THEOLOGICAL ISSUES #5
Statement: God loves all people the same way.
94% of respondents to the survey agreed with this statement.
That result is not surprising. Most people today focus on God as love rather than as judging, as friend more than king. Love is comfortable; judgment is not.
But we cannot focus on love as the only important aspect of God, ignoring his holiness, his sovereignty, his providence, his wrath toward sin, and his other attributes without distorting God’s love.
What does the Bible say?
The Bible speaks of God’s love in several different ways.
First of all, the Bible speaks of a special love between God the Father and God the Son. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” (John 3:35) “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing”. (John 5:20) The Son loves the Father: “…I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father”. (John 14:31)
The love between the Father and The Son is perfect, complete, and holy, because God is.
Second, the Bible shows us God’s providential love for his creation. We call this common grace. The doctrine of common grace is about the universal and undeserved goodness of God toward all people even though they are sinners. “The LORD is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made. (Psalm 145:9)
Jesus said: “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)
Even the animals receive God’s providential love. God feeds the animals and birds. Jesus said “Look at the birds of the air; they either sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”(Matthew 6:26)
He restrains sin, evil, misery, and wrath in this fallen world, while conferring general, non-redemptive grace. As distinguished from special (saving) grace, common grace is a necessary aspect of the continuance of life in this fallen world. It restrains evil and confers goodness on mankind as a whole, reflecting God’s attributes of goodness, mercy, and justice. God confers common grace on mankind to encourage sinners to repent and trust in Christ.
By common grace, God bestows blessings on all mankind.
If God were to cease providing his common grace, the universe would fall apart and cease to exist.
Third, in addition to common grace, God, in love, provides salvific grace. He provides a way for rebellious men and women to avoid eternal punishment and attain to eternal life. God loved the world in this way: he sent his Son so that those who believe in him will have eternal life. (John 3:16)
In the Gospel of John’s writings, the term “world” usually means the moral order in willful and culpable rebellion against God. For example, he says “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one”. (1 John 5:19)
God’s love is extraordinary and admirable because he loves the world in all its badness, its wickedness, and provides away out of it.
The Bible says we were all part of this world, but as believers we were called out of it. We once were darkness, but are now light in the Lord. (Ephesians 5:8)
Think about this. When Satan rebelled against God and angels followed him in rebellion, God did not spare them. He cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness, to be kept until judgment. (2 Peter 2:4) But, when men and women rebelled against God, God provided a way to escape judgment and hell, sending his Son.
Fourth, is God’s particular, effective, selecting love toward his chosen\elect people.
God loves his chosen (or elect) in a special way.
The chosen\elect may be the entire nation of Israel or the church as a body or individuals. In each case, God sets his affection on his chosen ones in a way he doesn’t set his affection on others.
We see in the Old Testament that God chose Israel, our of all the nations in the world, to be his people. (Deuteronomy 10:14-15) He set his affection on them and he chose them. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)
Israel became distinct from all other nations for one reason: God loved them. He loved them and not other nations. He said: “I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.” (Malachi 1:2-3)
God also said: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son”. (Hosea 11:1) In fact, all of the book of Hosea is an amazing portrayal of God’s love for Israel. God is portrayed as the husband of an unfaithful wife who continues to love her. Even as God acted justly in response to Israel’s continued idolatry, he promised to return them to their homeland. (Hosea 11)
Similarly, in the New Testament we read Christ “loved the church” (Ephesians 5:25). Repeatedly the New Testament tells us that God’s love is directed toward those who constitute the church.
We know the love the Father has given us by calling us his children. 1 John 3:1 says: See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.
We know Jesus loves us because he laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16) He gave himself up for the church. (Ephesians 5:25)
We know Jesus loves us because he will let nothing can separate us from his love (Romans 8:35-39)
We know God loves us because he empowers us to conquer persecution and distress through Christ. (Romans 8:37)
In summary, we cannot make one biblical expression of God’s love cover all persons.
For example, if we place exclusive emphasis on God’s electing love, we can forget God’s loving offer of salvation to the world (John 3:16) and abandon evangelism and missions.
If we focus only on God’s love for the world, we may neglect to warn people of their need to repent and believe. And that is the danger of saying God loves all people the same way.
God’s love is a cause for our joy. God’s love for sinners amazes and humbles us. It must never be reduced to a merely academic matter. With the psalmist we say, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”. (Psalm 8:4)
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