KenH
Well-Known Member
Love in the Bible #1
The Love of God for the Elect #1
Blessed heavenly Father, please open up the eyes and ears of Your people so that they may understand the blessed spiritual truths found in Your Word. Please make those who read this article and belong to You grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Make me rightly divide and rightly interpret Your holy Word, for it contains information pertaining to matters of life and death, assurance and doubt, peace and anxiety. In His name I pray, amen.
I must begin by saying that this article is aimed specifically at people who believe the Gospel; that is, that Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God, died on the cross as the Representative of His people, and that God’s chosen people (the elect) are saved from sin, death, and Hell solely because He paid the sin debt of His people, resulting in the non-imputation of sin, and the imputation of His righteousness to them. They had no part in obtaining this blessed salvation, do not contribute to maintaining it, and cannot lose it. In Psalm 32:1-2, we read, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
The reason I have made this distinction is because the Bible teaches that God does not love everyone. He only loves a particular group of people known as the “elect,” whom He sovereignly chose “in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). In Romans 9, we read about the distinction which God made between Jacob and Esau, two twins who were conceived in the same womb and born within minutes of each other; yet God felt very differently about Jacob than He did about Esau. In verses 9-12, we read: “For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son." And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.“
Not only had the children not yet been born, but they also had not done any good or any evil. In spite of this, God hated one and loved the other. Paul ensures we know that this was so “the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls” (Romans 9:11). God’s decision to love one and hate the other had nothing to do with their works, because they had not done any good or evil when He made this decision; it was a sovereign decision, made by Him because He is God and He will have mercy on whomever He will have mercy, and harden whomever He will harden (Romans 9:18).
The Bible speaks about God differentiating between Jacob and Esau to teach the doctrine of unconditional double predestination. Unconditional double predestination teaches that God, in eternity past, unconditionally chose a group of people and predestined them for eternal salvation, and unconditionally predestined the rest for eternal condemnation. Those whom He predestined for eternal salvation are known as the elect, those whom He predestined for eternal condemnation are known as the reprobate. The reason why I mentioned that God made this distinction “unconditionally” is because He wasn’t considering anything we would or wouldn’t do. That’s why the apostle Paul, under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, emphasizes that when God made the distinction between Jacob and Esau, the boys hadn’t been born or done any good or evil. Yet Jacob was elect and was loved, whilst Esau was reprobate and was hated.
This distinction between two groups of people was discussed by Paul earlier in the very same chapter, where he states that “they are not all Israel who are of Israel” (v. 6). What did Paul mean by this statement? He was explaining the difference between national Israel and spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel is another name for the elect. Paul spoke about spiritual Israel in earlier parts of this epistle, such as in Romans 2:28-29: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
It would be amiss of me to overlook the fact that the love of God for His elect is “in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39). John Gill explained this very well when he wrote, “He has expressed it in and through Christ, in choosing and blessing them in Him, and in sending Him to die for them; and it still continues in Him, and is in Him as their Lord, head, husband, and Redeemer; and is a reason why nothing can separate them from it.”
So, let’s summarize. There are only two groups of people in this world: the elect and the reprobate. These categories have always existed because God, in eternity past, sovereignly decided who would be elect and who would be reprobate. He made this decision with no respect to anything anyone would or wouldn’t do. God loves the elect and hates the reprobate. Now I shall add one more thing before we discuss the topic of this article. That one thing is this: every elect person will, at one point in their lifetime, be regenerated by God the Holy Spirit and given faith to believe the Gospel. That’s why I said that this article is aimed at those who believe the Gospel, because believing the Gospel is evidence that you are elect, and this article is about God’s love, which is only for the elect.
Now we can comb through the Scriptures to examine God’s love for the elect. We shall begin with the greatest manifestation of God’s love for His elect, which is this: that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). In 1 John 4:9-10, we read more about God sending His Son to die for the ungodly elect: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.“ What wonderful and marvellous verses and what humbling truths; God Almighty, the thrice holy Lord of hosts, gave up His blessed only begotten Son, and sent Him into this dark and sinful world. Christ then, having taken on sinless flesh, obeyed every jot and tittle of the Law which we cannot ever dream of keeping, and did so on our behalf. When the time came, He endured immense humiliation, dreadful lashings, spitting, beating, and torture, and died a bloody death.
