God's Love Universally Manifest

Introduction

As we discussed last week; biblically, we cannot escape the conclusion that God’s benevolent, merciful love is unlimited in extent.

He loves the whole world of humanity. This love extends to all people in all times.

It is also true that when Scripture speaks of God’s love, the focus is usually on God’s special love for His children, for those who believe in Him and not every aspect of His love is extended to all sinners without exception.

These truths lead us to question: What aspects of God’s love and goodwill are seen even in His dealings with unbelievers?

That is the question we are going to discuss today.

As best I can tell, there are at least four ways God’s love is shown universally to all people.

God’s Common Grace to Humanity

Common grace is God’s goodness to humanity in general.

First, there is common grace. This is a term theologians use to describe the goodness of God to all mankind universally.

Common grace restrains the effects of sin within the human race. Without common grace, if we were allowed to have free reign, our fallen nature would plunge humanity into unthinkable depths of evil. God’s common grace is all that restrains the full expression of human sinfulness.

Romans 2:15

God has graciously given us a conscience, which enables us to know the difference between right and wrong.

Romans 2:15 ESV

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

Matthew 5:45

Likewise, God enables us to admire beauty and goodness; and He imparts numerous advantages, blessings, and tokens of His kindness on both the evil and the good.

Matthew 5:45 ESV

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.

These things are the result of common grace, God’s goodness to humanity in general.

If you question the love and goodness of God to all, look harder at the world in which we live.

Some might say: “There’s a lot of sorrow in this world.” but don’t downplay the fact that the only reason we understand there is sorrow and tragedy is that we also have much joy and gladness.

The only reason we recognize ugliness is that God has surrounded us with so much beauty.

Lamentations 3:22

When we understand that all of humanity is fallen and rebellious and unworthy of any blessing from God’s hand, we gain a correct perspective. The only reason God ever gives us anything to laugh at, smile at, or enjoy is because He is a good and loving God; if He were not, we would all be immediately consumed by His wrath.

Lamentations 3:22 NIV

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

Common grace is not Saving Grace.

Acts 14:16-18

However, common grace does not pardon sin or redeem sinners. In fact, Acts 14:16-18 gives us a helpful description of common grace:

Acts 14:16–18 ESV

In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

I really like this description of common grace. God, while allowing sinners “to walk in their own ways”, He nevertheless bestows on us all temporal tokens of His goodness and love.

Common grace is not saving grace, it has no effect on our redemption. But it is a genuine manifestation of God’s love for all people.

God’s Compassion for Humanity

God’s compassion is evident in His offer of mercy to rebellious sinners.

Second, this love God has for all humanity is evident in His compassion. To say it another way, it is a love of pity on humanity. It is a broken-hearted love. Scripture tells us:

Psalm 86:5

Psalm 86:5 ESV

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Daniel 9:9

Daniel 9:9 ESV

To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him

To grasp God’s compassion on humanity, we must come to grips with the truth that there is nothing in any sinner that compels God’s love.

He does not love us because we are inherently creatures worthy of His love.

He is not merciful to us because we deserve His mercy.

We are, by nature, detestable and vile sinners in rebellion against our Creator who justly deserve to be thrown onto the trash heap of eternal hell.

It is God’s love and grace that give us value. Without His compassion, we are merely unworthy sinners.

Conversely, a prevalent tactic of many modern western evangelists, seeking to gain the acceptance of the masses, is to soften the Gospel with a message that skews the truth in the favor of the sinner.

Their message is familiar to us: “God loves you for what are. You must see yourself as someone special because you are special to God.”

But this message ends up going beyond softening the Gospel and misses the point entirely.

If this message were true, Scripture’s call to repent, to change, to be born again; the point of Jesus Christ going to the cross and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives would all be mute.

However, the truth is God does not love us “for what we are.” He does not love us because we are special.

Rather, it is only His love and grace that give us any significance at all.

Isaiah 64:6

This truth seems like a dismal perspective to those who are raised in a culture where self-esteem, or self-worth, is elevated as a supreme virtue; but it is the truth of Scripture:

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

God’s compassion is a love of pity for His creatures that could be righteous but choose otherwise.

God loves humanity because love is essential to who He is; God is love.

Instead of viewing His love as proof that there is something inherently worthy about us, we ought to be humbled that He loves us even though we don’t deserve it.

