Posted on 08/01/2005 8:16:45 PM PDT by buckeyesrule
Does God So Love the World?
by: 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.
[1]Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1930), 29-30.
[2]Ibid., 314.
[3]John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, William Pringle, trans. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979 reprint), 123.
Adapted from The God Who Loves © 2001 by John MacArthur. All rights reserved.
• Grace to You (Thursday, July 21, 2005)
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" no one will explain why there is a waterfall of destruction, in the first place."
"A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations."
- Umberto Eco, Postscript to "The Name of the Rose"
Let me rephrase it
You have God foreknowing what Dr E would choose to do
(is that better?)
I'm sure that if one does not believe there is a waterfall of destruction ahead, they would not be concerned with why there is one. And if, in fact, there is a waterfall of destruction ahead then the principle concern is not why it is there, but how does one avoid going over the edge. After you have been saved from going over the edge, you will have all eternity to ask the stream designer why he put that waterfall there.
But, the signs are posted. Ignore them at your peril.
Are you a Univeralist ?
God knows everything including what DrE might do.
"World"..."is not here a term of extension so much as a term of intensity. Its primary connotation is ethical, and the point of its employment is not to suggest that the world is so big it takes a great deal of love to embrace it all, but that the world is so bad that it takes a great kind of love to love it at all, and much more to love it as God has loved it when he gave his son for it...The passage was not intended to teach, and certainly does not teach, that God loves all men alike and visits each and every one alike with the same manifestations of his love; and as little was it intended to teach or does it teach that his love is confined to a few especially chosen individuals selected out of the world. What it is intended to do is to arouse in our hearts a wondering sense of the marvel and mystery of the love of God for the sinful world--conceived here, not quantitatively but qualitatively as, in its very distinguishing characteristic, sinful."
Comments?
Beacuse God is holy and righteous and man is not.
What is unholy can not dwell in the presence of the holy
You Stu,(like all men) are a sinner that can never stand in the presence of God .
The wages of sin ( the penalty due) IS DEATH .Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
He did not fall into it or go over a waterfalls, he was thrown into it
It returns to my original observation.... depends what kind of love we are talking about.
For the elect Gods love was agape love in that He laid down His life for His friends.
For the non elect it is a general love of the creator for his creation.
As I said you and I do not agree
God knows because God knows "ALL HIS WORK FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD"
He knows because He ordained her salvation, he is pleased with His work in her..
You have God knowing something by looking down the tube of time and seeing what SHE (Dr E) would choose sans mercy and grace..
Salvation by works not grace or mercy
Rom 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
You have God OWING salvation to Doc E
He saw her make the correct choice and so he paid her what he owed her.. he cast his vote for her..
A salvation of works (and a God captive to the will of His creatures )
You may be sure, but you are also incorrect. I do not believe there is a waterfall of destruction, but I am concerned with why others believe there is. This concern stems from the fact that I have seen many people spend much time and effort trying to avoid it, I would like to know why. It sounds like you just don't have an answer, and that is why you say if I don't believe, then don't worry, and if I do believe, then worry about something else. If you cannot answer why it exists, just say so.
I will be back tomorrow, and I look forward to someone explaing why God made this waterfall for His creations.
In other words, you do not know. Thank you.
Why did God create this waterfall, knowing some of His creations were going to go over the edge?
I will be back tomorrow.
To make known His glory.
In other words, I did not write it, however I suspect it is like a parable that carries one central meaning and the parts are not important.
Your Welcome.
Man was created for Gods glory.
God is glorified in His love for His sheep and in His mercy toward them, He is also glorified in his righteous justice and judgement
Just as His holiness was vindicated when he destroyed the world with water, and when He destroyed Sodom, His holiness and righteousness is vindicated both by the mercy of the cross and by His righteous judgment on men.
So every man will either be a trophy of Gods mercy or a trophy of Gods wrath. Either way God is glorified.
Suzy, as always, you come up with a good observation. Agape is agape whether towards the world or the believer.
So all the "world " went after Him?" (That should give you a clue that it did not always mean the entire world or all creation . )
The fact is if you choose to interpret World to mean all of the world, Christ has died for the cows and the pigs, and he has died for all men.
IF he has died for all men (by that verse taken as you render it) then all men are saved already as there is no modifier on the verse.
Now if He did die for all men and only a portion are actually saved, it means that God is an indian giver accepting that as payment in full for some and demanding an additional payment from others (which they can not pay)
So yes you are promoting universalism
P-Mar: Then what you are saying is that you did not believe for yourself, but that God believed for you. He did not give you arms to grab, but instead dragged you kicking and screaming from the stream. Correct?
Not quite correct - no kicking and screaming was involved. The analogy is obviously lacking, and as such, breaks down after deeper analysis. Suffice it to say that the lasso not only rescued me from certain death (salvation) but also awakened me to my peril (regeneration). Please disregard any allusion to order in that last sentence...
The idea that God believed for me is not really the issue. God cannot "believe". God can only "know". Only man (who is not omniscient) can believe and this belief is a gift, given only by God.
Can you wrap your mind around the incongruity of that thinking?
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