Does God So Love the World? (John MacArthur)

Love is the best known but least understood of all God's attributes. Almost everyone who believes in God these days sees Him as a God of love. I have even met agnostics who are quite certain that if God exists, He must be benevolent, compassionate, and loving.

All those things are infinitely true about God, of course, but not in the way most people think. Because of the influence of modern liberal theology, many suppose that God's love and goodness ultimately nullify His righteousness, justice, and holy wrath. They envision God as a benign heavenly grandfather-tolerant, affable, lenient, permissive, devoid of any real displeasure over sin, who without consideration of His holiness will benignly pass over sin and accept people as they are.

Liberal thinking about God's love also permeates much of evangelicalism today. We have lost the reality of God's wrath. We have disregarded His hatred for sin. The God most evangelicals now describe is all-loving and not at all angry. We have forgotten that "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). We do not believe in that kind of God anymore.

We must recapture some of the holy terror that comes with a right understanding of God's righteous anger. We need to remember that God's wrath does burn against impenitent sinners (Psalm 38:1-3). That reality is the very thing that makes His love so amazing. Only those who see themselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God can fully appreciate the magnitude and wonder of His love.

In that regard, our generation is surely at a greater disadvantage than any previous age. We have been force-fed the doctrines of self-esteem for so long that most people don't really view themselves as sinners worthy of divine wrath. On top of that, religious liberalism, humanism, evangelical compromise, and ignorance of the Scriptures have all worked against a right understanding of who God is. Ironically, in an age that conceives of God as wholly loving, altogether devoid of wrath, few people really understand what God's love is all about.

How we address the misconception of the present age is crucial. We must not respond to an overemphasis on divine love by denying that God is love. Our generation's imbalanced view of God cannot be corrected by an equal imbalance in the opposite direction, a very real danger in some circles. I'm deeply concerned about a growing trend I've noticed-particularly among people committed to the biblical truth of God's sovereignty and divine election. Some of them flatly deny that God in any sense loves those whom He has not chosen for salvation.

I am troubled by the tendency of some-often young people newly infatuated with Reformed doctrine-who insist that God cannot possibly love those who never repent and believe. I encounter that view, it seems, with increasing frequency.

The argument inevitably goes like this: Psalm 7:11 tells us "God is angry with the wicked every day." It seems reasonable to assume that if God loved everyone, He would have chosen everyone unto salvation. Therefore, God does not love the non-elect. Those who hold this view often go to great lengths to argue that John 3:16 cannot really mean God loves the whole world.

Perhaps the best-known argument for this view is found the unabridged edition of an otherwise excellent book, The Sovereignty of God, by A. W. Pink. Pink wrote, "God loves whom He chooses. He does not love everybody." [1] He further argued that the word world in John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world…") "refers to the world of believers (God's elect), in contradistinction from 'the world of the ungodly.'"[2]

Pink was attempting to make the crucial point that God is sovereign in the exercise of His love. The gist of his argument is certainly valid: It is folly to think that God loves all alike, or that He is compelled by some rule of fairness to love everyone equally. Scripture teaches us that God loves because He chooses to love (Deuteronomy 7:6-7), because He is loving (God is love, 1 John 4:8), not because He is under some obligation to love everyone the same.

Nothing but God's own sovereign good pleasure compels Him to love sinners. Nothing but His own sovereign will governs His love. That has to be true, since there is certainly nothing in any sinner worthy of even the smallest degree of divine love.

Unfortunately, Pink took the corollary too far. The fact that some sinners are not elected to salvation is no proof that God's attitude toward them is utterly devoid of sincere love. We know from Scripture that God is compassionate, kind, generous, and good even to the most stubborn sinners. Who can deny that those mercies flow out of God's boundless love? It is evident that they are showered even on unrepentant sinners.

We must understand that it is God's very nature to love. The reason our Lord commanded us to love our enemies is "in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). Jesus clearly characterized His Father as One who loves even those who purposefully set themselves at enmity against Him.

