He says, for instance, that eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3). Really? Doesn't Paul say everyone knows God (Rom 1:19-20). No, this isn't "knowledge of God," but an eternal relationship with God. Jesus says, "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:5). So much for Christ as a created being. But one is really startling.
"I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours." (John 17:9)Now, didn't Jesus say, "God so loved the world..."? Yet here Jesus is explicitly excluding the world in His prayer. He was asking for things for His followers but not the rest. That's because, while God surely loves the world in some sense, there is a special love for believers. In Paul's instructions to husbands, he tells them to "love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her" (Eph 5:25). Mind you, Christians are supposed to love everyone, even their enemies, so Christian husbands should love all women. This command to husbands, then, speaks of a special love of husband for wife that is not for all women. And Paul indicates that Christ had the same love for the church. In the same way, God has a special love for believers that is not extended to the world.
There are those who are universalists and would like us to believe that God loves everybody equally. Jesus disagreed. We should be awed by the fact that we, sinners to the core, have been chosen because we are especially loved by God (1 Thess 1:4). It is an amazing reality and we must not take it for granted.
2 comments:
The fact that God loves the world should be an astounding statement. By any typical human measure, He shouldn't. The fact that He loves His people in particular and specially should send us to our faces in praise and awe.
Who doesn’t love a love story? And this one is the greatest of them all--almost too good to be true!
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