John 3:16 – The Love of God restores the Kosmos

A Bible verse that we have probably heard many times is John 3:16, which gives us the core reason for our redemption through the belief in the name and the purpose of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Let us look back at David and his revelation of the greatness of God and His purposes for mankind described in Psalm 8:

1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
You have set Your glory
above the heavens.

2 From the mouths of children and infants
You have ordained praise
on account of Your adversaries,
to silence the enemy and avenger.

3 When I behold Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You have set in place—

4 what is man that You are mindful of him,
or the son of man that You care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the angels;
You crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler of the works of Your hands;
You have placed everything under his feet:

7 all sheep and oxen,
and even the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

How amazing that God would choose to make us in His likeness and then make us rulers us the work of His hands! Indeed, the Psalmist is baffled and astounded at the responsibility and honor given us, even though our earthly form is a ‘little lower than angels’! On a side note is it not amazing the nugget found in this Psalm that has to do with praise as a weapon of spiritual warfare that God has ordained to silence the enemy and avenger.

We then can see the relation with John 3:16 if we look at it more closely. Keep in mind that from Genesis chapter one, we are given an assignment to have dominion, or rule in other words, over God’s creation and to replenish the earth, subdue it and have dominion over every living thing. Now let’s take a closer look at the verse:

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. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16,17 (NIV)

The word used in the Greek translated ‘world’ is Kosmos. If it had to do with the earth it would have been ‘Terra’. When examined further the word Kosmos actually means ‘orderly arrangement, decoration and by implication the world and its moral order or system of moral governance (Strongs 2889). The word for love is ‘agape’, which is the highest form of love according to the Greeks, and if we are to then use these expanded meanings, we see that God is intent on restoring what David sees in Psalm 8 and what we read of in Genesis Chapter 1, which is a system of rule that had man in dominion and replenishing, subduing and having dominion and full authority over what God created on earth.

Why then is there a question of perishing and not having everlasting life? This is because when mankind fell through the sin of Adam and Eve, we lost the access to the tree of life and our bodies no longer carried the glory of God which we were supposed to be crowned with. The enemy lied to us and still does so today with the deception that we are not whom God has called us to be, with the purpose of us not having that relationship and all its rights and privileges restored as he is keen on our destruction in the end.

Praise God, as the Psalmist says, that His core character is love, and having loved the order of things, or Kosmos, that He had established in the beginning, He chose to give His only Son to pay the price so that all we had to do was just believe. No punishments. No fines. No retribution (John 3:17 ‘ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’). No payments on our part.

Just by simply believing in Jesus and by having this relationship restored we begin to understand and operate in the kingdom principles rooted in the love of the very Father who redeemed us under the instruction of the Holy Spirit as we walk with The Son, whom the Bible declares has ‘the government upon His shoulders’. Halleluya! We then begin to change our ‘kosmos’ as we have the authority restored, and as we obey His word and operate under His guidance we have dominion over every circumstance and situation. Sicknesses have to obey. The enemy is under our feet. We experience the miraculous because it is the natural to those operating in the Kingdom of God.

May God give us the grace to understand our purposes and to accomplish them according to His will as we meditate upon how mindful He was to us to give us so much in the first place. Be blessed! Believe!