At this point, however, an important distinction must be made: God loves believers with a particular love. God's love for the elect is an infinite, eternal, saving love. We know from Scripture that this great love was the very cause of our election (Ephesians 2:4). Such love clearly is not directed toward all of mankind indiscriminately, but is bestowed uniquely and individually on those whom God chose in eternity past.

But from that, it does not follow that God's attitude toward those He did not elect must be unmitigated hatred. Surely His pleading with the lost, His offers of mercy to the reprobate, and the call of the gospel to all who hear are all sincere expressions of the heart of a loving God. Remember, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but tenderly calls sinners to turn from their evil ways and live.

Reformed theology has historically been the branch of evangelicalism most strongly committed to the sovereignty of God. At the same time, the mainstream of Reformed theologians have always affirmed the love of God for all sinners. John Calvin himself wrote regarding John 3:16, "[Two] points are distinctly stated to us: namely, that faith in Christ brings life to all, and that Christ brought life, because the Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish." [3]

Calvin continues to explain the biblical balance that both the gospel invitation and "the world" that God loves are by no means limited to the elect alone. He also recognized that God's electing, saving love is uniquely bestowed on His chosen ones.

Those same truths, reflecting a biblical balance, have been vigorously defended by a host of Reformed stalwarts, including Thomas Boston, John Brown, Andrew Fuller, W. G. T. Shedd, R. L. Dabney, B. B. Warfield, John Murray, R. B. Kuiper, and many others. In no sense does belief in divine sovereignty rule out the love of God for all humanity.

We are seeing today, in some circles, an almost unprecedented interest in the doctrines of the Reformation and the Puritan eras. I'm very encouraged by that in most respects. A return to those historic truths is, I'm convinced, absolutely necessary if the church is to survive. Yet there is a danger when overzealous souls misuse a doctrine like divine sovereignty to deny God's sincere offer of mercy to all sinners.

We must maintain a carefully balanced perspective as we pursue our study of God's love. God's love cannot be isolated from His wrath and vice versa. Nor are His love and wrath in opposition to each other like some mystical yin-yang principle. Both attributes are constant, perfect, without ebb or flow. His wrath coexists with His love; therefore, the two never contradict. Such are the perfections of God that we can never begin to comprehend these things. Above all, we must not set them against one another, as if there were somehow a discrepancy in God.

Both God's wrath and His love work to the same ultimate end-His glory. God is glorified in the condemnation of the wicked; He is glorified in every expression of love for all people without exception; and He is glorified in the particular love He manifests in saving His people.

Expressions of wrath and expressions of love-all are necessary to display God's full glory. We must never ignore any aspect of His character, nor magnify one to the exclusion of another. When we commit those errors, we throw off the biblical balance, distort the true nature of God, and diminish His real glory.

Does God so love the world? Emphatically-yes! Proclaim that truth far and wide, and do so against the backdrop of God's perfect wrath that awaits everyone who does not repent and turn to Christ.

Does the love of God differ in the breadth and depth and manner of its expression? Yes it does. Praise Him for the many manifestations of His love, especially toward the non-elect, and rejoice in the particular manifestation of His saving love for you who believe. God has chosen to display in you the glory of His redeeming grace.

[3]John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, William Pringle, trans. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979 reprint), 123.

This was the human will of Christ for his people.

Such a schizophrenic view of the Messiah belies what He Himself said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do. For whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise" (Jn. 5:19). Therefore, the Son could not mourn over the rebelleon of Jerusalem and say that His will was that they would have repented at His First Coming but that they had refused unless that was also the sentiment of the Father.

You cannot separate the Son of Man from the Incarnate God as you are trying to do, for "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn. 14:9). Yeshua came not merely to do the Father's will, but to show us just who the Father is through His every action, word, and emotion.

