Saturday, May 26, 2018

John 3:1-17


John 3:1-17

1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." 3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" 10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:1-17 is part of a segment that extends to verse 21, containing the discourse of Jesus with Nicodemus in Jerusalem, the first of the discourses in this gospel. In Chapter 2, Jesus was one who turned water into wine at a wedding and one who appeared in the courts of the temple to cleanse it. Now, we see Jesus as a patient and learned teacher. The story is unique to this gospel. The discourse discloses and brings home the significance of the Christian revelation, but it is also a summons, a strengthening of faith and a moral exhortation. We best understand it as a proclamation composed by the evangelist that makes use of a lofty style such as is usual in a revelation discourse. It contains the whole Johannine preaching in succinct form. It begins with the typical misunderstanding of the one engaging Jesus. In doing so, it shows human weakness in approaching matters of the Spirit. It shows the unique relationship between God and Jesus as Son. It shows the important work of the Spirit in bringing people to see what God has done in Jesus. It stresses the importance of a transition or transformation in the lives of human beings. We need to move from darkness to light and from death to life. It stresses the importance of an event of revelation in Jesus. It also stresses the importance of an event in your life and mine as we hear of the event of revelation in Jesus and respond to it. Yet even our response is because of the work of the Spirit. 

This passage provides one of the New Testament sources for reflection upon the Trinity. It hints at the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit. It does so in a way that reminds us of the importance of relationships. In fact, our human experience of relationships may well be the best way for us to think about the Trinity. As soon as we even try to define it in a logical or mathematical way, we run the risk of heresy. It may well be that the doctrine of the Trinity reveals that relationships stand at the heart of the universe. Atoms do not exist unless they are in relationship with other atoms. You and I do not exist unless in relationships with others. Even God exists in relationship. The human soul is not within. The human soul is not without. The human soul is between. This means that we exist personally, communally, and socially in relationship with others. Our identity is as the body of Christ in relationships with this world. If the essence of God is oneness in community, it may well mean that the destiny toward which Christians pray and work is oneness in community with each other and with creation. 

