God Loves the World

Perhaps the most famous or well known verse is John 3.16 where we read that ‘God so loved the world that…’ Well, what does it mean that God loves the world? This immense love is most evident and clearly expressed in the death of Christ on the cross, but what good is it if not everyone is or gets saved? Perhaps you’ve been asked ‘If God is love, why isn’t everyone saved?’

This can be answered on numerous fronts, we’ll look at two. First, to ask why everyone is not saved is to assume an obligation on God’s part towards man, which cannot be substantiated. There is only one thing that sinful man deserves from God, and that is His wrath. But it can also be answered by noting that there is a different kind or degree of love that God has towards his children and those whom He has chosen. Now, before you revolt against that last sentence, may I suggest that to believe otherwise leaves one trusting in salvation by works and undoes the whole of the grace of God. Consider these words of Iain Murray, our special guest speaker last Sunday night (which, by the way, if you weren’t there was an absolutely brilliant evening looking at the life of and learning from John Knox – Oh that God would raise up men and women like him in the church today, it would make a world of difference…may we be those men and women), he writes

“But if Christians are no more loved than those who will finally be lost, the decisive factor in salvation becomes, not God’s grace and love, but something in them, and their perseverance becomes dependant upon themselves. To widen the atonement (Christ’s death on the cross), and to speak of it only in terms of general love, is to take away is saving power. The believer in Christ needs to know that the love which embraces him is eternal, almighty, and immutable. It does not hang upon his faith for it went before faith.”

In other words, if all people are loved the same by God, then salvation is by works in that all who add a bit to what God has done in Christ will then be saved and grace vanishes.

So how is God’s love of the world seen in the death of Christ? It is seen on numerous fronts. One way God’s love is seen is that the ‘cross is God’s ordinance for the salvation of men, and Christ is dead for you to come to – for you to live by.’ Christ says that He will not turn away any who come to Him for salvation. God’s love in Christ to the world is also seen and heard whenever the gospel is proclaimed to people without distinction. The call of Christ is universal and all are demanded to repent and humble themselves before Christ as their sovereign King and Lord.

And one last way God’s love to the world is seen, which leads us towards what we’ll be looking at this coming Sunday, is in His gracious sustaining of His creation. God sustains even those who blaspheme His glorious name, and His love is seen and experienced each new day, though undeserved. As we will look at God the Sustainer this coming Sunday maybe consider and meditate on the words of Paul in Colossians 1.17. He holds together.