God's Love For The World

12-12-19 | Bill Randles

[pastorbillrandles]

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ( John 3:13-19)

Sometimes the best thing that can happen in the church is controversy about doctrine. Even the inevitable heresies hat spring up serve a purpose, as Paul told us in Corinthians;

For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. ( I Corinthians 11:19)

In the rebuttal of heresy , doctrines become clarified, reappreciated, and retaught, therefore even in the evil of heresy, "All things work together for the good...".

This is why I rejoice in the opportunity afforded myself and other to clarify a recent teaching on the Love of God, which I did in June. The teaching has been very badly misinterpreted by some, on several points, with the unfortunate result being, many are accusing me of heresy!

Praise God, that am compelled to set forth in as clear a way as possible, what has been revealed to me, about the Love of God. It is an inexhaustible subject, one so deep and wide we will be pondering it into eternity, and I am sure we shall never plumb the depths.

Let me give the background of the controversy before I launch into the teaching;

In my June 10,2019 teaching on Psalm 85, called God of Truth and Mercy , I made a statement which evidently leant itself to a misunderstanding on the part of some.

Speaking on the subject of the various verb tenses of John 3:16 I made the point that Jesus was teaching that "... Once God Loved the World...". God doesn't have an ongoing back and forth love relationship with the World, He loved the World once...which is even reflected in the English translation of John 3:16, which has Jesus saying, "...God so Loved (past tense) the world..." .

This saying underwent an interpretation by one of my detractors, ( well meaning , no doubt), who produced a couple of Youtube videos accusing me of saying God doesn't love the world, and then even further, he is telling people that "Pastor Bill Says God only loved us once...", and then that I am saying that God's love is not eternal, and on and on it goes. At no time did he ever contact me to ask me for clarification, though he knows me.

To make it a little more complicated, I cited a popular Christian preacher who had a positive effect on me in this area, David Pawson. I did not do so in order to somehow bolster my argument, as if "If David Pawson says it it must be true..." but rather just to give credit where credit is due. It so happens I learned something which was really remarkable to me, from David Pawson. I do not agree necessarily with all that this man has taught, but Having checked it out with scripture, It really bore witness to me.

But again my detractors use me of trying to bolster my argument using his name, and of misquoting him anyway! I don't believe I quoted David Pawson in the message I gave, an as a general rule would not. The Word of God is perfect for eery good work.

I do not believe we should cite any authority other than the Word of God.

(One happy consequence of all of this is that David's three part Youtube series called "What about John 3:16" has been circulating among those on either side of this controversy, Praise God!

I will conclude, having set up the background, with just one point, that I believe is very important, then God willing we will say a few more helpful things about the Love of God, (What we really believe and teach and not what we have been represented to have believed and taught).

The one point I want to begin with is, that it is the World we are talking about. Does God love the World, and how does he love the World? According to John 3:14-19 God loved the World when He gave his only begotten Son. He lifted Him up on a pole so that the whole sin cursed world would have a way out of the judgment that we all deserve. He loved the World in the same way he loved rebellious Israelites in Numbers 21.

How many times is that act going to be repeated? Never again! One time God loved the World, ( Love here is a verb, an action).

That one act, which occurred that one time, was foreknown and predestined before the foundation of the World, For we are told that Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World, so we can say that before the foundation of the World, God loved us, and that love of God will continue through all eternity.

But all of the Love of God, past, present and future, radiates from that one act,

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ( I John 4: 9-10)

There can be no experience for anyone at anytime, of the Love of God, apart from that one location of the Love of God on Calvary. I believe that this is what Jesus was saying in John 3:16 and this is what the Apostle John is saying in his Epistle.

Any and every manifestation of Divine love in Old or New Testament, would be meaningless without the cross of Jesus.

Yes He gives the Sun and rain to the just and the unjust, God is good and generous indeed. No one calls that into question. But what good does it do a sinner ,under wrath, to have regular sun and rain throughout his life, if it doesn't eventually lead him to the one portal of Divine love that has been opened, ie Calvary?

I am accused of telling people God doesn't love the world anymore, and that he only loved the world one time.

But what I am saying is that that one time is of eternal significance, and also that it will never be repeated again in time or eternity. God ONCE LOVED THE WORLD! One time He did what needed to be done to satisfy all of the claims of Righteousness and justice against all of us, past , present and future, and to bring 'whosoever will' into the Love of God once and for all time and eternity.

[LeonardFMason]

God IS Love. Past. Present. Future. The Old Testament repeatedly tells us that His love endureth forever. The Lord Jesus and his death on Calvary was the SAVING application of HIS enduring love.

[Secret Agent Man]

I look forward to God coming back and ending our insane parade going on here.

[mythenjoseph]

Praise and Glory to God for this beautiful world and the peace his son Jesus obtained for us with the defeat of death and the washing of our sins so that God could finally see us ..I am so grateful at all he shows me everyday . Again , praise and glory to God.

[Ezekiel]

The Pharisees and Sadducees were big into one-upping each other.

Jesus operated outside of that dead paradigm and didn't get much respect from either camp. He was the one imparting simple teachings to his disciples along the lines of,

"Where we're going we don't need roads."

Meaning,

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.