If God loves all men…

“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Romans 9:13).

The Lord God declares, in language that cannot be misunderstood, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Yet, men everywhere tell us, “God loves all men alike.” Some, seeking to avoid such a plain contradiction of Divine Revelation, say,

“God loves his elect with a special love, though he loves the whole human race with a general love of benevolence.” But that attempt to compromise the truth of God is just as absurd. God did not say, “Jacob have I loved with a special love, but Esau have a loved a little less.” He said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

I have a question for all who vainly imagine that God loves all men. If you dare, I ask you to honestly consider this question. — If God loves all men without exception, and some go to hell in spite of the fact that God loves them, what does the love of God have to do with anyone’s salvation? Have you ever thought about that? The obvious and only answer to that question is — Nothing, absolutely nothing! If God loves all men alike, and some people still go to hell, then, when you tell me that God loves me, you’ve told me nothing.

If God loves all, the love of God is totally insignificant and absolutely meaningless. If that is the case, there is no distinction between God’s love for the saved and his love for the lost. He loves people who are suffering his wrath in hell just as fully as he does those who are glorified in heaven! Either that, or God is mutable, changeable, and fickle, like man’s love.

If God loves the whole human race, there is no power in the love of God to save and keep his own. His love really doesn’t matter. It is nothing but a helpless, frustrated, defeated passion in the heart of poor God!

If God loves the damned as well as the saved, there is no comfort in the love of God. How can anyone derive even the slightest comfort from a love that is helpless and useless?

If God loves all alike, there is no motivation in the love of God. If God’s love for me is the same as his love for Judas, Pharaoh, and Cain, why should I love, serve, and seek to honor him? Indeed, if the difference between me and those who are damned is me, God ought to serve me! He ought to praise me!

But the love of God is not a helpless, frustrated, meaningless passion. Read the Word of God for yourself, and learn what the Scriptures teach. It is the love of God for his elect that is the effectual source and cause of our salvation. The love of God has everything to do with our salvation. God’s love for his elect is a love that results in the salvation of all who are loved by him (Jeremiah 31:3; 1 John 3:1; 4:7-10, 19). His love is everlasting, immutable, indestructible, saving love (Ephesians 2:4-5). God’s love is not helpless, but almighty! God’s love is never frustrated, but always effectual! God’s love is not weak, but strong! It does not change! Those who are loved of God are loved of God forever!

And, like every other blessing of God upon men, the love of God is in Christ. God loves sinners in Christ and for Christ’s sake (John 3:36; Romans 8:38-39). God’s love is a holy love. It can only be fixed upon holy objects. It is true (Thank God it is true!); God loves sinners. But God loves sinners in Christ and for Christ’s sake. No one has any reason to think he is the object of God’s love until he trusts his Son. Apart from faith in Christ, the love of God is not and cannot be known.

If you still imagine that God loves every person without exception, how can you explain the flood, the destruction of Sodom, and the fires of hell? If God loves the multitudes of the damned, he has a very strange way of showing it! Don’t you think? Such love is not worthy of him who is the eternal God. God almighty saves those he has loved from everlasting.

Don Fortner

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