For God so loved the world...

     The title is the beginning words of what is perhaps the most well known verse in the entire Bible.

     “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16

     To better understand the meaning of John 3:16 it is beneficial to begin by examining the word ‘world.’  The word is used throughout the Bible both in the Old Testament and especially in the New Testament.

     In the Old Testament there are three significant Hebrew words which are interpreted ‘world.’ 

     The most frequently used Hebrew word is Tevel which means generally all the people on planet earth.  Its most common Hebrew synonym is Erets which does in fact mean the physical planet.

     For example:

     “But the LORD shall endure forever…He shall judge the world(Tevel) in righteousness…”  Psalm 9:7-8a

    

     The Hebrew Tevel finds its counterpart in the New Testament Greek word oikoumene translated ‘world’ meaning inhabited earth, or mankind. 

     The second Hebrew word translated ‘world’ is Olam meaning ages, endless time, or eternity.

     Solomon used Olam in his wisdom writings.

     “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world(Olam) in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”  Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJ

     Interestingly, ‘world’ in this verse is translated ‘eternity’ in NKJV, NASB, and NIV. 

     When speaking of Jerusalem’s future, Isaiah uses the same Olam, (world) to describe eternity, or everlasting.

     “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated…I will make you an eternal(Olam) excellence, a joy of many generations.”  Isaiah 60:15

     Corresponding Greek words in the New Testament are aion meaning an age, or a certain period of time, and aionios meaning everlasting, or eternal.

     And the third Hebrew for ‘world’ is Cheledh with several interesting synonyms including lifetime, worldliness, transitory, and fleeting.

     David used this Hebrew word to express the limitation of his days compared to God.  In the following, ‘world’ is translated ‘age.’

     “Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age(Cheledh) is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.”  Psalm 39:5

  

     The appropriate Greek word for ‘world’ to express the same as David’s thought is one of many applications of the Greek kosmos. 

     The specific intention of the writer using kosmos in the New Testament must be known.  The application equaling David’s thoughts does in fact mean the present world and order of things, opposed to the kingdom of Christ.  Kosmos in this context likewise represents transience, materialism, worthlessness, and evil.

     Now then, with that brief introduction relative to the word ‘world’ let’s take a closer look at John 3:16.

     “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

     ‘World’ in this verse has multiple meanings: mankind in general which is the object of judgment, and the specific time, or age, that God was about to introduce to deliver mankind from aion to aionois: from limited years (death) to everlasting life.    

     Paul shed more light on this great new age and the Deliverer.

     “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.  But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son born of a woman…” Galatians 4:3-4

     As the Son began His mission, He clearly delineated between mankind in general and His Father’s chosen ones.

     “I pray for them (disciples), I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.”  John 17:9

     Jesus prayed for God’s chosen who were in the world, but not of the world.  They were in the world to display God’s plan to deliver them from destruction to eternal life.

     We’ll see that great animosity would arise between those who chose to remain in the world versus those delivered from the world.

     It all began in the garden.

     “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed…”  Genesis 3:15

    

The Destiny of Natural Man

     We’ve seen that all men including Adam are destined to die.  From Adam to Noah, men had forgotten God and went their own way.

     “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually …So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”  Genesis 6:5, 12

     One might have thought the flood judgment and God’s promise never to destroy the earth by flood again might have changed man’s hearts.

     Such was not the case.  Fast forward several thousand years to the time of Job.

     One of Job’s friends named Eliphaz spoke of man’s innate sinfulness.

     “What is man, that he could be pure?  And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?”  Job 15:14

     Eliphaz contended that one born of a woman could not be righteous.  These words are true.  Every child born of a woman after Adam was born innately evil.

     Then he posed the question; if angels are not pure, how could an earthling be pure?

     “If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens (angels) are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!”  Job 15:15-16

     David acknowledged the same truth.

     “The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.  They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.”  Psalm 14:2-3

     David recognized that all men are corrupt.  Sin is universal, which is a central theme in the Bible.

     David’s son Solomon spent much of his energy trying to reconcile the fact that a man acting independently could not overcome universal degradation.

     “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun; that one thing happens to all.  Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.”  Ecclesiastes 9:3

     Again, note the words ‘all’ and ‘full.’  He acknowledged that all men live in sin during their life and then go the place of the dead.  Solomon realized there had to be something more.  The final two verses in Ecclesiastes revealed the key.

     Several hundred years later the prophets spoke of the same phenomena made known to David and Solomon.

     “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”  Jeremiah 17:9

     If one’s heart is deceitful, so will be his tongue and actions.  No one can understand such a thing.

     Approximately seven hundred years later Paul became a great teacher/writer.  In his letter to the Christians in Rome he said:

      “What then?  Are we better than they (Jews)?  Not at all.  For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.”  Romans 3:9

     And then to illustrate his argument, he quoted David’s words from Psalm 14 noted above.  The universality of sin was applicable to his time. Nothing had changed.

     He continued by stating that both the words and actions of all men reveal their corrupt state.

     “With their tongues they have practiced deceit…Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways…”  Romans 9:13, 15-16

     Paul summarized his teaching succinctly.

     “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”  Romans 9:23

     And lastly, John confirmed the universality of sin.

     “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”  1 John 1:8

     Therefore, sin is universal; death is universal; resurrection is universal, and eternal existence is universal.

     But it seems like the only mention of universalism spoken of today is universal bliss.  Total heresy.

     Every man that dies as a natural man will spend eternity in the lake of fire.

