2.3 Not of the World
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Verse 9: I do not pray for the world. Jesus said, “I do not pray for the present cosmos, the present order or arrangement of all things flowing out of the tree of separation and death.”
Thus we find, right at the beginning of Jesus’ prayer, the utter contrast between this world and the Kingdom of God. We are NOT in this world to make the world a better place; we are in this world to cast it’s darkness off of this earth and off of mankind forever.
Now, here is something I never thought of until this moment. Jesus is prophesying Gethsemane, calling forth His action there.
A First Layout
Let’s look again at the layout of this prayer.
In verses 1-5, Jesus establishes the source of the new creation: His authority by glory and the nature of relationship with Father out from which all that is new flows. Then, verses 6-19 present a continual back and forth between the world and those whom the Father gave Jesus “OUT OF the world.” In verse 20, Jesus makes it clear that everything He says about the original disciples in verses 6-19 applies fully to you and me as well.
But look at the layout of verses 6-19. Keep in mind that in this lesson we are focusing on what Jesus says about the world.
The Atonement
The Kingdom of God comes OUT OF the world. Here we see first the action of Gethsemane, of Jesus drinking the cup by calling you and me by name out of the old creation and into Himself to become the fierce Joy of His heart. And again – that He might create in Himself one new man.
Thus we see that through every part of the Atonement, from Gethsemane to the Resurrection, the Kingdom of God, the entirety of the New Creation, is being formed inside of Jesus as a calling forth out from the old creation and in constant contrast to this present evil world. The New Creation is materializing inside of Jesus through His every step.
The Entrance
Earlier I stated that nothing from the old creation can enter the New. Yet all things of the old DO come into the New, each in its season. How is this?
There is one entrance only out from the old into the New and that is the cross by which the old has been annihilated. The absoluteness of the cross must be accepted, however. Those who do not enter the New remain in the old in their imaginations only because they desire to hold onto their own rightness.
But it is the love of a Man who, with all His heart in Gethsemane, drew us into Himself that wins our hearts utterly.
The Frequent Mention of the World
Sometimes the English word “world” is the Greek aeon, and should be translated age or ages. In this passage, the Greek is cosmos in every instance, a total of 19 times. Nineteen times Jesus uttered the word, “World.” First, Jesus mentions His glory as being utterly separate from the world; then He states that the Father has given us to Him out of the world, thus positioning us inside Himself as completely separate from the world. Jesus ends His reference to the world by saying that the world has not known the Father. This “not knowing” is the vanity of a creation that cannot know God and the dilemma of a God who cannot be known.
A Second Layout
We want to deal, here, with the immense contradictions taking place regarding the world. You should already have begun work on your assignment for this session, completely ingesting this entire prayer.
In verses 6-8 Jesus establishes the means by which you and I are drawn out from the world and into Jesus. Then, verses 9-19 express the enormous contention between God keeping and sanctifying us and the hatred of the world. But verses 20-23 show a complete reversal on the part of the world from NOT knowing to believing first and knowing second.
We must understand the world.
Love or Not Love?
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that those who believe on Him should not perish but have age-abiding life (John 3:16). – Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).
Say what? – We cannot ever separate these two words written at the same time by the same man. The word cosmos means the orderly arrangement of all things. Because we understand earth’s reality, we know that earth and heaven exist entirely together as one orderly arrangement. Nothing happens without completely involving both sides of this one realm.
The Present Arrangement
The world is not the earth, yet the world involves all entities in heaven and earth. The world is not individual humans, yet all individual humans on the earth and most individual humans in the heavens are caught up in the world as well as at least a third of the angels of heaven (if not most of the angels to some degree).
The world is the present arrangement of a temporal heaven/earth, a heaven/earth that is coming to an end. Now, heaven/earth cannot come to an end in appearance except that it first has already come to an end by substance, that is upon the cross. The entire first creation ceased upon the cross.
The Action of the World
Yet God has placed the birthing of the new creation, the new world or cosmos, the new orderly arrangement of all things, entirely inside the outward appearance of the old, an outward appearance that does not yet know it is already gone.
