God loves everyone, doesn’t it rain on the righteous and the unjust?Didn’t Jacob and Israel like him and reject Thatau and the Gentiles?God’s love is unconditional, isn’t it? But should we remain in your love?
Confusing? In this video, D. A. Carson, speaker at the 2013 Faithful Conference, presents what he called “The Difficult Doctrine of God’s Love?”, which shows the five ways the Bible speaks of God’s love.
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To explore this topic further, read other Carson documents
? Book The Difficult Doctrine of God’s Love (read the excerpts selected here) Chapter 9 of the book The God Present
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This love in divinity, this love called “intra-trinitarian”; if one can refer to God as the Trinity, then love among the members of the deity is perfect. And all who are loved are kind. It is not as if the Father said to the Son, “Frankly, you are a lost case, but I still love you. “The son is perfectly adorable. And the Father is perfectly kind and they love each other perfectly. It’s a way the Bible talks about God’s love.
Another way is this: God’s love can be presented in a kind of providential context, we are told that God sent His Son and his kingdom to the righteous and the unjust, that is, it is a providential and non-discriminatory love. It is an amoral love; not immoral, but amoral. He supports both of them. Indeed, in the Sermon on the Mountain of Jesus, you can use this fact to say, “If God can send His Son and His kingdom upon the righteous and the unjust, then you must not make all these beautiful distinctions about who your friend is and who is your enemy, and love only your friends and hate your enemies?Therefore, in a sense, God’s love can be extended so generously to both friends and enemies. This is another context.
And another way the Bible speaks of God’s love is this: sometimes it speaks of God’s love in a kind of moral, attractive, obligatory, and anxious sense. Thus, in the Old Testament, God speaks to Israel, while the nation is particularly wicked. saying, “Become, become!” Why would you die?Is the Lord not pleased in the death of the wicked?He’s the kind of person who invites Dieu. Il. And let us find out here in a moment: Did God love the world so much?
But there is a fourth type. A fourth way of speaking, not a fourth kind of love. A fourth way of speaking, a fourth way of speaking of the love of God. Sometimes God’s love is elective. It is selective, frankly discriminatory. Choose one and not the other. He loved Jacob, but he hated Esau. Very strong language. In the incredible passages of Deuteronomy, chapters 7 and 10. This is the fifth book of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. In chapters 7 and 10, God asks the rhetorical question: Why did he choose the nation of Israel? Point out the possibilities: why are there more of you? No. Why are you more powerful? No. Why are you more fair? No. “Did he love you,” says the text, “because he loved you. ” In other words, he loved you because he loved you. And in that context, that’s why he chose Israel. It does not say, “And he loved all other nations equally. ” In context, he has affection for Israel, unlike other nations, because he loves them. It is a sovereign choice. This is another way the Bible speaks of God’s love.
And then there’s one more. Sometimes, once God is in a relationship, in a covenant, we use this term, as a kind of family bond, a contractual bond with his own people, so that his love becomes quite conditional. For example, the penultimate book of the Bible, a small one-page book called Judas, shows Judas, Jesus’ half-brother, writing, “Stay in God’s love. “This implies that you cannot remain in God’s love, with a moral dimension in all of this. And, in fact, there are several passages in the two Testaments where Jesus’ love for us, in a sense, is conditioned on our obedience. Even in the 10 commandments, we see words like that. He shows his mercy from generation to generation. generation for those who love him and keep his commandments, so there is a context in which the Bible can speak of God’s love under conditional conditions.
Do you see how subtle it is? Why do you start wondering: how do you put all this together? But after you get over the fear, you see that it can’t be that difficult, because we’re even talking about human love, right? I mean, I can speak with a stiff face, “I love riding a motorcycle, I love carpentry, and I love my wife. But if I put them together too often in the same sentence, my wife will not be satisfied. Because they are, in fact, very different contexts, right? And they have different weights. Or again, I can say: I believe, and God help me, that I love my children unconditionally. I have a daughter in California who works with disabled children. If she became a prostitute on the streets of Los Angeles, I think I would still love her. She’s my daughter. I love him unconditionally. I have a son who is a sailor. And if he started selling heroin on the streets of New York, I think he would still love it. He’s my son. I love him unconditionally. However, in another context, when they were children, learning to drive, if you said to one of them: “Come home at midnight”, if they did not obey, they would clash. Daddy’s anger. And in that sense my love was very conditional, thank you. It was on the condition that they obey me when taking the car home. In other words, there are different contexts where, it’s the same kids, the same parent, but the language changes a bit, you know? I don’t think my unconditional love for them has changed, there is a matrix where this is true, another matrix where there are family agreements and responsibilities, or in biblical terms, covenant obligations, where it is true. The wrath of God may explode! There is a context in which the wrath of God is as great as you can imagine; certain contexts in which amoral is sure to be said; in others, it is selective.
So people sometimes have stereotypes like “God loves everyone equally. ” True or false? The answer is yes! Because some of the passages where the Bible uses the language of love actually present God’s love as amoral. He sends his Son and his kingdom out of love for the just and the unjust. He also loves people. But there are other contexts, like the fifth one I mentioned, in which obedience depends. And there are others that are based on God’s sovereign selection, see. “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. ” True or false? It depends on the ticket, you know? Because the Bible can use the language of God’s love in different contexts and in different ways. In a way, you want to declare it absolutely, because in the end you cannot earn God’s love. My kids don’t earn my love by driving the car home before midnight, I love them anyway. And yet, at the same time, there are different contexts in which we speak of God’s love. Be careful not to make foolish mistakes when reading the text of the Bible by taking a verse out of context, generalizing it, and not bothering to see the wonderful variety of ways the Bible speaks of God’s love. God.
By: Don Carson. Copyright The Gospel Coalition, Inc. Original: The God There: Part 9. The God Who Loves
Translation: Alan Cristie. Review: Vin-cius Musselman Pimentel. Faithful Ministry © All Rights Reserved. Original: The 5 ways the Bible talks about God’s love?D. A. Carson [The Current God 9/14]
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