     Question:  How important, then, is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world?  That is the most significant teaching in the entire Bible.

The Natural Man's False Security

     The natural man believes he has something that he does not; namely wisdom and understanding.  However, reason and logic will not produce wisdom.

     Man may expend his total life’s effort attempting to attain true wisdom but will not find it.

     “But where can wisdom be found?  And where is the place of understanding?  Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.”  Job 28:12-13

     Simply stated, natural man does not know the meaning or the value of true wisdom.  Therefore, he does not know where to look for it, let alone understand its priceless worth. 

     The natural man confronts life’s challenges by relying on his own logic and reasoning, but the results are devastating. 

     “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”  Proverbs 16:25

     God gave Solomon wisdom in order for him to understand the folly of man’s feeble attempt to attain wisdom by reason.

     When Solomon attempted to understand activities on earth he had to admit that such understanding was not available by way of man’s reasoning ability.

     “…For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not…find it.”  Ecclesiastes 8:17b

     Solomon’s use of ‘wise man’ was referring to natural man’s wisdom.

     It appears that Solomon was obsessed with natural man’s lack of understanding of that which he observed.

     A natural man’s best efforts could only reveal his lack of wisdom.

     “Even when a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom, and he shows everyone that he is a fool.”  Ecclesiastes 10:3

      Natural reasoning could not explain life’s ironies. 

     “Folly is set in great dignity, while the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses, while princes walk on the ground like servants.”  Ecclesiastes 10:6-7

     To Solomon, such ironies could not be explained by reason.  It didn’t make ‘sense’ to the natural man to observe servants on horses while the elite walked in a way fitting for servants.

     Isaiah also addressed the issue of the total inadequacy of natural man’s feeble attempts to understand and display true wisdom.

     “We grope for the wall like the blind…as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate places.”  Isaiah 59:10

     The above describes the total folly of a natural man trying to understand, let alone solve, life’s challenges with human logic.

     As would be expected, such a significant issue as natural man’s understanding, or lack of it, would be addressed in the age of the church.

     Paul addressed the issue of natural man’s lack of true wisdom by quoting Isaiah.

     “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”  1 Corinthians 1:19 (from Isaiah 29:14)

     The church would be made aware that the wisdom of the natural man would be done away with.  God would replace man’s reasoning with true wisdom from above.

     “Where is the wise...Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God…” 1 Corinthians 1:20a, 21a

     God revealed that natural man’s wisdom was foolishness in God’s eyes.  Natural man’s wisdom prevented him from knowing God, or His Son who Paul subsequently revealed as the ‘Wisdom from God.’

     In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he really condemned those false teachers who dismissed the truth revealed in Christ.  He said that such teachers knew nothing and should be avoided.

     “If anyone teaches otherwise…he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with… arguments…useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth…”  1 Timothy 6:3-5

     Again, consider the challenges facing America today.  Are the solutions offered to solve such challenges based on natural man’s wisdom or the wisdom revealed by God in Christ?  Or does God’s wisdom even enter the decision making process?

     Lastly, the natural man and his wisdom will stand before the great white throne judgment at the end of days; those with wisdom from above will not.

How Significant is Man?

     It is often said by the naïve that the president of the United States is the most powerful person in the world.

     To begin this discussion let’s acknowledge that man was in fact created in the very image of God.

     “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  Genesis 1:27

     After His creation activities on earth, God confirmed the worthiness of His creation.

     “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good…”  Genesis 1:31

     But man rebelled against his Creator and the curse was pronounced.

     “…For out of it (ground) you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”  Genesis 3:19

     Death awaited every man after Adam.  After their disobedience, Adam and his wife were denied access to the tree of life.

     Universal death to man because of Adam’s sin was confirmed thousands of years later by the Apostle Paul.

     “For since by man came death…For as in Adam all die…” 1 Corinthians 15:21a, 22a

     “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…”  Romans 5:12

     Now let’s examine the reality of the significance of man in this current day.  The following will apply to the natural man, not the man who has been born again.  Redeemed man is an entirely different story.

     “Man decays like a rotten thing…is of few days and full of trouble.  He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue.”  Job 13:28, 14:1-2

     The major thought here is the surety of the decay and wasting away of mortal man.

     Then Job speaks of the predetermined days of life for every man.

     “Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.”  Job 14:5

     A man’s days have been pre-numbered by God from the foundation of the world.

The Hebrew for ‘determined’ means to have been decided or decreed before time began.  Likewise ‘appointed’ means to prepare, accomplish, and fulfill God’s plan.

     The Psalmists had much to say about the mortality of man.

     “LORD, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.  Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.”  Psalm 39:4-5

     Again, every man’s days have been numbered in advance.  At man’s very best his short life is considered as vapor meaning vanity or emptiness.  A major thought in the above is the transitory nature of man’s existence.

     “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.  As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field…for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”  Psalm 103:14-16

     Because of his frailty and evanescence, man is told not to place trust in another man.

     “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.  His spirit departs, he returns to his earth...”  Psalm 146:3-4

     Jesus’ half brother James summed up the revelation given in the Old Testament wisdom books relative to the transitory nature of man.

     “…whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow…For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away…”  James 4:14

     Now then, if the president of the United States issues executive orders, or signs legislation that protects those who break God’s laws, such as the genocide of unborn children, is he a natural man?

     Or if the president states that the only way to achieve peace in the Middle East is to divide Israel between the Jews and Arabs, is he a natural man or redeemed man.  Again, you decide.

     But if he is in fact a natural man, is he really the most powerful man in the world?