It is a pity that you are so given over to Calvinism that you are willing to parse God into three gods rather than admit that He Himself said that His (passive) will was that Jerusalem would repent, but that they would not, and therefore His (active) will was to see Jerusalem destroyed and the Gospel taken to the nations.

f Christ had truly willed their salvation and it was resisted by individuals this scripture would them be a lie

Rom 9:19 — Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Hardly. First of all, if there were ever a disagreement between the Messiah and an Apostle, whom should we side with? (I reject the idea that Sha'ul [Paul] had rejected the Torah for the same reason, plus his own actions in Ac. 21+.) Secondly, Sha'ul is voicing a human objection, not his own views; the human objection is that God had prophesied that Israel would reject the Messiah, so why then would He punish them for doing what He said they would? Showing that God would have rather Israel would receive the Messiah in His First Coming (passive will) does not take away from the fact that, knowing they would not (here, His passive will was to give Israel a choice), He chose to blind them further for a length of time (active will) so that the Messiah could become known to the Gentiles (active will).

I would rather parse God's preferences from His active will than parse the Messiah from the Godhead or parse the Messiah's Emissary from the Messiah, as you have done. The former demonstrates God's greatness in that He can take every "defeat" and turn it into an even greater victory, while the latter results in a disjointed faith.

Amen!

John 3:36 is very clear on this, if someone rejects the love of God, the wrath of God abideth on him.

That is the 'old fire and brimstone' preaching that has been lost for a 'kinder and gentler' albeit false preaching, of the 'new' seeker churches.

Amen,...and Amen!!!

"There is no one in Hell whom Jesus loved."

I agree with that, if we are talking "agape," as RnMom distinguished earlier from the general beneficence God bestows upon His creation. If God had written their names in the book of life, if God had loved them with saving grace through faith in Christ's redemption, they'd be in heaven.

To deny that diminishes God's love for His elect, ordained by Him from before the foundation of the world.

Did God love Judas? Did God love Stalin?

All this "God loves everyone equally" is simply not Scriptural. God discriminates according to His will, and not according to our will.

Question

There are some who teach that God loves only His elect and hates the non-elect. Please comment.

Answer

The fact that some sinners are not elected to salvation is no proof that God’s attitude toward them is utterly devoid of sincere love. We know from Scripture that God is compassionate, kind, generous, and good even to the most stubborn sinners. Who can deny that these mercies flow out of God’s boundless love? Yet it is evident that they are showered even on unrepentant sinners.

I want to acknowledge, however, that explaining God’s love toward the reprobate is not as simple as most modern evangelicals want to make it. Clearly there is a sense in which the psalmist’s expression, “I hate the assembly of evildoers” (Ps. 26:5) is a reflection of the mind of God. “Do I not hate those who hate Thee, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against Thee? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22). Such hatred as the psalmist expressed is a virtue, and we have every reason to conclude that it is a hatred God Himself shares. After all, He did say, “I have hated Esau” (Mal. 1:3; Rom. 9:13). The context reveals God was speaking of a whole race of wicked people. So there is a true and real sense in which Scripture teaches that God hates the wicked.

So an important distinction must be made. God loves believers with a particular love. It is a family love, the ultimate love of an eternal Father for His children. It is the consummate love of a Bridegroom for His bride. It is an eternal love that guarantees their salvation from sin and its ghastly penalty. That special love is reserved for believers alone.

However, limiting this saving, everlasting love to His chosen ones does not render God’s compassion, mercy, goodness, and love for the rest of mankind insincere or meaningless. When God invites sinners to repent and receive forgiveness (Isa. 1:18; Matt. 11:28-30), His pleading is from a sincere heart of genuine love. “‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezek. 33:11). Clearly God does love even those who spurn His tender mercy, but it is a different quality of love, and different in degree from His love for His own.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

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Then it follows that whatever flows from the Creative act happens because God directly willed for it to happen. If He didn't then it wouldn't be part of Creation.

