“Does God love all humanity, every single person?”
“Does God love all humanity, every single person?” My natural inclination right off the bat is to say, “Yes. Yes, God loves all humanity, every single person.”
But we do not want what I want to think but we want to look at what the Bible says and wrestle with its teaching. So, what does the Bible say?
This may be a harder question than it would first appear. This is because this question is never explicitly asked in Scripture and thus is never explicitly answered. It is difficult because we are vying for certain answers. We so often want to make God like ourselves (Ps. 50:21). It is also a difficult question because the Bible seems to teach that God at the same time loves the whole world and yet hates all the rebellious.
In Scripture, we see that God has made man in His image (Gen. 1:26-27), so in as much as each person still reflects God’s image, God, I believe, loves that aspect of them.
In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus tells His disciples to love their enemies and gives God the Father as an example. God “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew, in this passage says that He does this in love.
God, therefore, clearly has this kind of love for all humanity. He is the example that we are to imitate. We are to “love our enemies” in imitation of God Himself. Thus, I conclude, yes, God does love all humanity, every single person. In a similar way, Psalm 145 says, “The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made” (Ps. 145:9).
Yet, the Bible also says that God hates all workers of iniquity (see for example Ps. 5:5; 11:5b-6; Rom. 1:18ff; Jn. 3:36). As we look at this question, it is important to remember that the LORD is God and He is good even if we cannot understand His ways. We must remember that although God has revealed Himself and we can truly know Him yet we cannot exhaustively grasp Him.
On what day did Jesus die?
First, I encourage you to read Matthew’s account in the Gospel of Matthew. It will be helpful to read since it’s the longest (Matt. 27:24-62).
In Matthew’s account we see that Jesus dies (v. 45-56) and then Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate for permission to bury Jesus’ body (Matt. 27:57-61). Joseph did this on the Preparation Day, that is, on Friday, the day before Saturday which is the Sabbath.[1] It was very important that Jesus’ body not stay on the cross on the Sabbath because then the land would be defiled (Jn. 19:31).[2] So, Jesus died on Friday because He was taken off the cross before the Sabbath.
The next day, that is on Saturday,[3] “the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while He was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise’” (v. 62). And then they asked for guards and so Pilate granted their request and gave them guards.
Is there a basis for Human Rights?
“The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe. When a man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil, there is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil which is in man. The communist torturers often said, ‘There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.’ I heard one torturer say, ‘I thank God, in whom I do not believe, that I lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.’ He expressed it in unbelievable brutality and torture inflicted on prisoners.”[3]
How Can We Know God’s Will?
On the Frequency of the Lord’s Supper
There are a variety of practices regarding the frequency of the Lord’s Supper. Some celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sunday and others only once a year. The Westminster Directory of Public Worship says “The communion, or supper of the Lord, is frequently to be celebrated; but how often, may be considered and determined by the ministers… of each congregation, as they shall find most convenient for their charge.” I agree that the Lord’s Supper is to be frequently celebrated and I appreciate the leeway that the Directory acknowledges.
With that being said, I think it’s ideal that the Lord’s Supper be celebrated every Sunday.[1] There is no command in Scripture for this but it seems from my reading of Scripture to be the practice of the early church (see Act 2:42, 46; 20:7; 1 Cor. 10:14ff; 11). It is also a vital element of the gathered worship of the church and is a picture of the gospel so I think we would be wise to include it in the gathered worship of the church every Lord’s Day.
Notice that in Acts 2:42, it says “the bread” (the definite article in Greek precedes the noun bread) and so this seems to refer to more than just eating together. It should also be noted that “breaking of the bread” is listed along with other practices that were common or characteristic of the early church.[2] Also, upon studying 1 Corinthians 11 my understanding of the text is that Paul expected that the Corinthians were and should partake of the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day. But they should do it in a worthy manner.
What did Jesus accomplish on the Cross?
Jesus purchased His people (Jn. 6:36, 39; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). He showed God’s amazing love (Jn. 3:16; 15:13; 1 Jn. 3:16). He brought justification to all who would place their faith in Him (Rom. 5:18) by dying for their sins, in their place (1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Is. 53). He absorbed the wrath of God (1 Jn. 2:2). He became sin and made all who trust in Him the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). He canceled debt (Col. 2:14). He brought reconciliation (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20-22). He defeated Satan, sin, and death and brought victory (Gen. 2:15; 1 Cor. 15; Col. 2:11-15; Heb. 2:14; Is. 53).
Jesus knew no sin, yet He became sin. We see the idea of someone bearing sin in the place of others attested to in both the Old Testament and New Testament (cf. Lev. 10:17; 16:21-22; Is. 53:6, 11-12; Jn. 1:29). Jesus is the Lamb without blemish that takes away our sin by dying in our place but He also rises; priest and lamb are not His only office. Jesus is also the coming King who reigns eternally. Consequently, the salvation that Christ brings through His work on the cross brings not only appeasement from wrath but also entrance back into the true Promised Land, the Garden of Eden. So, “the gospel is the good news of the Kingdom through the cross,” as Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert say. The New City Catechism says, “Christ’s death is the beginning of the redemption and renewal of every part of fallen creation, as he powerfully directs all things for his own glory and creation’s good” (Q. 26).
Christ’s work and resurrection propels on this world new creation (cf. Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:20; Col. 1:18), it is the inevitable avalanche that will eventually encompass the whole earth (Ps. 72:19; Is. 11:9; Hab. 2:14) and those in Christ will be swallowed up in the effulgence of its glory, there to bask in eternal joy. Christ’s work on the cross and resurrection is the dawn, the first light, but soon the full splendor of the sun.
What is Expository Preaching?
What is expository preaching? What are the duties of the pastor and the role of the congregation?
Expositional preaching has three main characteristics. First, the passaged that is preached on is a single passage rather than various passages put together. Second, the main point or theme of the sermon is derived from the theme or main point of the passage. That is, expositional preaching seeks to exposit the text that is preached. Third, expositional preaching is typically lectio continua—that is, it is preaching that consecutively works through passages of Scripture in their biblical context.[1]
Here are two of my favorite definitions:
“Expository preaching is that mode of Christian preaching that takes as its central purpose the presentation and application of the text of the Bible. All other concerns are subordinated to the central task of presenting the biblical text. As the Word of God, the text of Scripture has the right to establish both the substance and the structure of the sermon. Genuine exposition takes place when the preacher sets forth the meaning and message of the biblical text and makes clear how the Word of God establishes the identity and worldview of the church as the people of God” (R. Albert Mohler Jr., He is Not Silent: Preaching in a Post-Modern World, 65).
“To expound Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and it expose it to view. The expositor pries open what appears to be closed, makes plain what is obscure, unravels what is knotted and unfolds what is tightly packed. The opposite of exposition is ‘imposition,’ which is to impose on the text what is not there. But the ‘text’ in question could be a verse, or a sentence, or even a single word. It could equally be a paragraph, or a chapter, or even a whole book. The size of the text is immaterial, so long as it is biblical. What matters is what we do with it. Whether long or short, our responsibility as expositors is to open it up in such a way that it speaks its message clearly, plainly, accurately, relevantly, without addition, subtraction or falsification” (John Stott, Between Two World, 125-26).