Read through verses 9-19; make careful note of the seeming struggle, the great effort of both Father and Son, having already won us out of the world, yet to keep and sanctify us while we continue outwardly in the context of the world. Even the son of perdition in the middle of these lines is part of this picture of contention.
But it is the action of the world that most concerns us here. The world HATES us.
The World Hates Me
Let’s amplify the action of the world. The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil (John 7:7).
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. . . . Because you are not of the world . . . the world hates you. . . . If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. . . . He who hates Me hates My Father also. . . Now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. . . . That the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause’ (John 15:18-25).
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John :33b).
The Pressure of Childbirth
Notice that Jesus’ words in 16:33 are His last words to the disciples just before He began His prayer. I am so grateful for what we learned in Symmorphy I: Purpose regarding “tribulation.” (Refer back to 23.2 Shaping the Human Heart.) Here is how it should read: In the world you will experience the pressures of childbirth, but be bold of heart, for I am already birthed victorious out of the world.
I do not believe in “what if’s” or alternate universes or infinite possibilities, mostly because such things make no sense. I am of the firm conviction that what is, is and what ain’t, ain’t. All things exist inside of God; God turns the outcome of all things towards His one Pro-Thesis, the revelation of Christ.
Earnest Expectation
You see, contrast this action of the world by appearance, the incredibly painful pressures of childbirth, with the REAL attitude of the world by substance as expressed by Paul. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:19). We see this winning of all creation in Jesus’ prayer, verses 20-23, that the world may know.
In the next session we will explore our side of the keeping and sanctifying going on as we find ourselves in this world. Here we want to understand the real role of the world in the shaping and the birthing of the Kingdom of God.
What Is, Is
Because I am convinced that what is, is, and what ain’t, ain’t, I seek to know God ONLY inside of what is. I have zero interest in any argument that attempts to take God into what ain’t. In Symmorphy II: Essence, we looked at the dynamics of free will operating always inside of God’s determination, of how it is that anything God creates cannot know Him and how freedom WILL take God’s creation away from Him and how God’s determination WILL win all things back, turning every action of the darkness into the path of unending goodness.
People like to play mind games with God through endless “what if’s.” I like to know God inside of what is.
The Womb of the New Creation
The world IS by appearance, and by appearance, this world that is hates us. I am satisfied in my own heart that this is HOW God births the New Creation, that there is no other scenario. The New must be birthed out from the old; it has no existence otherwise.
The world is the womb of the New Creation. First, unbeknownst to the womb, to the world, the new creation is conceived and begins to form inside of it. At a certain point the womb recognizes the growth of the new inside itself. The womb “hates” the new child.
Get Out of Here!
It is this “hatred” of the womb for the child being born that causes the womb to begin to exert great pain against the child, pushing it OUT – Get out of here!
Here is a valid what if – what if the world accepted us and we felt cozy in the world? What if we “loved” the world? If the world did not hate us there would be no birthing of the Kingdom of God. Yet the ultimate goal of the New towards the world is to win the world back to the Father, that God might be known by all.
I make no connection with Christians who are waving the flags of this world; their time is not now. They must pass through a season of weeping first.
Shaping the Kingdom
We must know the necessity and the importance of the stage God has set for His story, of the womb out from which the Kingdom of God is born. The Kingdom of God is conceived in secret inside this world. The Kingdom of God is shaped and formed in us through this mighty contention between the hatred of the world and the keeping and sanctifying of God. It is the very pressures of the world by which you and I are birthed as the revelation of Jesus Christ, in full union inside of Father and Son.
Yet all of it is for the sake of the entire creation, that ALL might know God. – EVERYTHING fits!!!
A Final Layout
This is so cool! We now understand the layout of Jesus’ prayer, the specific stages of the birthing of the New Creation.
Verses 1-5 establish Jesus’ authority to speak the New Creation into existence. Then, verses 6-9 take you and me out of the old and into that New Creation. Verses 9-19 describe the formation of the New inside the old. Verses 20-23 presents the birthing of the New, the Kingdom of God as it really is, and the winning of the old out from unreality and into all the good speaking of Christ.
Finally, verses 24-26 places utterly inside of us and us utterly inside of it, the incorruptible, eternal Heart of Father God. That the Love with which You love Me may be in them.