Precious People loved by God
God loves us as we are, not as we should be, because we are never as we should be. – (Brennan Manning) God loves all people with a common love (Deut 10:18; John 3:16; 1 Tim 4:10; Titus 2:11; Tit 3:4) and “His’’ people with a covenant love. (Deut 7:6-11, 10:15, 1 John 3:1; Jere 31:3; 2:4-7, Col 3:12). (T. Robinson, D. D.) Your call comes from the love of God which he has specifically for you; and that it ushers you into a realm of God's love that no one knows but those who receive it.
Common Love: the love of God which Scripture clearly shows is general, universal, indiscriminate, unconditional, unlimited, and that extends to all people in all times (Titus 3:4). Jews were taught to love their own (hate the Godless Gentiles), but Jesus proclaims that they must love their enemies and show love by praying for those who persecute them. One’s love for their enemy shows whose son they are. The traits of the Father are manifest in the son. (Matt 5:43-45, Deut 10:18) (Acts 7:60, Luke 23:34). The rich young ruler rejected Jesus yet it is said that Jesus loved him (Mark 10:21). God loves the whole world. It is not just a love for those who believe, but for every person (John 3:16) even those who hate the light and remain in darkness (John 3:19-21)
Four ways this unlimited love is manifest: 1) Common Grace – these are certain blessings that God does within the lives of everyone in the world he has created. He controls and sustains the universe. It rains on everyone, the sun shines on everyone, the crops grow for everyone, regardless. (Matt 5:45, Acts 14:15-18, Ex 10:21-23). 2) Compassion – a kind of broken-heartedness or pity. Jesus looking of the city of Jerusalem and weeping (Ex 33:5-7, Matt 23:37, Luke 19:41). 3) Concern – God loves the lost so much he warns them to turn to him to avoid the wrath to come (Gen 6:3, Luke 12:3-4, 2 Thess 1:6-9) 4) Gospel – the good news of redemption in Christ. The gospel goes out to all as in the parable of the marriage feast. The love of God not only communicates judgment, but calls all men to repentance and belief. (Matt 22:2-3, Luke 14:16-18). The angels at the birth of Jesus proclaimed good news for all people (Luke 2:10). The light of Christ lights everyone in the world (John 1:9). So, God's love to the world is unlimited in extent. He does love the world. He loves them enough to be good to them. That's common grace. He loves them enough to feel pity and compassion over them. He loves them enough to warn them about sin and its consequences. And He loves them enough that the gospel should be preached to all of them. So in that sense God's love is unlimited in its extent, it does reach the whole world. (Mac Arthur) God's love is broad and general: he sustains the unbelieving world with sunshine and rain (Matt 5:44-45), and he offers eternal life, at the cost of his Son, to any and all who will believe (John 3:16,) (Piper) According to Rom 2:4 the one reason a sinner is permitted to be born into and enjoy this world rather than wake up as an infant in hell is that God, with His love of benevolence, is determined to give the sinner a “chance,” an opportunity to repent. Alas, most sinners use it as a chance to sin! They make God’s blessed love of benevolence into a curse. In this world the sinner enjoys nothing but the benevolent love of God. Every experience of pain as well as pleasure is from God’s love — of benevolence. Even pain is from love because it tends to wake the sinner to his danger. God indeed loves the sinner, with a perfect love of benevolence. Why does God do so much good for those who hate him and as soon as they die impenitent send them immediately to hell and never in all eternity does them one solitary favor more? It is to show His willingness to forgive the sinner if only he will repent. It shows the sincerity of God’s willingness to pardon the greatest sinner (1Tim 1:15) . . . . If the sinner dies impenitent, God removes His love of benevolence and pours out the full wrath of his displacent love (Matt 7: 23, 25:41, 2 Thess 1:7-9). (John H. Gerstner)
Covenant Love: Here is the eternal covenant love of God for those who follow him. God has a unique love for his own (John 13:1 – eistelos Gk, unto perfection, to the end, and forever., Ps 103:17, Jer 31:3, Rom 5:8, 1 John 3:1, 4:9-10, Eph 2:4-6) To those who receive God's love, to those who come to Christ, to those who accept Christ as Lord and Savior, believing in His death and resurrection and committing their lives to obedience to His will, to those people God brings a love that is beyond the love that He has for an unregenerate mankind. He loves His own with a love that is far beyond anything that we could ever imagine or fathom and even all eternity will not be able to fully exhaust the demonstration of God's love toward His own. He loves His own with a love that reaches to the fullest of His capacity to love. God's love toward His own is that it is unbreakable, inseparable, unconquerable and everlasting love. It never fades, it never wavers, it never wanes, it never grows cold and it never changes. God loves us with an everlasting love. How broad is God's love? It's to all who believe. How long is His love? It's from eternity past to eternity future. How high is His love? High enough to enthrone us in the heaven of heavens. How deep is His love? Deep enough to reach to the deepest pit of sin and rescue us. (MacArthur). Those who are called by God, who to belong to Jesus Christ, are loved by God in a special way, they are not loved because everybody else in Rome is also loved by God. His love for them is different and distinct from the love he has for everybody in Rome. God loves "the called" with a special covenant love that he has made with his bride the church (Eph 5:25). God holds out love to the whole world, but loves the church (believers) with a special, precious, everlasting covenant love. (Jer 31:3), this covenant love does not just offer safety to people, but promises to keep them safe from destruction. (Jer 32:40). God promises to put the fear of Himself in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Him. This is not a general love for all. It is a special love that puts the fear of God in our hearts and keeps us from turning away. This is the new covenant for which Jesus came into the world to die and purchase the privileges of this new covenant for us with his blood. Luke 22:20, Heb 13:20-21), The blood of Jesus, in