Does God love the lost?

Yes and no - a "general call" and an "effectual call". I wouldn't say a "more persuasive" call but an effectual call through which we are made new creatures in Christ (the power of the gospel).

Part of the condemnation (I believe the primary part) is that men reject the Son. I don't mean that men must hear the gospel message, but in their rejection of God (through what is revealed) they reject the Son as the Redemption of God because God is faithful to forgive those who repent and turn to Him. This was true in the Old Testament and this is true with the arrival of the New Covenant (God is immutable and there has always been One Way and One Way offered to the World). I do not believe that God's plan of redemption changed at the Cross. It was always to save those who would believe (those "among the elect").

I do not believe that God chose to create elect and non-elect people, actively saving some (causing their faith) and actively damning others (causing their disbelief). I believe in "double predestination" only in the sense that God purposed to save some (grace through faith, all a work of God) and not to save others (both for His purposes).

The difference, I think, between my view and @Reformed 's position (and he can correct me if I've misunderstood) is that I believe everything - to include judgment - is given unto Christ through the Son's faithful obedience to the Father even unto His death on the Cross. I believe that on the Cross we see God reconciling the world to Himself (which I believe implies placing all things under Christ - even the reprobate who will not believe).

So Christ died for the world because God loves the lost. And this love is evidenced to through those who do believe and, in the negative, it is evidenced through the judgment of those who will not believe. It is all about God.

 

I agree. And I do realize that many of our comments reflect how we understand the mind of God in terms of "lapsarianism". This saving love is a particular love expressed to God's particular people (those who believe, the "elect").

God does not love the lost by forgiving their sins. The Spirit does not abide within them. They do not have the hope of life at all. And that was once us. We once experienced the love of God as a Creator to creation love, to include the promise that God is truly faithful and if we repent and turn to Him we would be forgiven. But now we experience the love of God as a Father to a child, in Christ, and we experience forgiveness and love in a way the lost can never imagine.

 

I disagree. God, in this manner, loved the world. All of it. That He gave His one unique Son, that whoever believes (who will believe? The elect, drawn to Christ by the Father) will never perish but have everlasting life.

That is monergism to the core!

 

I agree - the saved are all of those who God effectually calls. I wouldn't say that the "general call" is an unsuccessful attempt to save all (no more than the Law was an unsuccessful attempt of redemption). The general call is, I believe, God telling the world that salvation is here, that He is faithful to His word and if any turn to Him in repentance He will be faithful to forgive their sins. This is love, and it is a legitimate offer of salvation. At the same time I believe that this "sets the stage" for God's recreation of mankind in Christ Jesus. The Father gives the sheep to the Son, and the Son loses none whom the Father gives. The difference here is that some believe the sheep were always sheep. To use an illustration about the Judgment, I believe that I was once a goat but God worked supernaturally in me so that I am a new creature (I don't think we can refer to the lost as a sheep until he is found, or elect until he is saved).

But if you talk about, to borrow again from Spurgeon, God's "choice portion" then it is His people. And yes, God loves the Church in a way that God does not love the World.

There are no "totally uncalled".

I believe that God chose not to choose everyone.Those God did not save He still created and I believe for a purpose. I think that God created the "vessels of wrath" for His own glory. While we may find it difficult to understand now, I think that we can accept this now and understand later. Personally, I don't have the same barrier (not seeing the logic).

If I love God then I hate sin. Is not my hate for sin an expression of my love for God? If a man loves his wife then he opposes anything that would harm her. Is not this negative (opposing things/people that would harm his wife) an expression of the positive (a man's love for his wife)? If God loves lost people so that he saves some, is not God's rightful judgment against those who remain opposed to Him (the reprobate) not an expression of God's love and is this not an expression of God's own glory? I believe so. But I understand this can be a philosophical argument and people disagree.

 

And when you understand that you will understand Monergism.