God’s Love to the Sinners
God is love (1 John 4: 8,9). And the perfect revelation of God’s love to sinners was shown at the cross. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God’s love for sinners led Him to sacrifice His only Son for their salvation (Romans 5:8). It is the essence of love to sacrifice self for others; selfishness is the antithesis of love.
For this reason, John exclaims, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us” (1 John 3:1). Words fail the apostle to express the depth of that eternal, changeless love, that the Creator would lay His life for His created beings and make it possible for them to be “called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
God’s love embraces those who reject Him as well as those who accept Him. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8; also 2 Corinthians 5:19; John 3:17–20). Although God’s love embraces all mankind, it directly benefits only those who respond to it (John 1:12).
Thus, there are none to whom God arbitrarily refuses the benefits of saving grace. There is but one condition—belief in, and willing cooperation with, Christ. It is God’s goodness that leads men to repentance (Romans 2:4). It is the warmness of His love that melts hard hearts, brings back the lost, and makes sinners into saints.
God loves all sinners—regardless of the specific sins they have committed. But it is important to warn the sinners of their sin regarding God’s will, in an effort to “snatch them out of the fire” (Jude 23), and to “save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
Check out our Bible Answers page for more information on a variety of topics.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
