DOES GOD SO LOVE THE ENTIRE WORLD?

This is an important question, perhaps even foundational for our entire Christian life. The way answer this question of God’s love is the way we also treat others.

God reveals that He loves His entire creation:

• The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. Psalm 145:8-9 (ESV)

According to Jesus, if God loves all, so must we:

• “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:44-48) 

God loves even those who remain sinners - His enemies. Therefore, so must we.

God demonstrated His love for all humanity in another way. He died for all, even His enemies (Roman 5:9-11):

• For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that WHOEVER believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) 

To the entire assembled crowd, Peter announced something that anyone raised on the Hebrew Scriptures would have understood – that God wanted everyone to turn to Him (Ezekiel 33:7-11):

• God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning EVERY ONE of you from your wickedness.” (Acts 3:26)

It was a hope extended to all. All had gone astray, but divine provision had been made for all:

• Isaiah 53:6  ALL we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the INIQUITY OF US ALL.

Some would argue that “all” doesn’t mean absolutely all. However, in this verse, absolutely all went astray. It would therefore seem that the Lord references the same group of people in saying, “the LORD has laid on him the INIQUITY OF US ALL,” meaning absolutely everyone!

Jesus’ atonement wasn’t simply for those who would believe, but for the sins of the entire world:

• He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but ALSO for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2) 

Christ’s atonement covered the sins of both groups of people – saved and unsaved:

• For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of ALL PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:10) 

This not only demonstrated God’s love for the entire world, but it also made this world accountable. No one would be able to say, “I never had a chance, because the Savior had never made provision for me through His death.”

• But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who BOUGHT them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)

Did Jesus die for the little children? He pointed to children as exemplars of those who would enter the Kingdom:

• At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-4)

It is hard, or perhaps impossible, to reconcile Jesus’ heavenly regard for children with the assertion that He would refuse to die for many of them.

Instead, if Jesus loves the entire world, we must also! But don’t some deserve the wrath of God and God’s punishments mediated through the justice system? Of course, but this does not detract from our personal responsibility to love, even as we uphold justice.

What would this look like? If I met a young man intending to join ISIS, I would invite him to lunch, try to understand his motives, and then try to talk him out of it. If I didn’t succeed, I would immediately call the FBI!

Love must be wise, but love we must! We must show off our Lord to the world!

THE ENDLESS ATTEMPT TO PAY FOR OUR WRONGDOINGS

Trying to pay for our sins is like trying to chase down a moving train. Even if we run as fast as we can, the train continues to distance itself from us. We never catch it.

This is the problem of self-atonement. Whatever payments we might make are eclipsed by our ever-increasing debt. Paul explained that this was also Israel's problem:

• “For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:2-4)

However, this is not just Israel's problem. It's the problem of everyone who does not know the Savior Jesus, who has made a complete payment for our sins.

Without Jesus, we feel compelled to establish our own atonement system, through which we convince ourselves that we are good people, when we know that we are not.

Some place their hope in achieving notoriety and fame, even infamy, to become that Someone they can live with, the person who need not any longer feel ashamed of themselves.

In The Significant Life, attorney George M. Weaver provides many examples of the absurdity of our quest for self-atonement:

• Salvador Dali once said, “The thought of not being recognized [is] unbearable”…Lady Gaga sings, “I live for the applause, applause, applause…the way that you cheer and scream for me.” She adds in another song, “yes we live for the Fame, Doin’ it for the Fame, Cuz we wanna live the life of the rich and famous.” (7) 

Our attempts to validate ourselves can even appear more ludicrous:

• In 2005 Joseph Stone torched a Pittsfield, Massachusetts apartment building… After setting the blaze, Stone rescued several tenants from the fire and was hailed as a hero. Under police questioning, Stone admitted, however, that he set the fire and rescued the tenants because, as summarized at trial by an assistant district attorney, he “wanted to be noticed, he wanted to be heard, he wanted to be known.” (44)

Evidently, this drive for significance is so powerful that it can overrule the moral dictates of conscience. One mass-murderer gunman explained in his suicide note, “I’m going to be f_____ famous” (45).

All of these examples reflect the fact that humanity is aware of an internal need to prove that we are okay, even worthy. To achieve this sense of worthiness, we will even seek to masochistically sacrifice ourselves. And sometimes, this involves the sacrifice of others.

Benedict XVI wrote about this perplexing masochistic phenomenon. He noted how Western culture, en masse, has turned against itself and its Christian heritage:

• This case illustrates a peculiar western self-hatred that is nothing short of pathological. It is commendable that the West is trying to be more open, to be more understanding of the values of outsiders, but it has lost all capacity for self-love. All that it sees in its own history is the despicable and the destructive; it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure…Multiculturalism, which is so constantly and passionately promoted, can sometimes amount to an abandonment and denial, a flight from one’s own heritage. (Quoted by Jean Bethke Elshtain, First Things, March, 2009, 36)

Why has the West become so masochistic? Make no mistake – masochism rewards its sufferers in many different ways. It convinces them that their sacrifices have made them okay and entitled them to a sense of worth, even moral superiority.

