Is God Loving and Good even with Hell in View?
As I posted yesterday, in response to my message on Sunday from Philippians 3:19, 20 in which I called upon the church to have a heart for all those "many whose end is destruction" I received three questions via email; questions which were preceded by a tender expression of gratitude for the message and concern for the lost.
I answered one question yesterday; now question two: "What do I do when doubt/unbelief springs forth, regarding God's inherent love and goodness?"
Does the reality of hell and the fact that many exist whose end is destruction call into question the love and goodness of God? Let's face it; that's a question we've all had at least at times. And when it comes to us it comes, not as a matter of casual curiosity, but as a burdensome grief and frightening doubt.
How can a loving God damn sinners? And why does it seem that so many of my best efforts to rescue sinners from hell fail so badly? Doesn't God care? Doesn't He see? Can't He do something? And if He can, why doesn't He?
First let me say that no blog post can suffice to answer this question. The answers are too deep, too wrapped up in mystery, too shrouded in the secret wonders of God's being to be revealed adequately in any blog (or anywhere else for that matter). But that said, let me offer a few thoughts as they come to me:
1. God does love sinners very much. He loves some sinners savingly and eternally--choosing them from before time, redeeming them in Christ, and regenerating, justifying, and adopting them through grace. If you have come to Christ and have escaped hell, it means that God loves you, a sinner, very, very much indeed.
2. God has a love of compassion for all sinners. As Ezekiel proclaims, He "takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked." He weeps over Jerusalem. He grieves over the sinners in hell. God is not a sadist.
3. God loves Himself and His own glory more than anything. I know this sounds strange to the modern ear, but it really is very reasonable, even essential; it couldn't be any other way.
Let me just put it like this: What is it when someone loves and worships anyone more than God? Idolatry. Only God is deserving of supreme love. If we give that love to anyone else we've worshiped another god; we've committed the sin of idolatry.
So what would God be guilty of if He loved someone else more than himself? Idolatry. It is wrong worship if we love anyone more than God; it would be no less so if God did.
The fact is that the Bible says over and over that God does all that He does for his own glory, honor, and eternal joy. And those who love God are delighted with this fact. They are never happier than when God is glorified for all He is worth! When God gets glory, those whom God loves very much get joy! Now this truth that God loves himself and His own glory leads us to another truth...
4. God sometimes gets glory out of events that do not give Him joy. I need only remind you of the cross. God took no personal sadistic pleasure in the death of His Son, but in the brutality of Calvary God willed an event that simultaneously He grieved, that He might accomplish an end He designed: His own glory through the eternal salvation of those He loves to be with Him and to enjoy Him forever.
5. In a similar way God has resolved that some exist whose end is destruction (an end He grieves) because in ways we cannot fully grasp, it will rebound to His glory and to our joy in his glory.
Somehow God will get glory through the destiny of the wicked. I know that this is hard truth, but friends: it is truth. And in the end it is truth--even hard truth--that sets us free; free from sorrow, free from confusion, free from doubts, free from despair.
Friends, I do not mean to answer a deep grieving question of the heart with theological abstractions, and I'm really not. These--at least for me--are the truths that glue my world and life view together. God is up to things mysterious and deep and shrouded in wonder.
His ways and thoughts are higher than mine--higher than the heavens are above the earth. I cannot fathom His mind or comprehend His plans. I cannot trace His footsteps in the sands of time for they lead to places and plans I simply have no category for. I only know that He is God, that He is love, that He is committed to doing all that is right and all that will result in His highest praise and our highest pleasure in that praise.
Somehow, even the death of the wicked and their end that is destruction, is a part of that wonder and praise. Beyond that I cannot go. Instead, with Job I have learned to place my hand over my mouth and be silent in humble trust. Just like when I tell my kids and grand-kids to trust me in what they cannot understand, God does the same.
As the hymn puts it: "whatever my God ordains is right."
