How Does God Love Unbelievers? (Part One)
He leads me …
God loves all people along with everything else that He has made, However, He does not love it all the same way. With humans, the best way to describe God’s love is to look at a human family. Parents love their children, but the way that the children are loved is specific to the child. If one misbehaves and is scolded, they may start to cry, but another child who is scolded for something similar, may turn around and argue with the parent about what they did wrong. Does the parent love one child less than the other? No. Does the parent stop wanting what is best for both children? No. But the way each child is treated will be different. God is the same with us.
God has a special love, and a special plan, which requires an ongoing relationship with all of humanity for Him to achieve it. Humans have been created in His image to enable this to happen –
· We all have a personality which is made up of knowledge, feelings, and a will. This makes us quite different from all animals and plants.
· We also possess morality, which means that we have a conscience and are able to make moral choices.
· We also have a spirit which is enables us to have a relationship with God.[1]
There are many biblical explanations that show that God shows His love by doing good things for the whole world. Most people have had instances in their lives when something special happened. They may have had a great idea that just popped into their head, or they ‘just knew’ that they had to contact someone who had some important news that they did not know about. For the unbeliever they would call these kinds of events good luck, but for the Christian they know that these things show God’s love in action.
A biblical example of God’s love can be found in Matthew 5:45 where Jesus gives two practical illustrations. The verse reads, ‘His sun shines on bad people and on good people. He sends rain on those who are right with God and on those who are not right with God’ (NLV). By God doing this, all mankind is able to enjoy the benefits from the sun and rain, while also showing believers that they should not just bless other Christians, but rather they should bless all mankind.
He also genuinely desires that all people would want to have a loving and eternal relationship with Him. We know this because Jesus said so in John 3:16 –
“For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (AMP)
We can see from this that God loves the whole world. There are no conditions or exceptions because God is love (Psalm 86:15; 136:26; Isaiah 54:10; Zephaniah 3:17; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 8:37-39; 1 John 4:7-8; 9-11). And because He created mankind with a spirit to have a relationship with Him, He enabled us to establish this relationship by asking Him to be Lord of our lives. The added bonus is that in a relationship with the Lord, He can work with us to develop our character and a good quality of life, while making us progressively more like Jesus.
Unfortunately a lot of people have chosen not to have a relationship with Him, and God has not forced them to change their minds. It has to be their decision. The Lord has no pleasure when the unashamed sinner dies, but while they live, He tenderly calls them to turn from their immoral ways, to accept Him as Lord of their life, and live free of sin. However if they do not turn to Him, He will hold them accountable for any sin that they have committed.
So the Lord now deals with humanity like the two children that we looked at earlier. The believer who is genuinely remorseful for their sin and wants the Lord to have control over their lives is treated one way, while the unbeliever is treated another. In both cases God still loves them. There is a good example of the Lord’s love shown in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). In the story the father loved both his sons. He loved the one who stayed as well as the one who strayed. But they were loved in the way they each needed to be loved, and both got what was rightfully theirs.
Is it any different if the unbeliever has never heard of Jesus? They are still accountable for their actions. As we saw earlier, everyone has a conscience and are therefore able to make moral choices. Here is what Romans 2:14-15 NLT says -
Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.
So if Fred sees something that he really likes, he does not steal it, because his conscience tells him not to. He knows that if someone took something of his without asking, he would be really upset. So therefore he does not do it to others. If, however, he does steal it, knowing that what he has done is wrong, he is accountable before God for that sin.
If the unbeliever says that there is no God, they still have no excuses for their sin. As Romans 1.20 (AMP) says –
For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense.
So what happens to the unbeliever when they die? A lot of both Christians and non-Christians would automatically respond that unbelievers go to Hell. Some would know it as the Lake of Fire, and there the soul of the unbeliever would remain forever.
The Bible says in Revelation 20:6, 14 and Revelation 21:8 that there is an event called ‘the second death.’ The first thing that happens is that there is what is called ‘the first resurrection,’ where all the believers join with Jesus Christ when He returns for His reign on Earth for 1,000 years. Those who are not believers end up facing the second death.
The three verses in Revelation read –
‘Blessed and holy are those who share in the First Resurrection. For them the Second Death holds no terrors … And Death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the Second Death … But cowards who turn back from following me, and those who are unfaithful to me, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those conversing with demons, and idol worshipers and all liars—their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur. This is the second death’ (TLB).
This is the traditional teaching that is generally accepted. However, more and more people generally are saying that this does not fit in with the rest of the New Testament which teaches that God is pure love.
We saw earlier that He makes the sun shine and the rain fail on all people as an example of His love being for everyone, and not just the believers. He also did this as an example for Christians to be a blessing to all people. So why is it that when an unbeliever dies, their soul is tormented in Hell forever? This does not appear to come from a God who is pure love. We will look at this further in the next blog.
Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John
[1] Does God Love Humanity More Than His Other Creations? David Guzik, Enduring Word, enduringword.com;