1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. In Tal Bab Taanith 20a we find a reference to a Nicodemus who was wealthy before 70AD and living in Jerusalem. He will appear again in 7:45-52 and 19:38-42. Some do not consider it the same as the person in this text. He represents a Jewish leader and teacher who slowly came to discipleship.  He came to Jesus by night. In the context of John, this might mean he simply wanted to do so secretly. However, with the contrast between light and darkness in this gospel, it may hint at a deeper meaning. He is one emerging from the darkness of the world and into the light provided by Jesus. Another way of looking at this is that the rabbis recommended the study of the Torah at night, with rabbis often found prolonging their discussions well into the night. Nicodemus said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. He is already making a strong confessional statement. His reasoning is that no one can do these signs (σημεῖα) that you do apart from the presence of God.” Yet, such persons who rely upon signs do not merit trust from Jesus in 2:23-25. At this point, he sees in Jesus a distinguished rabbi. Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God, a phrase used only twice in John, both in this discourse. To find access to the rule of God is of the very essence of salvation. The salvation he mediates consists of fellowship with God and the related life, which also embraces a renewal of fellowship with others. By discussing the rule of God here, Jesus offers yet another symbol of a new time, the age of God's reign, and a new place, the kingdom as God's domain.[1] Jesus now refers this spiritual leader of the Jews to the notion of birth that allows one to see the rule of God. A transformation in us needs to take place to see the rule of God. Thus, no one will see the rule of God without being born from above (ἄνωθεν) or anew.” In Greek, this term means both "from above" and "again, anew." Jesus is discussing the possibility of new life. While most translations choose one of these meanings and then relegate the second meaning to a footnote, it is more theologically correct to maintain this double meaning. This rebirth is both into a new time (“anew”) and into a new place ("above") Nicodemus said to him, sarcastically, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” He stumbles on the notion of begetting. Yet, the notion of eschatological children of God was present Judaism. He had opportunities. The Lord will pour out a spirit from on high on the people of God (Isaiah 32:15). The Lord will pour out the Spirit upon all human beings, so that sons and daughters will prophesy, old shall dream, the young shall see visions, and even slaves shall receive the Spirit (Joel 2:28-29). The Lord will cleanse them with water and give them a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 26:25-26).  The people will return to the Lord in righteousness and with all their heart and soul and the Lord shall circumcise their hearts. The Lord will give them a holy spirit so that they will follow the commandments. The Lord will be their father and they shall become children of the living God, and the Lord will love them (Jubilee 1:23-25). God has appointed a time for the destruction of injustice. Truth shall have its time, cleansing the deeds of humanity with the spirit of holiness, purification, and truth. The result will be that the children of heaven will receive knowledge of the Most High and wisdom to do what is right (Community Rule of Qumran IQS iv 19-21).  Nicodemus seems obtuse at this point, but in this gospel, such a response is typical. People do not immediately understand the reference to spiritual matters. This obtuseness or lack of understanding may also suggest the darkness out of which Nicodemus has come, symbolizing the darkness of his Jewish heritage. Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. The Lord will sprinkle the people with clean water, cleanse them, and give them a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-26). The Lord will pour water on a thirsty land and streams on the dry ground, and the Spirit of the Lord upon the people (Isaiah 44:3). These two prophets specifically coupled water and Spirit. For John and for the early church, the reference to water suggests baptism. The verse does raise some interesting theological issues. In Logos Christology, alienation from the logos is something God overcomes by the incarnation of the Logos. We do not receive the Logos unless we are born anew of the Spirit of God.[2] In a theological fine point, this passage suggests that the gift of the Spirit and regeneration occur together.[3] This passage also suggests the close connection of regeneration as a work of the Holy Spirit in baptism. John does not mention conversion, but rather, an essential regeneration that occurs by water and the Spirit.[4] What is born of the flesh is flesh, (weak and mortal, not sinful) and what is born of the Spirit (divine life and power) is spirit. Given this essential difference, humanity cannot attain the kingdom on its own. The contrast is between the transitory existence of human life and the inviolable power of the Spirit of God. Tertullian used the contrast of flesh and spirit here as suggesting two substances united in Christ.[5] Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above (ἄνωθεν) and born anew.’ The wind (πνεῦμα) blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (Πνεύματος).” Ruah in Hebrew is a mysteriously invisible natural force that declares itself especially in the movement of the wind. This notion forms the background of the use of pneuma here. If God is Spirit, the sound fills creation and the power gives life to all creatures.[6] Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

Nicodemus has captured the attention of many in the history of interpretation. Augustine saw Jesus as sympathetic to Nicodemus’ inquiry, but for Augustine, Nicodemus was stuck at the literal sense of the text, and as a teacher of Israel, he should have known better. Calvin had no patience with Nicodemus and thought him a proud man on whom Jesus was wasting his time. Matthew Henry points out that, “Not many mighty and noble are called; yet some are, and here was one.” His charitable view of Nicodemus seems justified by Nicodemus’ later behavior when he defends Jesus, at John 7:50-52. He is also with Joseph of Arimathea as he confers upon Jesus the final dignity of burial after crucifixion. Henry Vaughan’s poem “The Night” says of him:

 

Wise Nicodemus saw such light

As made him know his God by night,

Most blest believer he!