Deep inside, even the leaders of Western Europe know that they are morally deficient. What do they do about this destabilizing inner sense of unworthiness? They desperately attempt to achieve a sense that they are really okay. How? By sacrificially inviting into their countries the very ones who want to destroy them.

Father Douglas al-Bazi, an Iraqi Catholic parish priest from Erbil has denounced the Western refusal to accept reality about Islam:

• “I’m proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my [Muslim] country is not proud that I’m part of it. What is happening to my people [Christians] is nothing other than genocide. I beg you: do not call it a conflict. It’s genocide… When Islam lives amidst you, the situation might appear acceptable. But when one lives amidst Muslims [as a minority], everything becomes impossible…. Wake up! The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you. We, the Christians of the Middle East are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam.” http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/we-did-what-we-learned-attacking-christians-muslim-persecution-of-christians-august-2015/

Why does the West refuse to see this and to sacrifice their people as a result of their willful blindness? Because they have rejected the one true source of atonement and forgiveness, and now must achieve their own atonement!

Jeremiah had warned Israel about this very danger, the danger of trusting in their own manipulations to achieve a sense of okay-ness and worth:

• This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh [his own achievements] for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” (Jeremiah 17:5-7)

DID GOD SET UP ISRAEL FOR FAILURE?

 

God had demanded that Israel follow ALL his laws. Even worse, as Moses had written, He cursed them when they failed to obey in even one law:

• Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” (Deuteronomy 27:26)

Did this divine requirement for moral perfection doom all Israel? Evidently not! God had often blessed Israel for their faithfulness. For example, when King Solomon blessed the newly built Temple, he thanked God for His faithfulness to Israel and to his father David:

• “Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it—as it is today.” (1 Kings 8:23-24) 

How was it that they were blessed in light of their only partial obedience to God’s commands? Further on in his prayer, Solomon provides some illumination:

• “When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy.” (1 Kings 8:46-50) 

It was only through the mercy of God that Israel dodged the curse and received blessing. In particular, the Psalms highlight the mercy of God, as David had written:

• Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. (Psalm 32:1-2)

Blessedness was always based on the mercy of God to His repentant people. However this raises another question. “If God could forgive and have mercy on Israel, why then the need for the Cross?”

Why then the need for Christ to die for our sins? All of God’s mercy is predicated on Christ and His atonement for our sins:

• For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) 

This verse echoes the fact that any infraction of the law placed us under a curse, but it adds that mercy is found in Jesus, and Him alone:

• For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

However, if all of God’s promises of mercy and forgiveness come through Christ, how then did Israel receive mercy? Also, through Christ! But how? God granted mercy in view of the propitiation of the Cross. Perhaps we should think of it in terms of a loan granted in expectation of future payments. How do we know this?

• The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:13-15)

The Cross forgives and cleanses past sins. Consequently, the Hebrew saints could not receive the fullness of what had been promised until the Cross:

• These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40)

Even the Hebrew Scriptures gives ample evidence that the Hebrew saints could not receive what had been promised. Here’s just one example. The prophets talked about a future marriage between God and His people (Hosea 2:18-19). However, Israel couldn’t even enter into the presence of God and still live. Nor could they tolerate His presence (Exodus 20). This would only be resolved at the initiation of the New Covenant.

Biologos: Showing their true Gospel-Denying Colors

The Biologos Forum, dedicated to promoting evolution to the church – and they are heavily endowed to do just that - just published Part 2 of an article by Professor Joseph Bankard, denying the Christ died to atone for our sins:

• I argue that God did not will the cross. An angry crowd, a prideful group of the religious elite, and a cowardly Roman prefect, put a perfectly innocent man to death. They willed the cross. And I believe this act is an example of sin. But God is holy, loving, and just. Thus, God cannot will or condone sin…But Christ’s death was not part of God’s divine plan.

• The view sketched above does not require a historical Adam and Eve or a traditional concept of original sin… Christ’s death was not part of God’s plan. This helps preserve God’s power (God can forgive in many ways, he doesn’t require blood) and God’s goodness (God doesn’t will the cross).

As Bankard understands, this undermines the Gospel. He admits:

• The focal point of the substitutionary view is the cross of Christ. We are forgiven and saved through Jesus’ blood and sacrifice. In what follows, I will argue that emphasizing Jesus’ death is the wrong way to approach the atonement.

However, Scripture declares that Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb who takes away the sins of the world and that He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world:

• But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all… Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering. (Isaiah 53:5-10)

• He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

• For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)

• For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man. (Romans 8:3)

• Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Galatians 3:13)

• Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Galatians 3:13)

• He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

• God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

In short, Our Lord died in our place – substitutionary atonement! This is the Gospel – that we deserve to die, but Christ has died in our place, while we were still His enemies (Rom. 5:9-10).

How can this be denied without also denying the entirety of the Gospel? It can’t! Why has Biologos published this Gospel-denying piece? Despite its many assertions that it is evangelical and regards Scripture as God’s very Word, it clearly does not! The God revealed in Scripture is not their first love.