The Unconditional Love of God (pt. 1)

What is the unconditional love of God? What is the meaning of God’s unconditional love?

Introductory Thoughts on God’s Unconditional Love

If you have heard of God’s unconditional love how do you react to it? Do you believe God’s love is unconditional? Are your thoughts of God’s unconditional love somehow also intertwined with an idea that this unconditional love only begins after you believe in Jesus…as if in some unexplained way God owes you for having believed? I’m not trying to criticize, but attempting to stir up thought: Is God’s love for you unconditional or did it pend on your belief? (this post is operating from the belief that God’s love is not the same to all, but is especially expressed to his people).

As we continue to consider the scriptural testimony of God’s plan and work to redeem sinners we must give attention to the unconditional love of God. Yet, what is this? It is the love of God that is given, not because of certain expectations met by an individual, but because he chose to act in such a way.

I took a semi-broad look on google by searching: “unconditional love of God”. The first sites to arise were focusonthefamily.com, christianity.com, bibliestudytools.com, and got questions.org. Of the many bible passages they pointed to I noticed John 1:12; 3:16; Romans 8:31-39; Ephesians 2:4-5; & 1 John 4. These various websites pointed to these verses or verses within the named passages as biblical evidence of the unconditional love of God. I agree with them, but I want to take it further, and show why we should go farther by examining some of the passages above.

But first…lets talk about God’s love from the simple yet profound phrase: God is Love (1 John 4:8). We must be careful to examine our own understanding of love as we consider how God functions as the essence of love. We often act and subconsciously think of love as a response to that which is pleasing or beautiful (i.e. I love this pizza…because it tastes good OR I love the sunset…because it is beautiful). That expression of love is a response. When we speak of God’s love it is not a response but it is initiated by and flows from him. Here is why we must reject God’s love as being responsive: If God be eternal in all that he is, including him as love, who/what was he responding to before creation? His love is initiating not responsive.

So what…well we must keep perspective on his love because as we think about this (with special attention to his work of redemption) we need to see what his love led him to do. We can’t just speak of God’s unconditional love without specifying what he is doing as an outflow from his love. There are many objects of God’s love, each receiving a different sort of kindness. There is a love for all humanity (Matt. 5:45; 1 Cor. 13:4), a love for his people, and a love for himself above all. When the conversation of unconditional love comes up among Christians it is often referring to God’s love toward Christians, and that is right. But what does that love look like?

It looks like the letter “U” (unconditional election) from the acronym T.U.L.I.P. In following the discussion from the last blog on the will of man and his sinfulness we now look at God’s work to rescue.

Unconditional Love a.k.a. Unconditional Election

We can think of these two as having much overlap though in some ways that are not synonymous. Unconditional Election is a specific way of speaking a function of God’s unconditional love. You will see in the passages below (some of which are the same as the ones given above about unconditional love) how the most specific texts about God’s work of election are speaking about his love for his people. They go hand-in-hand.

The passage I want us to use as a springboard is Romans 8:31-39 as mentioned above. We spent a lot of time in Romans in the last post because it is one of the clearest and orderly explanations of salvation. We come to chapter eight (one of the greatest chapters on Christian hope in the whole of the scriptures) and in 8:31-39 we have statements like: “If God is for us, who can be against us? …Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?… For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come…will be able to separate us from the love of God…” These are the words that embolden our lives and strengthen us to endure. These are the verses painted on walls and printed on shirts…and rightfully so. We need these great reminders. We might even mention a promise that appears a couple verses earlier, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”(8:28). These verses carry the Christian through the darkest days while also making our happiest times all the brighter.

But what comes in between? What truth do we find in 8:29-30? There we find one of the most profound teachings on God’s unconditional love.

Romans 8:29-30

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 8:29-30

As we walk through this passage we will see that it informs our understanding of God’s love, and how these two verses connect to and inform the surrounding text.