 

It is easy to make a straw man, even a villain, of Nicodemus, and to use him as either a symbol of morally arthritic Judaism or the limits of an intellectual approach to faith. In yielding to the temptation, we lose a wonderful opportunity. There are lots of secret disciples of Jesus who need their questions answered, and who themselves need followers of Jesus to take them seriously. John 3:16 applies to Nicodemus as much as to anybody.[7]

In a sense, Nicodemus was leading two lives, one as a Pharisee and the other as a having a secret curiosity concerning Jesus. What Jesus says is that Nicodemus did need a new life. Nicodemus is already leading two lives. He needs a new life. If there is one thing in life we do not do on our own, it is birth. We burst into this world screaming and kicking. We have confused perceptions, blurred eyesight, and thoroughly depend upon others for everything. How can we ourselves arrange to be reborn in the Spirit? Such new birth is not our doing. Such rebirth is a holy mystery, an awe-inspiring gift. That is why we have a whole sacrament to commemorate it: the marvelous, grace-filled sacrament of water and the Spirit called baptism. Receiving the gift of new birth is the work of the Spirit. Whether it happens suddenly or gradually, we cannot make it happen, either by fervent desire and determination or by learning and believing the right beliefs. However, we can be intentional about receiving new birth. Though we cannot make it happen, we can midwife the process. This is the purpose of spirituality: to help birth the new self and nourish the new life. Spirituality is midwifery.[8]

I share a brief analogy of the remaking, rebirthing, in which the Spirit is at work in the world. I am thinking of Michelangelo's statue of David, made in marble.  We note that back of David has a slight bent, as if in the act of hurling the fatal stone at Goliath.  An artist had a cut that piece of marble a century before who thought he had cut too large a slice out of the side.  He thought he could not use it, so he went on to something else.  However, a hundred years later Michelangelo caught a glimpse of the possibilities.  That same cut, which was supposed to be too large, became the curve in David's back. What one artist saw as ruined another artist saw as having possibilities for redemption.  

I think the hymnologist Daniel Iverson had a good understanding of the Holy Spirit and what it does in the lives of believers. In what we can view as a supplication, Iverson’s hymn Spirit of the Living God implores the Holy Spirit to melt him, to mold him, to fill him, and to use him. Jesus’ words to Nicodemus relay similar qualities about God’s Spirit. The Spirit’s association with rebirth denotes its power to destroy the old and bring about a new thing. The Spirit has the power to reshape one’s character, one’s persona. We often hear people speak of wanting to be a different person. They say, “If only I could change,” “If only I could just not be this way anymore.” Of course, if we allow the Spirit to reshape us, a word of caution is in order. You might not like the result. 

 

11 “Very truly, I tell you, we, the plural suggests the community of John more than just Jesus, speak of what we know and testify (legal terminology) to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our (the community of John) testimony. At this point, Nicodemus as a person recedes into the background, and what he represents, Jewish leadership, comes to the fore. In addition, it becomes possible that the narrator is telling of his experience with Jewish leadership. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe (πιστεύετε), how can you believe (πιστεύσετε) if I tell you about heavenly things? Yet, this observation does not mean that Jesus stops trying. Now, in direct answer to the question of how these things can be… 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  14 In addition, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9), so must, as in divine necessity and in the plan of God, God lift up the Son of Man. The Hebrews in the wilderness, hurt and in danger of death due to the bite of the serpents. In a comparable way, humanity hurts and is in danger of death. Lifting up Jesus in the cross, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus, God brings healing from the wound of sin. His bleeding and suffering brings our salvation, making the cross a bloody symbol of divine love. At the heart of the gospel is the blood of Christ. Such an image is far from pretty. Such an image is messy. His body, broken for us. His blood, the blood of the new covenant. It is central to our identity as Christians and our relationship with God. That is why some of the old hymns are not afraid to address the "blood-theology" of the cross.

What can wash away our sins? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel's veins.

 

Jesus suffered. Jesus died. Like a snake on a pole, a criminal on a cross. He stops the bleeding of our souls. Here, John means “lifting up” in the sense of offering his life as a sacrifice, so that the sacrificial offering makes possible a new reality for others. Yet, given 3:13, it might be even more likely that he refers to the “lifting up” that John sees occurring in the resurrection and ascent of Jesus to heaven. Begetting, birth from above, is possible through the event and moment of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. John can call the crucifixion the exaltation of the Son only in the light of the resurrection and the return to the Father.[9] All of this is in order 15 that whoever believes (πιστεύων) in him, Jesus, of course, may have eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον). Here is the first occurrence of this phrase in John. Only God lives an eternal life. If human beings are to have it, the basis can only be that God wills to live in fellowship with humanity.[10] The certainty of this work of salvation has its basis in the plan of God, the goal of which is the giving of life to believers. True, we can think in the direction of the metaphorical language involved in the resurrection of Jesus. Yet, the resurrection refers to a real event. The new eschatological life, eternal life, is life in the full sense of the term, in comparison with each earthly life is such only with reservation.[11]

