Who does God love? Does he hate anyone? Can a Holy God hate? What does the bible say and how can we reconcile our viewpoints with an inspired, inerrant scripture? First and foremost, I take the position that scripture is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, that it is breathed out by the Holy Spirit and that God has preserved His Word for our teaching and edification. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." I believe to discard the hard passages in scripture as figurative is to mischaracterize God (which is dangerous). God is all powerful, omniscient, and worthy of all praise and honor. We should strive to take His Word as the authority it is and avoid bringing our own preconceived notions and biases to our interpretation of scripture. I think a proper reverence for God is brought to light by not just overlooking places in scripture that are hard for us to handle.
The doctrine of election/predestination is hard, and yet it is scriptural, and while free will (in so much as we are able to choose to receive God's gift) is often viewed as an easier point of view, it is not biblical. We won't choose God, He elects us. Obviously we are able to make decisions for our lives, God does not control our every decision, but we are incapable of choosing God while an unrepentant sinner. Apart from God we are slaves to sin and our voluntary choices serve sin; we will never choose God. We are dead in sin, not just bound by sin, but literally dead spiritually. Dead men don't do anything, they can't. God must do all the work. A dead man is incapable of even receiving a gift. He must be made alive, and that is a result of God's work within a person's heart. From a human perspective we make that choice, but we only make that choice because God has already done a work in us. God uses the hearing of His word to effect that change in us, but He is doing all the work. It is only once we have been born again that God frees us from bondage to sin and we then have the freedom to choose righteousness.
Romans 8:7-8 "The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God." So how then do we who are governed by flesh please God by accepting His gift? It's not something we will do on our own. Your heart is hard toward God before He begets a work in you. He must call you, and it's an effectual call, something that cannot be refused. Matthew 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen.” John 6:44a "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." John 6:39 "And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day." And this is not to say that God doesn't call everyone to repentance. God wants His gospel message to be proclaimed to everyone, everywhere. But still, without God's choosing us, we will not turn to Him in repentance. First we must be unbound from our sin nature. Ephesians 1:4-5 "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will." Romans 8:29-30 "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." Romans 9:11-13 "though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
And while we're on the subject, God does hate the wicked, not just sin, but the sinner. Psalm 5:5-6: "The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest." This describes the sinner, not just the sin. But the bible also says God loves everyone. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." How can these passages be reconciled without distorting God's Word to meet our preconceived notions? Both of these passages are God breathed and true, but making sense of that can be hard. Clearly God does have a love for everyone, but it is not the same love He has for His children. God loves His creation, as a creator would, and His 'will of desire' is that all would be saved. As scripture says in Ezekiel 33:11 "Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" But God still punishes the wicked because they are in opposition to His holiness. God is holy, it is part of His divine nature, it is immutable. God casts those who are not reconciled to Him into hell. Matthew 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." In one sense they have earned this as the wages of their sin, but so has everyone. This is what I deserve, this is what you deserve, and this is what the whole world deserves as a result of their sin. So, since God loves everyone, why does anyone have to spend eternity in hell? Was I just slightly better than my neighbor because I opened my eyes and chose Jesus? No, He opened my eyes and chose me. Which is to say, He chose to LOVE me. He hates sin, and could have left us all to perish, but he choose to save some. God COULD save the whole world if it were His will. God is completely Sovereign and can turn the heart of any sinner to repentance. Proverbs 21:1 "In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him." Do not think that God is incapable of saving everyone. So why doesn't He? Romans 9:14-18 "What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills." God is not just a gentleman who won't impose His will; He chooses some and rejects some because of His glory. The passage continues, Romans 9:22-23 " What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." It is glorifying to God that the wicked be punished. And it is glorifying to God that His mercy be shown. Do not think you are doing God's character any favors by letting His love overshadow His holiness, both exist together.
I think one of the strongest versus used to support the idea of free will is Romans 10:9-10 "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." But it is God who changes the heart, those who are dead in their trespasses and sins are not able to change their own hearts. Ephesians 2:1-5 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved." YOU SEE, GOD MADE US ALIVE!
Or another verse used to advocate free will is Revelation 3:20 "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me," But, this is not contrary to the doctrine of election which is clearly outlined in scripture. The only ones that will respond to Christ's voice are his elect. John 10:27-28 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." And this verse also supports the perseverance of the saints as Christ will not loose any of His sheep.
And this is the take away, God is a God of MERCY and GRACE through which He shows us His abundant love. The love of God is immeasurable and undeserved. It can't be earned because all of my works are like filthy rags before Him. Therefore I can focus on God, not on what I can do for Him or whether I am performing up to a standard, but just focus on what He has done for me because of His great LOVE. And to best understand how great that love really is I think it is important that it is understood alongside his justice and wrath, which highlights how unmerited it is.
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