Dear Cornerstone Family,
Two weeks ago, I mentioned my intention to write several brief articles on the complexities and mysteries behind Malachi 1:2-3, “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.” I want to pick up that thread with you today by zeroing in on the biblical doctrine of the love of God. I italicized the words “biblical doctrine” because the love of God is often thought of in one dimensional or sentimentalized ways in our time.
When we hear, “God is love,” it is often assumed we mean that God is an old softy, a grandfather in the sky. He keeps candy in his pocket in case he passes children on the sidewalk and just loves and accepts everyone and everything no matter what. The problem with this notion is it doesn’t faithfully represent––you guessed it––the biblical doctrine of the love of God.
In the year 2000, the long-time professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, D.A. Carson, was writing a book on the love of God. After giving himself to the subject for several months, he landed on this title for his book: The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. Carson is onto something with that title. When we take the Bible’s teaching on the love of God seriously, we’re immediately confronted with a multifaceted and complex doctrine.
In Carson’s work, he identifies five ways the Bible speaks of God’s love. Today, I want to look at two of them with you.
First, there is the love that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have shared for one another from all eternity. Before anything was made, God enjoyed within himself perfect love and communion (John 3:35, 5:20, 14:31). It is this love that is the source from which every other dimension of the love of God flows. The rich love and communion of the Godhead overflows into the work of creation and providence.
Second, there is God’s providential love for everything he made. In and from the love that God enjoys within himself, he created the heavens and the earth. He declared what he made was “good” (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). Why is creation good? Because it is the fruit of a loving Triune Creator. This is why God cares for every part of creation, even the parts that seem insignificant like lilies of the field and birds of the air (Matthew 6:26-29). When we speak of God’s care, we are speaking of his providence. You see the word provide in the word providence for a reason!
Question 27 of the Heidelberg Catechism beautifully expresses God’s providential love in this way: “The almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were, by his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth, with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, all things come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.”
I’ll pick up this thread again either next week or sometime in early November and consider with you the other three ways the Bible speaks of God’s love. Stay tuned!
Your servant,
