"For
God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.-- John 3: 16 (NLT)
Rob Bell is a former pastor for
This theological
cliff diving is becoming more and more prominent these days as we head toward
the triumphant return of our Lord and King Jesus Christ. The Bible says that
people will depart from the faith, such as Mr. Bell, and not tolerate sound
doctrine anymore. They will chase after myths such as the non-existence of
hell. Why? Because people want their ears tickled as the Bible says. Look, if
we were honest with ourselves we would all admit that we would prefer that
there be no such place as hell. Without a place called hell however, then there
is no consequence for our sin. Without a consequence for our sin, there would
be no need for a Savior. Take a good look at the verse that follows the key
verse:
God
sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world
through him. -- John 3: 17 (NLT)
Save the world through Him. The world needed
saving. It still does. From what? From the sin that this world and our flesh
encompasses. To reunite us with our Creator. I don't worry about the Rob Bells
of the world because they have been around forever, recreating God in their own
preferential image. There will be more Rob Bells to come and we need to test
everything as the Bible says. We need to develop far better discernment than
the modern church currently displays. It seems the church gets organized and
outraged when the world behaves like the world -- no Baby Jesus in the town
square!!! It's Armageddon! Where is that same organization and outrage when
heresy pours forth from the pulpits every Sunday?
What we need to deal with today is the
rampant "God is love" excuse for sin that we see left and right being espoused
by Christians every day. I say excuse for sin because that is what is at the
heart of it. That is always what is at the heart of every departure from
Scripture. Something makes us uncomfortable either consciously or unconsciously
and we attack the truth of the Word of God by playing up only one attribute of
Him. Is God Love? Absolutely -- there are plenty of Scripture to support that
God is indeed love. But that is not all that He is. We do not stop with the one
attribute we like and use it to summarize a God who is so multi-dimensional.
The problem with the "God is love" heresy is that it turns God into a cardboard
cutout with only one level to Him. Look at this false God sidewise and you will
see there is nothing substantive behind it. Charles Spurgeon listed the
attributes of God as follows: eternal, faithful, foreknowing, good, holy,
immutable, impartial, incomprehensible, infinite, jealous, just, longsuffering,
love, mercy, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, righteous, self-existent,
self-sufficient, sovereign, transcendent, truth, wise and wrath. He is not one
without the others. To focus solely on one is purposefully ignore the others.
When discussing just one of these attributes Paul teaches Timothy:
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he
is. -- 2Timothy 2: 13 (NLT)
God cannot deny who He is one any of the attributes that make Him who He is. He cannot be faithful and not be jealous. He cannot be merciful and not be righteous. He cannot be love and not be wrath.
Did Jesus talk and teach about love? Absolutely -- in fact
His new commandment to us was that we love each other as He loved us. But what
was His principle message during the three years of His ministry? Repent for
the
Ok, let's take a good look at the love of God from the key
verse, which is the most popular Bible verse there is. I think the mistake we
often make when thinking about the love of God is we tend to humanize the love.
We tend to apply centuries of man-made distortions of love to God. There are
three different types of love in the Greek language. The first is called Philia
love which denotes brotherly love or the love of a friend (there is also the
word "Storge" which deals with familial love). It is why the city of
Now, is God our friend and the lover of our soul?
Absolutely, but the danger in focusing solely on this is that it changes the
true nature of who God is supposed to be in our lives. He is supposed to be our
Lord; meaning we are servants under Him. He is supposed to be our King; meaning
we have turned over our lives to His rule. He is supposed to be our Savior;
meaning we needed to be saved from something"there is that little word again --
sin. Agape love is the love God has for us beloved. Agape is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional
love. It is love as Paul describes in that famous part of Scripture that
everyone loves to read at their weddings and typically ignore in their
marriages. It is the type of love that is so unattainable in our flesh because
it is rooted in the character and attributes of God alone. Should we strive for
becoming like it? Absolutely as long as we realize that we will never perfect
it. We cannot love God as He loved us because God does not need a Savior -- but
we do. God never sins -- where we always do. That is at the heart of why we turn
so easily to the God is love theology. As long as we root it in Philia or Eros
love -- it brings God down to our level. It makes us feel better about our sin.
But if we keep the love of God at the agape level where it belongs then it
convicts us of our sin specifically because of the key verse.
Because God loved us so much, with an agape love, He sacrificed His one and only Son, so that we might have eternal life through Him. Without this sacrifice we would not have eternal life -- regardless of what theological cliff Rob Bell wishes to jump off next. Regardless of how we try and twist God into our next door neighbor, or our co-worker, or our high school sweetheart. We cannot possibly love God as He loved us. All we can do is accept His gift of love by recognizing it is only one facet of a multi-dimensional God. Instead of hiding behind the false sense of God's love to feel better about our sin; we need to embrace the agape love of God and allow it to sear our consciences about what caused Him to have to sacrifice His only son for us in the first place. That little word we never want to deal with -- sin.
Rev. Anthony
