Will Jesus save the world?

I have my own reasons for not taking the particular meaning of John 3.16 in the way that B. B. Warfield does. But if anyone is inclined to doubt his understanding of what the Gospel means for the future of the whole human race, I think there is some data that needs to be accounted for. One example would be the promise to Abraham which, while it implies there will be enemies who get cursed, sees blessing coming out as ultimate in history:

I will bless those who bless you,
and him who dishonors you I will curse,
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

The Apostle Paul, remember, hearkens to this promise and reiterations of it made by God to Abraham, to argue that nothing than full salvation to the nations/gentiles. And he actually calls the news/prophecy of this salvation, “the Gospel”–“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed'” (Galatians 3.8).

The call of Abraham for the sake of the nations is reflected in many places. Consider this messianic prophecy from Isaiah:

Listen to me, O coastlands,
and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the Lord,
and my recompense with my God.”

And now the Lord says,
he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

God could have decided to extend salvation to only a few through the course of world history. No one could lodge a complaint against him by the standard of “strict justice.” But the very idea is repulsive to God. It would be too stingy an outcome to accurately reflect his character. The future God has promised is one in which “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11.9).

Or consider the most quoted OT passage in the NT, Psalm 110.1:

The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Paul expounds on this in his discussion of the resurrection in First Corinthians 15:

Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

So Jesus reigns at God’s right hand, subduing all peoples until finally he brings about the resurrection.  Knowledge of the LORD fills the earth as water covers the sea.  Or, in the language of Daniel 2, “the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth”

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever

 

 

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