We could enter a discussion of believing. Some people believe and therefore become witnesses to the love that God has for the world.[12] Some people experience this as a one-time, bursting experience of newness, like a conversion experience. William James used the example of a shed roof in a snowstorm. Snow builds up until the stress on the roof reaches the last point beyond which it will not remain intact. Then one flake of snow, almost imperceptible in and of itself, acts as the final weight and the roof collapses. In conversion, any life experience may be that last snowflake. It is an illness, or a sunrise, or an inspiring worship experience, or an addiction which has finally become too much. Then the Holy Spirit breaks through to the person. For other people it may be more subtle, a slowly developing realization that Christ is real, that God does indeed work within us to heal and give life. Then in a moment of realization, one accepts Christ. Eternal life brings stability in life. It means that as we suffer and struggle, and as we laugh and feel good, we learn that in all things God is with us as God empowers and loves us, the divine presence when needed.

Bishop Ruediger Minor, from former East Germany, tells the following story.  Two years before their collapse, the Communist Party called a special meeting.  For 55 minutes a Marxist philosopher lectured on why communism was officially atheistic and why there is no God.  When the official finished, most of the people simply stood with folded arms.  A few applauded nervously.  Then, Communist Party officials led a Russian Orthodox priest to the podium and told him he had three minutes for his response.  The priest began his response by saying he did not need three minutes.  He only needed three words.  The three words were these, shouted at the top of his lungs: "Christ is risen."  The people in that meeting shouted back, "Christ is risen indeed!"  They did this three times.  With that the priest turned from the podium and returned to his seat.

 

Some debate exists as to whether John intended the following verses to be from Jesus. Of course, that is possible. Yet, I would like to suggest another possibility. The actual dialogue portion ends at verse 15. John now turns to his readers and addresses himself to us in a personal way. He is becoming preacher. He is offering his witness as a believer. I believe Raymond Brown made this suggestion in his commentary. The suggestion has stuck with me. 