a very special way, was poured out to secure the promises of Jer 32:40. This is a very special and precious love. To know that you are loved in this way is the very heart of Christian assurance. That God has called me, that he has shone in my heart to give the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:6), that he will work omnipotently to keep me, and bring me to everlasting glory (Rom 8:30, Jude 24, Col 1:21-23) – this is what it means to be "the loved by God." There is no way that the new covenant will be broken or nullified in the life of "the called”, because the covenant is in the blood of Christ, not your works (Rev 12:10-11) We are kept from separation "through Him who loved us." (Rom 8:35-37). Nothing will separate us! And the reason given is that we overwhelmingly conquer "through him who loves us." The love of God keeps us from being separated from the love of Christ. Will "the called" be separated from him? No! Why? Because God loves us! The covenant love of God triumphs in preserving his own. (Rom 8:38-39) the special, covenant love of God for us will triumph over everything that tries to destroy our faith and pull us away from God. This is not the general love of God that offers eternal life to the world, nor is it the sustaining love of God that gives sun and rain even to his enemies. This is the love of God for his bride, his chosen people (Rev 19:7-9). He calls us from death to life, and he keeps us from falling away. This is what is meant by the “loved of God” And it is what God means when he says to you Christians today: You are the called of Jesus Christ; you are my loved ones. I have chosen you for my own; I have called you; I have justified you; I will keep you; I will work in you what is pleasing in my sight (Heb 13:20-21); nothing will separate you from me; because I love you with an everlasting love. You are my beloved.
Malachi 1:2-5 I have loved you (Rom 9:10-13) God loves his People “I have loved you” The tense of the verb indicates not only a love that has operated in the past, but is also in effect at the present. (Coffman). "The God’s people respond to his love "How have you loved us?" God answers with a question, "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the answer to the question contains the key to the essence of his love. The answer is yes. Esau was not only Jacob's brother, he was his twin brother, conceived in the womb of Rebecca by their father Isaac. Esau was the elder, which means that by all customary rights and privileges (birthright and blessing) he would receive as the main heir of the father's blessings. (Gen 27:35-36).
The point is this: God could have said based on what you and Esau were in yourselves I could just as easily have chosen Esau as you. Isn't he your brother? Weren't you twins? Isn't he in fact your elder? But I chose you, and passed him by. (Piper) This is indeed a clear proof that the love of God to his people is entirely free from all motives and conditions in them, being before they had done either good or evil; and therefore did not arise from any goodness in them, nor from their love to him nor from any good works done by them: the choice of persons . . . is denied to be of works, and is ascribed to grace (Gill). What then is God's answer to the question, "How have you loved us?" His answer is, I have loved you with free, sovereign, unconditional, electing love; that is how I have loved you. Piper suggests God’s Love for believers is 1) Electing love because he chose you for himself above your brother Esau. 2) Unconditional love because he chose you before you had done anything good or evil—before you had met any conditions—while you were still in your mother's womb (Gen 25:24). 3) Sovereign love because he was under no constraint to love you; He was not forced or coerced; He was totally in charge when I set my love upon you. 4) Free because it's the overflow of His infinite grace that can never be bought.
As a Christian, if you say to God, "How have you loved me?" can you answer the way God answered the Israelites? Do you look at your sister or brother living in sin and tremble that you have been chosen? And that your election is not because of anything in you? And that your faith and hope are owing wholly to God? Do you look at that childhood friend or college roommate who took a turn away from God when you stayed on the path, and tremble at the awesome thought that God chose you? (Piper).
Four Aspects of God's Hatred of Esau
Some would suggest the Heb word, sane, here doesn’t mean hate as we know it, but it does. (Keil) I loved not Esau or his posterity as I loved Jacob and his posterity: this not loving, comparatively, is a hating, God showed not the same kindness to the twin brothers; the one was more enriched with the fruits of God’s love, and had cause to be thankful; the other had no cause to complain, for God did him no wrong. (Poole). I loved him not as I did Jacob; I passed him by, and let him alone, to perish in his corruption and for his sin. (Luke 14:26, Matt 10:37; Gen 29:30-31) (Trapp) Here God chooses to highlight his love for the descendants of Jacob by contrasting it with his hatred for the descendants of Esau, the nation of Edom (Piper) Piper suggests four aspects to God's hate of Esau:
1) God Opposes their prosperity and brings their land under judgment. "I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert."
2) God Will Continue to Oppose Them when they resist his judgment. His judgment will not suffer resistance. “They may build, but I will tear down."
3) They Will Be Given Up to Wickedness They will as a nation be given up to wickedness. v 4b. This is the most devastating of the judgments and the one that makes all the others just. God does not bring judgments on an innocent people. He is just in all his dealings. When he passed over Esau and chose Jacob, there was no decree that an innocent Esau would be judged. (Piper). Esau was wicked and incurred God’s judgement. God gave him up to his own wickedness. Now there is great mystery here. . . . There is much we are not yet ready to know. . . . . But this much we are surely to believe: God did not choose the descendants of Esau; rather he passed over them and withheld his electing love; as a result Esau gave rein to wickedness and deserved the indignation of God. (Piper)
4) God Will Be Angry with Them Forever the Lord is angry, or indignant with them forever. And ultimately destroy them (Ezek 33: 11)