Understanding Scripture Part four

 

~For God So Loved the World

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.

  • "loved" the world
  1. kosmos {kos'-mos} the world, the universe.
  2. Past tense.
  3. These words hearken back to the creation of the universe.

Genesis 1:1-2:25.

  1. Note, it "was" good; verse 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and Genesis 1: 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it "was" very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

 

The first two chapters of the book of Genesis explain to us why John recorded, "For God so "loved" the world. God loved the world as He created it, In His image. The world was created in the perfect silliness image of the eternal, one and only, true and living God. God said in verse 31 it "was" very good.

 

  • The forfeit of God's perfect creation.
  1. Step one, the devils temptation, Genesis 3:1-5.
  2. Step two, Eves and Adams response, Genesis 3:6-7.
  3. Step three, a visit with God in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:8-13.
  4. Step four, God pronounces the judgment of suffering and pain as a result of disobedience. Genesis 3:14-19.
  5. Step five, Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Genesis 3:20.
  6. Step six, Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Genesis 3:21.
  7. Step seven, Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" -- therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:22-24

 

NOTE: We understand that the sin of disobedience committed by Adam and Eve was visibly exposed; God covered their sin with skins that were taken from an innocent animal that was sacrificed for that purpose. An innocent life was taken to cover the sins of the guilty. It is evident that Adam and Eve did not believe the warning that God gave them in Genesis 2:16-17, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." They chose to accept the lies of the devil and forfeited the blessings that God had provided for them. Genesis chapter four and following makes clear to us that the death referred to here is the death of Spiritual eternal life God breathed into the body of Adam. Genesis 2:7 " And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

So now we understand why John recorded For God so "loved" the world, in John 3:16. In part five this study we will come to understand why "He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life".