16 Famously and memorably: “For God so loved (ἠγάπησεν)aorist tense and thus an act of love, the world (κόσμον) universe or cosmos as an orderly arrangement, an orderly, harmonious whole, as opposed to being chaotic.[13] “Cosmetics,” deriving from the same Greek word, refers to putting things into beautiful order. As John has already referred to the darkness of this world and its sin, the Father sent the Son to oppose the chaos and to bring the universe into beautiful, harmonious order. God loves us even when we are a mess, when we are guilty of disorderly conduct, when we are in emotional or spiritual disarray. We may think we can love the world. Some moments, we might even be at that point. Yet, most of us have quite different thoughts about the world. Martin Luther was aware of this when he said that if he were God, and humanity were as disobedient as it is, he would knock the world to pieces. We have a challenging time adopting “God’s eye-view” of the world. The love of God speaks to the election, guidance, help, and salvation that God offers.[14] God moves toward the world in an event or moment, working on the world God made by giving the divine self to it. The will of God is toward fellowship with the world God has made. Such love defines the doctrine of election. This verse demonstrates divine election. Election is the giving of the divine self to the work of God in creation. God has singled out Jesus as the object of divine election that demonstrates divine love for the world. Since the Father is so much with the Son, the Father is also with humanity. God wills to be with the world. Yet, the world responds with opposition, even while God responds with affirmation and salvation. Divine election affirms the divine will in creation. We clearly see the divine Yes toward humanity.[15] It speaks to a unique event that occurs within human history. The object of this love is the world. The world has rejected the light offered in the Son, but this did not alter the love of God for the world. We see the extraordinary nature of this love in the giving of the Son.[16] If we think in terms of the divine essence and existence, the Son reveals the existence of the Father, and by the sending of the Son, the Father reveals the divine essence, that is, divine love.[17] In contrast to Barth, the creation of the world is an expression of the love of God. The love with which God loved the world in the sending of the Son does not differ in kind from the fatherly love the Creator for the creatures God made.[18] God loved the world in such way that God gave. Even with such extraordinary love, such giving or even gifting is not self-evident. In gifting to the world the Son, God gave the divine self as a gift. Such a gift is a surrendering, a giving up, and an offering up. This type of gift exposes divinity to great danger. Self-revelation and self-realization in and for the world becomes an offering of divinity. The Christian message consists in the telling of this act of God, as God pledges divinity on behalf of those whom God has made. Humanity becomes a partner in the covenant, even while humanity lives as an enemy of God. God offered the divine self into the hands of the enemies of God.[19] In the classical doctrine of the Trinity a careful distinction to make is the distinction between the processions and the sending, whether of the Son, as here, or the Spirit.[20] In discussions of the Trinity in the early church, the East followed the terminology of John closely, distinguishing between the “generation” of the Son here and the “procession” of the Spirit in John 15:26.[21]God gave his only and uniquely loved Son. The giving of the Son arises out of the love of God for the world, suggesting that Jesus is truly the human being who is for others.[22] The result or purpose was so that no one who believes (πιστεύων) in him may perish. Why should anyone “believe” anything? John focus belief on Jesus. Jesus is the best reason to be a Christian. He is the only way to be a Christian. The best reason for believing in Jesus is Jesus. Christianity is fundamentally about a person. Yes, God humanity receives hints of grace in its quest for truth, its quest for goodness in personal and corporate life, in its hope for a better world, and in its love for others. God worked in a distinct way with a people through the events of their history to help make the Lord known. Yet, in the Christian view, we know God supremely in Jesus of Nazareth.[23] Those who believe become witnesses in this world to the event of divine love. Further, God is snatching the world away from destruction.[24] T. S. Eliot wrote, “Death has a hundred hands and walks by a thousand ways.” The good news is that instead of destruction, they may have eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον).

 God refuses to allow the world to descend toward death. God acts to reconcile and redeem creation. The background of this passage may well be the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in Genesis 22:2, 12. Assuming Jesus is still the teacher, he has distilled the gospel into a simple statement. The complexity of the heavenly and earthly identity of the Son combines with the simplicity and power of divine love. He has summed up the Christian message of redemption. The plan of the cross has its root in the immeasurable love of God for the world. The Son is the most cherished gift God had to give. John makes known the greatness of the act of God in the Incarnation and in the mission of bridging the chasm between God and world.  God has revealed this love in the historical mission of the Son, to the extent of the cross. The purpose of this giving of the Son is life for others. God bridges the gap caused by human alienation and sin, bringing reconciliation. The sending of the Son into the world, that we might live through him, declares the love of God for us.[25] If we relate this notion to the infinity and holiness of God, we see the sending of the Son to save the world as aiming at the bringing of the world into the sphere of the divine holiness.[26] To summarize, we are reading of the love of God in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us, the self-sacrificing of Jesus Christ is the embodiment and revelation of divine love for humanity, and that this occurs through the Holy Spirit.[27] Such love bridges a vast chasm. What God sees God loves, even though what God sees is on the way to death. God makes a bridge to that which, on its own, is moving toward abandonment and death. God becomes the light that shines darkness. Such is the miracle of divine love.[28]

