This is the second part of a 5 part series.
As I mentioned in the first part of this series, the purpose of these entries are to look at the evangelical method of The Four Spiritual Laws, which were written by the late Bill Bright. In this installment of the series, I want to look at the first spiritual law which is as follows:
I. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life
The two verses that accompany this statement are John 3.16 and John 10.10. I have previously written on John 3.16 and the implications of “world” and “whosoever,” and so for the sake of space I will direct you to that post. It is absolutely true to state that “God is love” (1 John 4.7). Love is an essential attribute of God, and is seen most readily in His atoning sacrifice (Romans 5.8, 1 John 3:16). However, does this mean that God loves everyone equally? David writes in Psalm 5.5:
“The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.”
and also in Psalm 11:5
“The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.”
These verses might come as a surprise to some of you, and are probably hard to grasp at first. They certainly are difficult verses to come to grips with, but as the inspired Word of God (1 Timothy 3.16,17), we cannot just simply ignore them. The problem here is that the first law starts out with the assumption that everyone is loved to the same degree by God. Would we be able to tell this to Esau (Romans 9.13)? Regardless of which side of the “hate debate” we fall on (whether it literally means hate, or simply “loved-less”), the scripture is clear: not everyone is loved equally by God.
The second problem with the first law introduces us to the foundation of the Four Laws: “[God] has a wonderful plan for your life.” In the fourth law, we’ll see that it is insinuated that the reason to “recieve Jesus Christ” is so we can know “God’s plan for our lives.” I believe this circumvents the real reason of the Gospel, God Himself, but we will get into that in part 5. This part of the first law really plays into the American ideal that we want to find purpose in our lives and hearkens us to the encouragement of Jeremiah 29.11:
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
However, when we read this verse in it’s context, we see that it is part of a letter Jeremiah writes to those Jews who were brought into captivity. It is not to be applied universally, but to those whom God has loved salvifically, His chosen people. It is Jeremiah’s encouragement to them that God has not forgotten them, and that after 70 years He will bring them back out of exile. The same prophet Jeremiah writes in chapter 44, verse 27 against apostate Jews in Egypt:
“Behold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them.”
Most definitely, God had a plan for these apostates, but one would never call it “wonderful.” In His holiness, God righteously proclaims Judgment over those who in their sin, rejected Him. Also, one would hardly use the word wonderful when considering the Pharaoh’s purpose in Romans 9.17-18? And what of the “vessels of wrath prepared before hand for destruction” (Romans 9.22)?
Certainly, at best, the first law is a misapplication of scripture, assuming promises for the elect to be universal to all. Instead of starting at the heart of the matter, our utter sinfulness before God our righteous judge, it puts a band-aid on our perceived felt needs. This only serves to cover the wound, and not actually get to a healing. It is no wonder that Paul starts out his theological magnum opus, Romans, with the condition of man in our sinful state. God is righteous to judge us based on our sin but promises that all will work for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8.28)
Articles on the Love of God:
Does God love Everyone? by Third Millennium Ministries
On Distorting the Love of God by D.A. Carson
The Love of God by A.W. Pink
Jacob and Esau by Charles Spurgeon
Does God Love the Sinner and Hate the Sin? by John H. Gerstner
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