will describe.

And only later, as they grow and learn the Scriptures, do many of us come to see the beautiful truth of God’s election of His people.

And see His glorious hand, His abounding mercy toward them, when they discover they had no claim upon His grace.

So we must deal gently with these brothers and sisters, patiently, and display the love of Christ even when they might dispute with us.

Speak the truth, absolutely, but speak the truth in love, seasoned, as it were, with salt.

3. The gospel message must still be proclaimed to everyone.

Even we who believe Jesus died for His sheep, for His elect, we have no way of knowing who those sheep are.

God, in His wonderful providence, has not given us a mark or a brand upon His sheep,

So we must speak to everyone, proclaiming the good news of the perfect Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, who died, rose, and ascended into heaven, where He reigns at the right hand of God until the Day of His Appearing.

Scripture speaks of us sowing seed or watering crops - and all these activities are indiscriminate.

A planter doesn’t just put a single seed in the ground, that the plant to rise from it is the ONLY seed they care for.

And the one who waters - well he waters the plants and the weeds at the same time.

God, our Father, causes the rain to fall on the evil and the good - and in this life, we must likewise proclaim this refreshing gospel to everyone.

Let’s look at verse 16:

For God so loved the world...

That word “For” points back to the verses before.

There, our Lord was telling Nicodemus about the mercy of God shown in the bronze serpent that Moses raised up in the wilderness.

These were people in active and open rebellion, who had received God’s judgment - an invasion of venomous snakes that bit many.

The point our Lord continues to make is that we never DESERVED His mercy - He GAVE that mercy, He LOVED the world.

The world - all those who had rebelled against Him and were His enemies - He loved them.

There is no talk here about what they might deserve from Him, no talk of loving those who WOULD love Him;

He loved those who COULDN’T love Him.

Whose very nature was so warped that we COULDN’T respond to His love at all.

Now you might be saying, “Pastor, that sounds pretty UN-limited.”

That God loved THE WORLD.

It does indeed. Except this isn’t dealing with who God SAVED - it’s describing who was in NEED of salvation.

The WORLD - everyone in it - is fallen and condemned in their sin.

Headed to death as surely as those Israelites who had been bitten by the vipers.

But as we continue in this verse, we see who is saved: all who believe in Him [the Son] should not perish but have eternal life.

And let’s make sure we understand this clearly: Jesus doesn’t say “all who believe MIGHT not perish”

There is no element of chance or accident here.

All who believe in Him WILL be saved.

It is the ones who believe who will be saved.

The ones who SOMEHOW believe.

But where does that belief, that faith, COME FROM?

If we were rebels, enemies of God, warped from our original good creation,

Why would we turn to God in faith?

If we were dead in our sins, how can we do anything but lie there in them?

If we were slaves to sin, do we think we can free ourselves, even enough to exercise faith in the Son of God?

Is there something in us that is just made better, a better fit for the gospel, as the Remonstrants seem to say?

If so, how did that good thing come to be in us if our Creator did not place it within us?

So even those who would cling to Unlimited Atonement ultimately have to acknowledge the action of God in salvation.

For we have nothing else to work with in our hearts and lives than what we have been given by God.

Now, this is not our understanding of Limited Atonement.

We believe that, according to the Scriptures, we were dead in our sin - dead, unmoving, unimproving, unliving - dead.

But by the gracious action of the Holy Spirit, on behalf of those He had determined WILL come to Him, He made us alive.

And it is in that life that we NOW can repent and believe.

It is in that life we can now live to God in Christ.

Apologies if we have crossed a bit into “Unconditional Election”, but these two doctrines are very closely linked, so that a misunderstanding of one will harm the other.

So, Are Christians just smarter or wiser than other people? No, not that.

Do we have some natural ability to respond to God where so many others don’t? No, not that.

Are we just naturally better people, more elevated, more spiritual? Nope.

The apostle Paul, in what looks to be an expansion of our passage in John today, says this in Ephesians 2:1-9.

[READ Ephesians 2:1-9]

What John says briefly in a summary way, Paul here applies the redemption of God’s people in a very particular way:

Is speaking specifically to those who have been made alive in Christ.

Made alive by grace through faith.

And that faith is not even your natural ability - it is the gift of God, so that no one can boast of what THEY have done.

Salvation belongs to our God.

And to make sure these Ephesians, the same church the apostle John would serve and write to, understood the truth of this,

Paul tells them in chapter 1:4-6:

[READ Ephesians 1:4-6]

God’s people were chosen before anything was created.

The full number of His elect was determined before the sun began to shine.

And we were chosen not on the basis of what we would do or who we would be, but in His great Sovereign purpose.

Lest any man should boast.

Verse 17 tells us:

John 3:17 “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.”

God had every right to send His Son to execute His righteous judgment at any time.

The offenses of men stank to heaven, and we all stood guilty before our holy God.

But instead of sending His Son in judgment, He sent Him to SAVE His people out of the world.

Not the whole world - that is the heresy of universal salvation.

The Bible is quite clear, even right here, that there are many who will not be saved.

Matthew 7:13–14 ““Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Verse 18:

John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

The Son didn’t have to come into the world to condemn it - it was condemned ALREADY.

Man’s natural state is set for a single destination - hell by way of death.

God didn’t have to do anything additional for man to be eternally destroyed - that was done in the Garden.

When God acted, He acted on behalf of His people, to save them and bring them out of this great city of destruction.

To sum up: It is true - there is no reason to ever stop proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ so long as we have breath in our lungs.

And we may, without fear of sin, declare the full gospel to everyone we know.