John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV).
From the side-line, I observed two theologians engaging each other in a Facebook picture (4 April 2021) which read, ‘“Christ died for everyone” taken to its logical conclusion in universalism.’ The evangelical responded by quoting John 3:16-17 and the reformed rebutted with a call to read all of John 3. The evangelical reinforced that ‘world’ means ‘world’ and the reformed rebutted with referral to the elect.
Who or what is the world that God so loved? The Greek (κόσμος) used for ‘world’ means ‘kosmos’ which contextually refers to everything God created, including humans. Contextually, ‘God loved the world’ refers to the quality of God’s love for His creation. Humanity, however, as part of creation, but as a consequence of the fall, is sinful i.e., ‘in the world’ and in need of a saviour.
The second part of John 3:16 sets the criteria for salvation, ‘whoever believes in him.’ The problem that the sinful man – those in the world – face is that they are spiritually dead in their sin. The decision to believe cannot be taken by a dead person – dead people do not make decisions; this is an impossibility. Life must be spoken into death for a person to believe.
Jesus told Nicodemus that you need to be born from above (John 3:3-5), which is regeneration. The order of salvation is found in Romans 8:29-30, ‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’ The faith to believe is given by God (Ephesians 2:8).Those who come to Jesus become His children by His will, not by theirs. We did not choose God, He chose us. See, for example, the following Scriptures, John 1:13, Mark 13:20, Ephesians 1:4-5, Romans 9:10-24, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, 2 Timothy 1:9, Acts 13:48 and 1 Peter 2:8. John 3:16 can, therefore, only speak of the elect: it is the elect, which is born from above, to whom the faith is given by God to believe, and therefore they shall not perish, but have eternal life.