1st John 4:10
God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
A Calvinist might look at this verse and say, “‘propitiation for our sins,’ which is the elect,” but the reality is that 1st John 2:2 adds, “and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” Moreover, the fact the Jesus is the “Savior of the world” is also confirmed at John 4:42 and John 12:47.
John 4:42: “And they were saying to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’”
John 12:47: “‘If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.’”
And He is the Savior of the world, and anyone in the world can be saved, if they will believe in Him, as God the Father stated according to John 3:16.
Question: How does a sovereign God “love”?
Answer: Jerry Walls asks: “Given the fore-revelation of God in Scripture, the question that we should be asking is: How would a God of perfect love express His sovereignty?” (Jerry Walls: What’s Wrong With Calvinism) This reveals that Calvinists have an erroneous understanding of who God is. God is a God of perfect love, who yes, is sovereign, but expresses His sovereignty from the perspective of being a loving God.
Question: What does it mean that “God is love”?
Answer: If it is what you do that defines you, and if God is defined by love, then God must be a doer of love. It stands to reason that God is motivated by love, and is moved by love, and responds to love, and therefore it should be of no surprised that there is power in praise and worship of God, as it speaks to who He is, and what He delights in, and what He identifies with. Therefore, Calvary makes perfect sense. Although shocking to the world that God would stoop so low (Philippians 2:5-11), to save those so fallen, it is simply who He is.
Adrian Rogers: “There are people like this who come to Church and they listen to a preacher preach, and they find themselves running from God, and fearing God, and afraid of God. ‘God is love,’ and God loves you, and God has made with His Son, the Lord Jesus, a blood covenant on your behalf.”
(The Blood Covenant: 1 Samuel 18:3)
Adrian Rogers: “Again, don’t get the idea that God only wants some people saved. God says all are unbelievers, and God says, ‘I want mercy upon all.’” (Is God through with the Jews?, Romans 11:1)
John Calvin: “For faith in Christ brings life to everyone, and Christ brought life because the Heavenly Father loves the human race and wishes that they should not perish.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.76, emphasis mine)
However, Calvin also taught that God foregoes that desire by a secret will of “predestination to death”:
John Calvin: “At this point in particular the flesh rages when it hears that the predestination to death of those who perish is referred to the will of God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, p.208, emphasis mine)
Dave Hunt: “How could God, who is love, predestine anyone to eternal torment, much less take pleasure in doing so?” (Debating Calvinism, p.255)
Dave Hunt: “Only a Calvinist could believe that God loves those He has predestined to eternal suffering!” (Debating Calvinism, p.48, emphasis mine)
Dave Hunt: “God commands all mankind to love Him. But how could that be required of those He
doesn’t love and has predestined to eternal torment? Such an idea is both unbiblical and repugnant to the conscience. If all men are required to love God, and if we can only love Him because He first loved us, God must love all men.” (Debating Calvinism, p.48, emphasis mine)