“For…”

Rom. 8:29

“For” is the bridge from the preceding and precious verse which reads, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” What follows in 8:29 is the reason for that hope found in 8:28. The word “for” can rightly be translated or understood as because. Romans 8:28 gives us a foundation for our faith only because of what 8:29-30 says.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined…”

Rom. 8:29

The question which we must explore is what does Paul means by “foreknew”? Did God know something that was going to happen before it took place? Although that would seem plausible at first glance lets look at how this word functions in scripture as a whole. When we break the word up we have: 1) “fore” (before or prior); 2) “know”. We will focus on the last part of the word “know”. From the very beginning of the Bible this is a word used to convey deep and intimate affection of delight:

• Genesis 4:1, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain…” (see 4:25)
• Genesis 18:19, “For I have chosen (same hebrew word as “knew” in Gen. 4:1) him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD…”

In these two passages, and others, we see the use of this word in a covenant (sacred promise) context. Adam “knew” Eve as his covenant companion (aka wife) in the deepest way a man can experience a woman. Then in Genesis 18:19 we witness the continuing explanation of God’s covenant with Abraham and his Offspring. We might read the passage: “I have loved, delighted in Abraham, so that he may…” It was God’s initiation to call Abraham because God had loved Abraham before Abraham loved God. (1 John 4:19)

This connects to our current text in Romans 8:29 in that Paul is explaining the covenant love of God for the Christian. His use of “foreknew” in its context lines up with the train of thought lined out from the beginning of scripture (and through out). God out of his love acted to “predestine…call…justify…glorify.” Does that sound familiar?

• 1 Peter 1:1-2, “To those who are elect exiles…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood
• 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.

The disciples Peter and John teach us the same thing as Paul has about the love of God. It is unconditional, meaning that it was not earned or manipulated in anyway by you or me. God for his own purpose and glory, for the praise of his greatness, initiated a covenant (sacred promise) to redeem sinners before the first man drew breath.

This type of love was displayed in the life of Abraham and the generations that came from his family.

“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

Deut. 7:6-9

Conclusion

We will use the above passage from Deuteronomy to summarize this first part on the unconditional love/election of God.

1. God makes it quite plain that his love for them and choosing of them was not earned by them. He decided to love them beginning with Abraham.
2. God roots his choice to love them back with their fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). This is a covenant love initiated by God. God found and called Abraham, not the other way around.
3. Lets take this back to Romans. The word “foreknew” is used again in describing God’s actions in Romans 11:2 where Paul explains how Israel as a nation was an example of how God loves unconditionally because it is by his initiation, not response. Now to briefly address one objection (I’ll do more next week). To the reader who argues that “foreknew” in 8:29 simply means God knew beforehand who would believe, you then have to explain Paul’s identical use with regard to Israel (11:2). Not Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob initiated a relationship with God; it always began with God stepping out first. It is this example that Paul points to so as to show the reader how God has loved those who are now believing. That is why he had spoken of God foreknowing “those”. It is Paul speaking of God delighting in “those” particular individuals and then predestining. And with that named objection is the problem that Paul does not speak of God foreknowing an action (belief/faith) but people. That is all the more reason to understand from the context that this speaks of love and not previously possessed head knowledge.

The word ‘knew’ can be used of ‘knowledge’ or ‘love’/’delight’. Therefore the context (and we will see more context next week) does not allow for the word to mean knowing what will happen before hand, it must mean a love given prior to.

Two Applications

Assurance of Salvation: One of the wonders of this passage (and we will see more next week) is the comfort it brings to Christians. Have you ever doubted the love, faithfulness, or grace of God in your life? I know I have. And although there are biblical reasons to evaluate our relationship with God it should be never based on fear that God has somehow altered his work in our lives. According to this passage his love for the Christian is already set and firm even before they are born. It is not moved, increased, or diminished according to what you do, but is constant, perfect, flowing, never ending, and abundantly (see Eph. 1) set upon us. The scripture tells us that we love because he first loved us. In the spirit of that passage let me write this: delight in him because he first delighted in you. Delight in him! His love has been fixed on you since before the world was created, a perfect and vast love with no boundaries. A love so strong and so big that we NEED the very Spirit of God to strengthen us to the point of then being helped by the Spirit of God to understand the eternal, unconditional love of God (Eph. 3:16-19).

Read Ephesians 1:1-14: Next week I will discuss the outflow of God’s love as seen in the rest of 8:29-30. Much of the content is paralleled in Paul’s detailed work on this topic in Ephesians 1:1-14. Please carefully read that passage. I will reference it in next weeks post. SO WHY do this?

1. You should do this because it is in such passages, even in a short passage like Romans 8:29-30 that our minds are put to work, leading to joy in learning of what God has done, then motivating us on to honor God in our lives. Give you mind to the careful and prayerful reading of Ephesians 1:1-14. I’d love to hear your questions on what you find.
2. Another reason to give your time to such doctrine is that it grounds the encouragement and hope you receive from Romans 8:31-39. If we jump from 8:28 over to 8:31 we will be more easily shaken in our faith and hope. For the joy of your soul and obedience to our King give energy and thought to Romans 8:29-30 & Ephesians 1:1-14.