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son. The notion of sending here refers to the passion and death of Jesus, not to his birth.[29] The entire earthly path of the Son was from the outset a path to the crucifixion of Jesus according to the providence of God, which we can see here, even if it simply says that God “gave” the Son out of love for the world so that those who believe should have eternal life. Bultmann would limit the giving here to “gave up to death.” Yet, we can take it more broadly as a reference to the sending of the Son to the cosmos, though with the special nuance that God “gifted” the Son to the world.[30] When we combine verses 16-17, we should stress that the saving work of the Son was the purpose of the Father sending the Son.[31]The sending of the Son for incarnation in the one man Jesus had concern for others as well. God sent the Son into the world to save it. Thus, the goal of the sending of the Son is one we find in others.[32] We should also note that such notions of sending presuppose the pre-existence of the Son.[33] God did not send the Son into the world (κόσμον) to condemn the world (κόσμον)Rarely does the New Testament look at Jesus as judge. In fact, this passage states that Jesus came into the world to save it, not condemn it. Jesus will not personally condemn anyone, because he has come into the world to save it. Yet, his word and person are the standard by which the future judgment takes place.[34] Thus, the Father sent the Son in order that God might save the world (κόσμος) through him.



[1] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 398.

[2] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 295.

[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 225-6.

[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 233, 246.

[5] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume 2, 382.

[6] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 427.

[7] – Peter J. Gomes, Proclamation: Interpreting the Lessons of the Church Year, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995, pp. 38–39

[8] — Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith, HarperOne, 2004.

[9] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 365.

[10] Barth, CD, IV.1, 58.2, 111.

[11] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 347.

[12] Barth, CD, IV.2, 66.2, 511.

[13] Admittedly, both the Greek and English versions of the word can also mean “the world” in either the wide sense of the earth itself and all that’s in it or in the narrow sense of just the human inhabitants of the earth, but those are secondary meanings. It would seem that we usually understand the word in this verse to convey just that narrower definition, but there’s room to wonder. 

As it happens, the Greek of John’s day included another word that can also mean “world” but specifically refers to the part of the earth that is inhabited. That word is oikoumene, which literally means “I inhabit,” but John didn’t use it in this verse. 

There’s no doubt a reason he chose kosmos instead. In fact, he may have had two reasons:

One is that in John’s day, although oikoumene could be used to refer to all the inhabitants of the earth, it was more commonly used to mean the Roman world, the lands inhabited by civilized people, excluding, therefore, the areas where barbarians lived. Thus, we can see why John did not write, “For God so loved the oikoumene that he gave his only Son ...” That could be taken to mean that God loves only the beautiful people, the cultured class, people of old and new money — God loves those people, but not the marginalized, not the stranger and alien, not the poor and the uneducated, not the outsider, not the immigrant. 

No, John certainly used kosmos instead of oikoumene because he wanted to be clear that no one anywhere was outside the realm of God’s love.

The second possible reason that John used kosmos instead of oikoumene is that John actually meant that God wants harmony and order and not chaos. 

It’s worth remembering that in the beginning, when God created the earth, the first thing he did was to impose order on the formless, dark void that was there (Genesis 1:2), which is one definition of chaos. Likewise, God’s new creation at the end of time, so the Bible tells us, will be free of suffering, pain and death (Revelation 21:4) — all marks of chaos (21:1).Notice that the “sea [is] no more,” sea being a popular biblical metaphor for chaos.

[14] Barth, CD I.2, 18.2, 378.

[15] Barth, CD, II.2, 32.1, 26-7.

[16] Barth, CD, IV.1, 57.3, 70-1.

[17] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 358.

[18] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 144.

[19] Barth, CD, IV.1, 57.3, 71-2. 

[20] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 305.

[21] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 305.

[22] Barth, CD, III.2, 45.1, 213.

[23] James W. Sire Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All? ([Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1994], 95).

[24] Barth, CD, IV.1, 57.3, 72-3.

[25] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 183.

[26] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 399.

[27] Barth, CD, IV.2, 68.2, 765.

[28] Barth, CD, II.1, 28.2, 278.

[29] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 301.

[30] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 397, 438, 444.

[31] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology volume 2, 441.

[32] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 320.

[33] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 2, 369.

[34] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 614.

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