Unless God also sovereignly decided to invest some of His creation with free will, thus creating two ways for Him to interact with His creation: Permissively, choosing to allow His creatures to do what they wish to even if He would prefer that they not, and actively, directly interfering with His creation to mould it to His own ends.

You really ought to watch out for those false dichotomies you keep setting up, my friend.

He bases it on His own good pleasure

Are you saying He does it with foreknowledge or forethought. If He does so without foreknowledge, then He is not God. If He does it without forethought, then He is not doing it with foreknowledge, and He is again....not God.

Therefore, He did it KNOWING the person, and THEN it was His pleasure....in other words He was pleas(ur)ed with the one He chose and NOT pleas(ur)ed with the one He did not choose.

Therefore, it was something in the persons that He knew that either pleased Him or displeased Him.

All who possess Trinitarian faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are most likely among the elect.

First of all, you've just reduced a saving faith to mere intellectual assent to a certain doctrine. "Even the demons believe (that God is One) . . . and shudder!" Faith, trusting God's provision in the Messiah Yeshua alone for salvation, was never about intellectual assent, but about a living relationship.

I trust that there's simply a miscommunication between us on that point. So for the sake of clarity, could you define what exactly you mean by having a "trinitarian" faith?

Secondly, "most likely"? How can one know if one is truly elect or not, if election is merely something that happens rather than something that you actively receive? What if God has not chosen you, but you in your reprobate state do not have the spiritual insight to realize it? How do you know that He has not simply let the "god of this age," the Adversary, blind you to the truth in such a way that you think you have it?

I'm not saying you are reprobate; I'm asking how you would know if the above were true. And if you can't know such a thing, how can you be assured that you are indeed among the elect?

Amazing, however, that you call my Trinitarian faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior "heresy." Shame on you.

Reread what I said: "Gotta love the rediculous heresies one comes to when one follows GRPL theology to its logical and Scriptural conclusion." I didn't say that you had indeed followed your theology to that conclusion; I was pointing out what happens if you do.

You said that if God does not actively ordain everything that happens, then there is no God. Yeshua said (rather emotionally) that He would have rather that Jerusalem would repent so that He could gather them together, but they chose not to. Therefore, He did not actively ordain that Jerusalem would reject Him but permitted them to have their own way. Therefore, according to your statement, there is no God.

If you do indeed believe that, then you have indeed left a Biblical worldview behind.

If God held the same agape love for all men then he would have saved them all.

Not so. Outox gar egapesen o qeox. God loved the world with an agape kind of love.

It is entirely unavoidable - Christ is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world. You can try to redefine "world" all you like, but that is pointless. What is clear is that God loves even the reprobate, and that Jesus Christ died also for the non-elect.

This is not in contradiction with "definate atonement." All definate atonement requires is that it be applied only to the elect. It is still offered to every man, woman, and child. It requires linguistic gymnastics to make the Bible say anything other than the fact that God loves the whole world, including the non-elect, and gave his Son as the propitiation for all men, including the non-elect.

***Personally I think God has a plan created before the foundations of the earth and everything runs according to this divine plan.***

I agree. But I see, in the Bible, part of God's plan being the allotment of "spheres" of limited sovereignty to mankind and certain men in particular. Having been given limited authority, they are ultimately responsible for what they do with that investment and will give an account for it on judgment day.

***Calvin suggest this verse is not one of compassion as is nowadays commonly interpreted but one of indignation. ***

That is perhaps true, but how does it address our point that the verse seems to indicates that God wanted to do something

(how often would I have gathered thy children together)

but man was not willing

(ye would not! )

and therefore God decreed a different destiny from what He originally expressed a desire for

(Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.")?

(Please don't take this as if it were argumentative. I have spent a great deal of time thinking on these things and value your input.)

*** if God had loved them with saving grace through faith in Christ's redemption, they'd be in heaven.***

Within this context I find the following verse to be of interest...

"...And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions."

Mark 10:20-22

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