Therefore, God’s love of unbelievers is not a love based on value; it is a love out of pity for that which could have value but has none.

It is a love of compassion, a love of sorrow; it’s the same deep sense of compassion and pity we have when we see a starving, scab-ridden homeless lying on the streets.

Luke 19:41-44

Similarly, Luke 19:41-44 gives us a picture of Christ weeping over the city of Jerusalem:

Luke 19:41–44 ESV

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

These are words of doom to Jerusalem, yet they are spoken with great sorrow by Jesus, a genuine sorrow borne out of the heart of a loving Savior.

Do not our hearts tell us that if God is love; if His mercies are over all humanity, then what we hear in Jesus’ words must be an echo of God’s compassion?

God’s Admonition of Humanity

No inherent goodness in humanity compels God to warn us of His judgment.

Third, not only is God’s love for humanity revealed in common grace and His great compassion, but His love is also evident in His admonition to repent.

God is constantly warning the unrighteous of their impending doom, pleading with them to turn away from their sin. Nothing demonstrates God’s love more than the various warnings throughout Scripture urging sinners to flee from the wrath to come at Judgement.

If God really did not love humanity, nothing would compel Him to warn us.

He would be perfectly just to simply punish everyone for their sin and unbelief with no admonition or warning at all. However, God evidently loves sinners enough to warn them.

True, sometimes the warnings of Scripture bear the marks of His wrath.

They sound severe and reflect His hatred of sin.

They warn of the irreversible eternal condemnation that will befall unrepentant sinners.

Malachi 4:3

They are unsettling, unpleasant, and even quite terrifying.

Malachi 4:3 ESV

And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

God’s love is the only thing that compels Him to warn us of His judgment.

Ezekiel 33:11

But they are admonitions from a loving God who, as we have seen, weeps over the destruction of the wicked. They are expressions from the heart of a compassionate Creator who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

God’s Gospel Offer to Humanity

The Gospel is God’s offer to all humanity to enter the Kingdom of God.

Finally, we see proof that God’s love extends to all through the Gospel. No one is excluded from the gospel invitation. Salvation in Christ is freely and indiscriminately offered to all humanity.

Matthew 22:2-14

In fact, a parable Jesus told in Matthew 22:2-14 sheds some light on this subject for us:

Matthew 22:2–14 ESV

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The parable starts with the king inviting wedding guests.

Scripture says simply “But they would not come.” (v. 3). So the king sent his servants again, saying, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” (v. 4).

But even after the second invitation, the invited guests remained unwilling to come.

In fact, “They paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.” (Vv. 5-6).

This was outrageous behavior and the king judges them severely for it.

Then he tells his servants, “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” (v. 9).

He opened the invitation to all comers.

The parable closes with the king discovering a guest with no wedding garment, throwing him out of the feast, and Jesus closing with this revelation: “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (v. 14).

This parable represents God’s dealing with the nation of Israel and a revelation of the nature of the Gospel.

Israel were the invited guests. But they rejected the Messiah. They spurned Him and mistreated Him and crucified Him. They simply wouldn’t come.

So the invitation to the kingdom is offered to everyone who will come.

However, in order to rightfully accept the invitation, you must don your wedding garments: your garments of righteousness washed in the blood of Christ. Wedding garments that God Himself provides you. It is this that makes you chosen, which gives you the right to enter the King’s presence without judgment. Your RSVP to the feast, if you will.

God provides you the garments, if you choose not to don them, you are rejecting the invitation, therefore you are as those who first refused to come, you do not belong and will be cast out.

Humanity’s unwillingness to come does not make God’s offer insincere or unloving.

Likewise, the gospel invites many to come who are not willing to come.

John 6:37

The gospel is a call to many, but few will don their wedding garments, few will be chosen. God’s love for mankind does not stop with a warning of impending judgment. It also invites sinners to partake of God’s mercy. It offers forgiveness and belonging. In John 6:37, Jesus says:

John 6:37 ESV

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

It is evident from Scripture that the gospel is a free offer of Christ and His salvation to all who hear.

Conclusion

Those who deny that God’s love extends to all humanity obscure some of the most blessed truths in Scripture.

Namely: God’s love extends to the whole world. It covers all humanity.

We see it in common grace.

We see it in His compassion.

We see it in His admonition to the lost.

And we see it in the free offer of the Gospel to all.

God is Love, and His mercy is universally manifest over all His works.

PRAYER