Carson masterfully draws out five different ways the love of God is described in the Bible that help us to understand how God relates differently toward different objects. The first, which has already been discussed, is the love between the Father and the Son.[1] The second deals with how He relates to His creation as a whole. This can be termed His “providential love.”[2] One of the more well-known passages related to God’s love for creation is where Jesus is showing why we can trust God to meet our needs. He says:
“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”[3]
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”[3]
In this passage, it evident that God has shown His love for His creation by providing for animals and adorning plant life with great beauty.
The third way God’s love is seen is in the way He relates toward fallen humanity.[4] First, He has demonstrated His love by sending His Son to be the Savior of the world. There are several Biblical statements that spell this out poignantly. Jesus Himself said, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”[5] Paul stated, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[6] The apostle John also brings out that Jesus “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”[7]
Though some have tried to limit the scope of these verses to mean that God really only sent His Son for the elect, the overwhelming evidence is that God truly loves the entire world . In order to deal with this issue, we will specifically look at John 3:16. Benjamin Warfield, who most definitely adhered to the doctrine of election, states emphatically, “It is the precise purpose of the passage to teach us this, to raise our hearts to some apprehension of the inconceivable greatness of the love of God, set as it is upon saving the wicked world.”[8] He goes on to say, “The declaration is, not that God has loved some out of the world, but that He has loved the world. And we must rise to the height of this divine universalism.”[9] And MacArthur’s conclusion is, “Those who approach this passage determined to suggest that it limits God’s love miss the entire point.”[10] What is being brought out by these writers (who both, interestingly, hold to Calvinistic theology) is the fact that the Bible unabashedly declares that God loves the entire world—that is, the whole race of humanity with all of its sin and depravity. It is because of this sin that God sent His Son to suffer and die.
But not only does God show His love to the world by sending His Son, He also shows His love in His sincere compassion and desire for people to come and be forgiven and restored. Jesus extended God’s invitation to sinners by saying, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”[11] He even wept for those who did not come to Him: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem , the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”[12] The apostle Peter makes the unambiguous statement that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”[13] God, without question, truly loves all people and desires all people to receive the forgiveness and salvation which He offers.
The fourth manifestation of love identified by Carson is God’s love toward His elect.[14] We have been dealing throughout this paper with the statement that “God is love,” and according to Packer, it is God’s elect who uniquely and fully experience God as love.[15] This means that to the believer, every aspect of God’s nature is manifested in terms of His love. Packer quotes Brooks on the relationship of God toward the believer, where in effect God says:
You shall have as true interest in all my attributes for your good, as they are mine for my glory. . . . My grace, saith God, shall be yours to pardon you, my power shall be yours to protect you, and my wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and my goodness shall be yours to relieve you, and my mercy shall be yours to supply you, and my glory shall be yours to crown you. This is a comprehensive promise, for God to be our God: it includes all. . . [God is mine and, everything is mine], said Luther.[16]
According to the Bible, the love God has for His people did not begin at some point within creation. In reality, His love toward them existed before creation. The indication of Scripture is that He knew these people in a loving way before He ever created them,[17] and He predestined them to salvation in this love for them.[18] All of this is brought out in what Paul says in Romans 8:29–30, “For whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” It is ultimately, therefore, God’s saving love that brings His people into this special relationship to Him.
It is a firm belief in this kind of love that gives the believer a sense of security in His relationship with God. Lewis Sperry Chafer highlights the effect that the Scripture’s teaching on God’s saving love ought to have on the believer: “If this truth respecting the immeasurable and immutable love of God for believers is recognized, it will be seen that, because of this unalterable motive, God will conclude perfectly what He has begun—that which He predestinated with infinite certainty.”[19] In essence, believers can have full assurance that they are completely safe because God is the One who determined to bring them to salvation by His freely given, undefeatable love. Contrary to what some teach, there is no sense in Scripture that those whom God loves as His elect could ever be lost. God’s love is complete security for the believer.
[1] D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, 16.
[2] Ibid., 16.
[3] Matthew 6:26–30.
[4] D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, 17.
[5] John 3:16.
[6] Romans 5:8.
[7] I John 2:2.
[8] Benjamin B. Warfield, Biblical and Theological Studies (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1968), 517.
[9] Ibid., 517–518.
[10] John F. MacArthur, The God Who Loves, 104.
[11] Matthew 11:28.
[12] Matthew 23:37.
[13] II Peter 3:9b.
[14] D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, 18.
[15] J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 126.
[16] Ibid., 126.
[17] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 676.
[18] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol. III, 321–322.
[19] Ibid., 322.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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