The Judge of all the earth will do both what is just, and what is good. O that we all may rest in this; may we rest in Him.
I answered one question yesterday; now question two: "What do I do when doubt/unbelief springs forth, regarding God's inherent love and goodness?"
Does the reality of hell and the fact that many exist whose end is destruction call into question the love and goodness of God? Let's face it; that's a question we've all had at least at times. And when it comes to us it comes, not as a matter of casual curiosity, but as a burdensome grief and frightening doubt.
How can a loving God damn sinners? And why does it seem that so many of my best efforts to rescue sinners from hell fail so badly? Doesn't God care? Doesn't He see? Can't He do something? And if He can, why doesn't He?
First let me say that no blog post can suffice to answer this question. The answers are too deep, too wrapped up in mystery, too shrouded in the secret wonders of God's being to be revealed adequately in any blog (or anywhere else for that matter). But that said, let me offer a few thoughts as they come to me:
1. God does love sinners very much. He loves some sinners savingly and eternally--choosing them from before time, redeeming them in Christ, and regenerating, justifying, and adopting them through grace. If you have come to Christ and have escaped hell, it means that God loves you, a sinner, very, very much indeed.
2. God has a love of compassion for all sinners. As Ezekiel proclaims, He "takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked." He weeps over Jerusalem. He grieves over the sinners in hell. God is not a sadist.
3. God loves Himself and His own glory more than anything. I know this sounds strange to the modern ear, but it really is very reasonable, even essential; it couldn't be any other way.
Let me just put it like this: What is it when someone loves and worships anyone more than God? Idolatry. Only God is deserving of supreme love. If we give that love to anyone else we've worshiped another god; we've committed the sin of idolatry.
So what would God be guilty of if He loved someone else more than himself? Idolatry. It is wrong worship if we love anyone more than God; it would be no less so if God did.
The fact is that the Bible says over and over that God does all that He does for his own glory, honor, and eternal joy. And those who love God are delighted with this fact. They are never happier than when God is glorified for all He is worth! When God gets glory, those whom God loves very much get joy! Now this truth that God loves himself and His own glory leads us to another truth...
4. God sometimes gets glory out of events that do not give Him joy. I need only remind you of the cross. God took no personal sadistic pleasure in the death of His Son, but in the brutality of Calvary God willed an event that simultaneously He grieved, that He might accomplish an end He designed: His own glory through the eternal salvation of those He loves to be with Him and to enjoy Him forever.
5. In a similar way God has resolved that some exist whose end is destruction (an end He grieves) because in ways we cannot fully grasp, it will rebound to His glory and to our joy in his glory.
Somehow God will get glory through the destiny of the wicked. I know that this is hard truth, but friends: it is truth. And in the end it is truth--even hard truth--that sets us free; free from sorrow, free from confusion, free from doubts, free from despair.
Friends, I do not mean to answer a deep grieving question of the heart with theological abstractions, and I'm really not. These--at least for me--are the truths that glue my world and life view together. God is up to things mysterious and deep and shrouded in wonder.
His ways and thoughts are higher than mine--higher than the heavens are above the earth. I cannot fathom His mind or comprehend His plans. I cannot trace His footsteps in the sands of time for they lead to places and plans I simply have no category for. I only know that He is God, that He is love, that He is committed to doing all that is right and all that will result in His highest praise and our highest pleasure in that praise.
Somehow, even the death of the wicked and their end that is destruction, is a part of that wonder and praise. Beyond that I cannot go. Instead, with Job I have learned to place my hand over my mouth and be silent in humble trust. Just like when I tell my kids and grand-kids to trust me in what they cannot understand, God does the same.
As the hymn puts it: "whatever my God ordains is right."
The Judge of all the earth will do both what is just, and what is good. O that we all may rest in this; may we rest in Him.
Labels: Doubt, The Love of God
posted by Tim Shorey at
6:48 AM
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