But His death was not like the death of a mere man, and He did not do all of these things in vain, for He is the God-man. God forbid that the life and death of Christ should be in vain! Indeed, He accomplished something wonderful through all those things (which He endured without complaint). He accomplished the salvation of His elect! By His sinless Law-keeping and by obedience to His Father (even unto death) and by having the sins of all of the elect of all ages imputed to Him, and subsequently paying the price for them by being cursed and killed, we were saved! Pause for a moment, reread this wordy but weighty paragraph, and praise the Lord.
Let us re-examine those blessed verses from 1 John 4. The apostle John made sure to add “not that we loved God.” This is to emphasise that the eternal, unwavering love of God for us came well before our feeble, fickle love for Him (which, Lord willing, I will address in a later article). This love of God for us is what drove Him to send His Son to die for us, not the other way round. We ought not to look to our love for Him in order to gain any kind of assurance or to explain anything to do with salvation; instead, we ought to look to God’s love for us.
Moreover, having been sent by the Father into the world, Christ was “the propitiation for our sins.” What is a propitiation? That’s not a word we hear every day. Propitiation has to do with the wrath of God being satisfied. Why is God wrathful? Because of sin. He is a just God and He must punish all sins; consequently, when Christ hung on the cross and all of the sins of all of the elect of all ages were imputed to Him, God poured out His wrath on Christ, who pacified or appeased it by becoming a curse and dying, hence satisfying said wrath. In other words, Christ bore the punishment which we deserved so that we don't have to! And this is because God loves us.
I still have many things to say, but they would be best said in a second part rather than lengthening this article, which is already very long. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you found immense comfort in doing so. Some key things to remember are that God loves all of His elect in Christ and that, as a result of this love, He sent His Son to be the propitiation for their sins.
By Abigail J Elliott
Abigail is the teenage daughter of a friend of mine on Facebook.
The Love of God for the Elect #1
Blessed heavenly Father, please open up the eyes and ears of Your people so that they may understand the blessed spiritual truths found in Your Word. Please make those who read this article and belong to You grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Make me rightly divide and rightly interpret Your holy Word, for it contains information pertaining to matters of life and death, assurance and doubt, peace and anxiety. In His name I pray, amen.
I must begin by saying that this article is aimed specifically at people who believe the Gospel; that is, that Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God, died on the cross as the Representative of His people, and that God’s chosen people (the elect) are saved from sin, death, and Hell solely because He paid the sin debt of His people, resulting in the non-imputation of sin, and the imputation of His righteousness to them. They had no part in obtaining this blessed salvation, do not contribute to maintaining it, and cannot lose it. In Psalm 32:1-2, we read, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
The reason I have made this distinction is because the Bible teaches that God does not love everyone. He only loves a particular group of people known as the “elect,” whom He sovereignly chose “in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). In Romans 9, we read about the distinction which God made between Jacob and Esau, two twins who were conceived in the same womb and born within minutes of each other; yet God felt very differently about Jacob than He did about Esau. In verses 9-12, we read: “For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son." And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.“
Not only had the children not yet been born, but they also had not done any good or any evil. In spite of this, God hated one and loved the other. Paul ensures we know that this was so “the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls” (Romans 9:11). God’s decision to love one and hate the other had nothing to do with their works, because they had not done any good or evil when He made this decision; it was a sovereign decision, made by Him because He is God and He will have mercy on whomever He will have mercy, and harden whomever He will harden (Romans 9:18).
The Bible speaks about God differentiating between Jacob and Esau to teach the doctrine of unconditional double predestination. Unconditional double predestination teaches that God, in eternity past, unconditionally chose a group of people and predestined them for eternal salvation, and unconditionally predestined the rest for eternal condemnation. Those whom He predestined for eternal salvation are known as the elect, those whom He predestined for eternal condemnation are known as the reprobate. The reason why I mentioned that God made this distinction “unconditionally” is because He wasn’t considering anything we would or wouldn’t do. That’s why the apostle Paul, under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, emphasizes that when God made the distinction between Jacob and Esau, the boys hadn’t been born or done any good or evil. Yet Jacob was elect and was loved, whilst Esau was reprobate and was hated.
