Who Said That the Gospel is All About Love?
Many think they are doing God a favor by saying or implying that the Gospel of Christ is all about love. Could they be leaving out critical aspects of the Gospel and misrepresenting the love of God as it is set forth in the Bible?
The Bible certainly says directly that God is love in 1 John 4:8. While there is benevolence at the root of everything He does, this does not mean that everything He does is necessarily loving towards everybody. He is not a partial respecter of persons like Calvinism implies, yet people’s evil choices make them candidates for His severe judgment.
Did God cease to be love when He killed almost everyone on earth through the flood in Noah’s time or when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? According to the conception many have of God’s love, the answer to that would have to be yes. Yet the picture the Bible gives is that when God’s righteous authority is being violated, everything will eventually turn into hell anyways if the transgressors are not suppressed and subdued. It is benevolent for Him to esteem His own righteous authority being upheld and vindicated as the most important thing in the Universe. With that consideration in mind, His brutal punishment of sinners is totally in line with Him being love. However, to say that such punishment is specifically love towards those who are punished is unnecessary as well as misleading.
Believing that God’s love is not consistent with restrictions and with vengeance for transgressors against Him has proven to be a fatal error. The serpent actually persuaded Eve that she could transgress against God and not be punished for doing so. God had already guaranteed otherwise.
Genesis 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Erroneous and unlawful forms of love were also key ingredients in mankind’s fall. The serpent seduced Eve to eat from the forbidden tree out of love for what she hoped the forbidden fruit would do for her. Afterwards, Adam actually transgressed and fell because of inordinate love for Eve. Adam valued staying with Eve more than he valued being subject to God’s authority and not having a severed relationship with Him. Their fall, which became the catalyst for death and every tragedy which has ever happened, actually occurred through misplaced, inappropriate love.
Adam and Eve should indeed have recognized that God is love before they ever fell, but not in a way that negated the fear of Him. He provided them with everything they needed and more in the garden. It was right that they were plagued with guilt and forced to live on a cursed ground under much harder, painful circumstances after they transgressed. Though their being kicked out of the garden and every other chastisement which accompanied their fall is contrary to man’s happiness, none of it is inconsistent with God’s love when His righteous authority is valued over man’s happiness like it ought to be.
Without the heinous, destructive nature of sin and the righteous wrath of God in the equation, the Father sending Christ to die wouldn’t be love anyways. Moreover, the blood of Christ only justifies those who repent of violating His authority and submit to His righteous discipline. And even when someone initially does so in reality, that is only the entrance to the narrow way to life in Christ which one must endure to the end to ultimately be redeemed. This narrow way is restrictive, constrictive, and involves much tribulation. The operation which is necessary to repair and rescue humans from their fallen state is extensive and unpleasant for anyone to go through. Though it is right to regard this operation as love, it does not feel like love. It would not even be rational to regard it as love if there is not a brutal, irreversible, and irremediable punishment awaiting those who live in sin.
The true Gospel is simply not all about love. When people speak as if it is all about love, they are denying or greatly devaluing the severe magnitude of mankind’s sins which oppose the true God’s authority and render sinners incompatible with His kingdom. Those who give the impression that the Gospel is all about love are greatly deceiving people.
Aaron’s email is: gospeltruth768@yahoo.com