What Can Be Said of This World?

The natural man loves the world because he is of the world (Jn 8:23; 2 Tim 4:10). He lusts for more of the world, and then he boasts of his accumulations and accomplishments. The spirit of this world is Antichrist (1 Jn 4:3), sent from the ruler of this world — Satan (Jn 12:30; 14:31; 16:11). Simply put, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, who leads the world’s rebellion against God (1 Jn 5:19). All that is in the world is from the world (1 Jn 2:16), and the world is passing away (1 Cor 7:31; 1 Jn 2:17).

The wisdom of the world has been no help to the people of the world (1 Cor 3:19). The most pressing questions of life, death, and beyond are answered with mere speculation. The god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), who is the father of lies (Jn 8:44), has blinded the minds of these people subject to his dominion (Acts 26:18; 2 Cor 4:4). In this, our adversary sends many deceivers into the world to pose as angels of light (2 Jn 1:7); but they are false Christs, false prophets, and false teachers.

The course of this world is the wide way leading to destruction (Mt 7:13–14). Many travel this hopeless path without God (Eph 2:12), who will say to them on Judgment Day, “Depart from Me, I never knew you (Mt 7:21–23).” The fact is that the unredeemed sons of Adam do not belong to Christ (Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 3:23), which is why they do not believe in Him (Jn 10:26). They have no love for God in their hearts (Jn 5:42), nor do they have any room there for God’s Word (Jn 8:47).

The world cannot receive the Spirit of God (Jn 14:17) who implants the seed of God’s Word (Mt 13:23; Jas 1:21) via the preaching of the Gospel (1 Cor 1:23; 2:2, 4), by the sent man of God (Rom 10:15). Void of the Spirit of God (Rom 8:9) and the Word of God (Jn 8:47), there is no manifestation of faith in the unbeliever.

Jesus did not pray for the world (Jn 17:9), but He did pray for those who would be His disciples in every generation and from every nation — that we would be one with Him and the Father. As Jesus was in the world, so are we in this world (1 Jn 4:17). Every believer in Jesus, by God’s doing, has the assurance that he or she has been chosen out of the world (Jn 15:19).

Christians are called “saints.” Saints are those who have been made new by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:1–8; 2 Cor 5:17; 1 Pet 1:3). The saint is one who has been baptized into Christ's body, His church, the Israel of God (Mt 16:18; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 6:16). Christ’s church in the world is the kingdom of God in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). This holy nation of royal priests has been chosen to serve as ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor 5:20; 1 Pet 2:9). We bear witness in the world, by the power of the indwelling Spirit (Acts 1:8; Rom 8:9, 11), to the eternal purposes of God carried out in Christ (Is 26:12; Eph 3:11).

Light has come into the world (Jn 3:19; 8:12), resulting in judgment against the world (Jn 12:31), for Jesus came into the world to testify to the truth (Jn 18:37). The truth is that Jesus is the King of glory (Ps 24; 1 Tim 6:15), and His kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36). The Gospel of His kingdom, however, is to be preached to the whole world (Mt 24:14), so that the world may know and believe that our God reigns (Ps 47:8; Is 52:7; Jn 17:21, 23; Rev 19:6).

Now the ruler of this world is judged and cast out (Jn 12:31; 16:11), bound in chains as the strong man to be dealt with on the Day of Judgment (Mt 12:29; Mk 3:27; Rev 20:10), the day of Christ’s second coming as our dread champion (Jer 20:11; Rev 19:11–21). Still, the old dragon has his world forces of darkness at work in the world (Eph 6:12). For this reason, Christians, who formerly walked according to the course of this world (Eph 2:2), are commanded to not love the world nor the things of the world (1 Jn 2:15–17).

The adopted children of God (Eph 1:4–5; Rom 8:15, 23), remain in the world (Jn 17:11) as objects of hate (Jn 15:18–25), as was their Lord (Jn 7:7) and as is our God (Rom 1:30). Christians are hated because we, too, are not of this world — like Jesus (Jn 17:16). Rather, the citizen of heaven is sent into the world (Jn 17:18; Acts 1:8) to bear witness of Christ and suffer for the sake of God’s elect people (2 Tim 2:10) — that they, too, would be saved and be conformed to the image of God’s perfect Son, the God-man, Christ Jesus (Rom 8:29).

Followers of Jesus are not to be conformed to this world (Rom 12:2) — being warned about the deceitfulness of riches (Mk 4:19; 1 Tim 6:17) and the worry that chokes out God’s Word (Mt 13:22). Our field of ministry is this world (Mt 13:38), and each disciple’s task is to keep oneself unstained by the world (Jas 1:27). The command is to be holy as God is holy (1 Pet 1:15–16) because without holiness no one can see the Lord (Heb 12:14). The one who is crucified to the world has cross-inspired worldview (Gal 6:14). Vanity of vanities…it is all vanity (Eccl 1:2). Thus, the one who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life (Jn 12:25).

The world does not know us (1 Jn 3:1), who claim to follow Christ in His triumph over the world (2 Cor 2:14), but whoever is born of God overcomes the world (1 Jn 4:17) — the world that does not know God (Jn 17:25). No one knows God the Father unless Jesus wills to reveal Him (Mt 11:27), and those who come to Jesus were drawn by the Father that Jesus might show them the Father (Jn 6:44, 65; 14:8–9).

Receiving Jesus, as the true witness and testimony of God, is only by the will of God, who has mercy on whom He wills to have mercy (Jn 1:12–13; Rom 9:15–16). Through God’s grace, both repentance and faith are granted to God’s chosen, redeemed people (Acts 5:31; 11:18; Rom 11:5; Eph 2:8–9; Phil 1:29). This is the victory that overcomes the world — our faith (1 Jn 5:4) — authored (Heb 12:2), gifted (Gal 5:22), allocated (Rom 12:3), manifested (Rom 10:17), received (2 Pet 1:1), passed down to all the saints (Jude 3), and perfected by Jesus Christ (Heb 12:2).

What can be said of the world? Here, we have no lasting city (Heb 13:14), but as sons of the kingdom, we look and long for the coming day when the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of God (Rev 11:15). This is our shared hope of glory (Col 1:27), when everything will be made new (Rev 21:5). As people of hope in Christ, our trust has no place apart from Him (Jn 15:5), who loved us and gave Himself for us (Eph 5:25).

Because He lives, we live as new creatures, directed by His Spirit on the narrow way to life — abundant and eternal. A glorious city in a better country is our better hope. We wait for it as His kingdom to come, and our prayer along with His Spirit is, “Come, Lord Jesus…Come!”

David Norczyk

Missoula, Montana

August 8, 2022