This distinction between two groups of people was discussed by Paul earlier in the very same chapter, where he states that “they are not all Israel who are of Israel” (v. 6). What did Paul mean by this statement? He was explaining the difference between national Israel and spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel is another name for the elect. Paul spoke about spiritual Israel in earlier parts of this epistle, such as in Romans 2:28-29: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
It would be amiss of me to overlook the fact that the love of God for His elect is “in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39). John Gill explained this very well when he wrote, “He has expressed it in and through Christ, in choosing and blessing them in Him, and in sending Him to die for them; and it still continues in Him, and is in Him as their Lord, head, husband, and Redeemer; and is a reason why nothing can separate them from it.”
So, let’s summarize. There are only two groups of people in this world: the elect and the reprobate. These categories have always existed because God, in eternity past, sovereignly decided who would be elect and who would be reprobate. He made this decision with no respect to anything anyone would or wouldn’t do. God loves the elect and hates the reprobate. Now I shall add one more thing before we discuss the topic of this article. That one thing is this: every elect person will, at one point in their lifetime, be regenerated by God the Holy Spirit and given faith to believe the Gospel. That’s why I said that this article is aimed at those who believe the Gospel, because believing the Gospel is evidence that you are elect, and this article is about God’s love, which is only for the elect.
Now we can comb through the Scriptures to examine God’s love for the elect. We shall begin with the greatest manifestation of God’s love for His elect, which is this: that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). In 1 John 4:9-10, we read more about God sending His Son to die for the ungodly elect: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.“ What wonderful and marvellous verses and what humbling truths; God Almighty, the thrice holy Lord of hosts, gave up His blessed only begotten Son, and sent Him into this dark and sinful world. Christ then, having taken on sinless flesh, obeyed every jot and tittle of the Law which we cannot ever dream of keeping, and did so on our behalf. When the time came, He endured immense humiliation, dreadful lashings, spitting, beating, and torture, and died a bloody death.
But His death was not like the death of a mere man, and He did not do all of these things in vain, for He is the God-man. God forbid that the life and death of Christ should be in vain! Indeed, He accomplished something wonderful through all those things (which He endured without complaint). He accomplished the salvation of His elect! By His sinless Law-keeping and by obedience to His Father (even unto death) and by having the sins of all of the elect of all ages imputed to Him, and subsequently paying the price for them by being cursed and killed, we were saved! Pause for a moment, reread this wordy but weighty paragraph, and praise the Lord.
Let us re-examine those blessed verses from 1 John 4. The apostle John made sure to add “not that we loved God.” This is to emphasise that the eternal, unwavering love of God for us came well before our feeble, fickle love for Him (which, Lord willing, I will address in a later article). This love of God for us is what drove Him to send His Son to die for us, not the other way round. We ought not to look to our love for Him in order to gain any kind of assurance or to explain anything to do with salvation; instead, we ought to look to God’s love for us.
Moreover, having been sent by the Father into the world, Christ was “the propitiation for our sins.” What is a propitiation? That’s not a word we hear every day. Propitiation has to do with the wrath of God being satisfied. Why is God wrathful? Because of sin. He is a just God and He must punish all sins; consequently, when Christ hung on the cross and all of the sins of all of the elect of all ages were imputed to Him, God poured out His wrath on Christ, who pacified or appeased it by becoming a curse and dying, hence satisfying said wrath. In other words, Christ bore the punishment which we deserved so that we don't have to! And this is because God loves us.
I still have many things to say, but they would be best said in a second part rather than lengthening this article, which is already very long. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you found immense comfort in doing so. Some key things to remember are that God loves all of His elect in Christ and that, as a result of this love, He sent His Son to be the propitiation for their sins.
By Abigail J Elliott
Abigail is the teenage daughter of a friend of mine on Facebook.