What Is God’s Love?

God’s love is one of his attributes. Each attribute is who God is. God’s attributes describe him. He is not composed of his attributes as different parts that come together to make him. God is God’s love. That God is his attributes is one aspect of God’s simplicity. God is love. He is mercy, righteousness, and the rest of his attributes. Therefore, when considering God’s love, we can look at his other attributes to help describe his love. God’s love has the aspects of eternity, sovereignty, aseity, immutability, and graciousness.

God’s love has its roots in eternity. Christ is the Lamb slain before the worlds were made. For the sake of Christ, in eternity God chose his elect unto salvation. Jesus prayed, “Father…thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:24, 26). Out of the Father’s love for his Son, God loved us and chose us unto salvation. We have become beloved from eternal election. “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God” (1 Thess. 1:4).

God’s love is sovereign. God’s sovereign love stretches through all time and has all the power to accomplish its work. The work of God’s sovereign love was to send Jesus to accomplish our salvation. That work has been accomplished out of the sovereign power of the almighty God.

There is also the aseity of God’s love, which means that God and his love are wholly independent of the receiver and are perfectly self-sufficient.

God’s love is immutable. It is unchanging. God loves his people from eternity to their glorification unto all eternity. God’s love does not stop during their lifetimes. If God were ever to stop loving his elect, he would not be God. God’s love for his people is his will to save elect sinners.

And God’s love is gracious. God’s love is free, as Hosea 14:4 teaches: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” Nothing is required by God to gain his love. His love is graciously given. God’s love is salvation by grace alone.

The Protestant Reformed Churches’ Improper Understanding of the Love of God

The Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) do not faithfully confess the immutable love of God.

God may have elected you. Christ may have paid for your sins. But if you do not confess your sins, God will change. He will look not at Christ’s work but at the works of man. An unrepentant, elect sinner will suffer the wrath of God. Prof. Russell J. Dykstra recently preached the following in a preparatory sermon:

When we do not confess and forsake sin, if we cover our sins and continue in them, the heavy hand of God’s wrath comes upon us. Psalm 32:3–4: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” It wasn’t until he [David] acknowledged his sin, confessed his guilt, that he received mercy.

Failure to confess, failure to forsake, not only brings God’s heavy hand upon us, but it says to you and me, as we read in the form tonight, “Do not come to the table of the Lord.” You will not receive in the Lord’s supper God’s assurance of love and mercy for you. You will not experience that if you do not confess. If you do not forsake your sins, you will experience God’s judgment— his judgment. Of course, for an unbelieving man, for a reprobate man, that’s obvious, but you understand that can happen to us. If we do not confess, if we do not forsake, and think, “Ah, I can come to the Lord’s table,” there is a judgment, a terrible judgment. Do not come.¹

How terrible! How frightening for the child of God. God’s wrath will be pressed upon you for your sins. The work of Christ and Christ himself, who took all of God’s wrath, are cast out. Professor Dykstra has taken the believer from rest in Christ and has thrown the believer into despair. How can you know if your repentance is enough? What if you missed a sin? What about the sins you do not even know that you have committed? You cannot attend the Lord’s table if you have not repented well enough. Christ is not enough to bring you to his table.

The text that Professor Dykstra used to defend the lie was Psalm 32:3–4, which he explained this way: “It wasn’t until he [David] acknowledged his sin, confessed his guilt, that he received mercy.” However, this is not the church’s understanding of Psalm 32. Paul in Romans 4:4–8 quotes Psalm 32:

4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

7. Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

We have the mercy of God and the forgiveness of sins without works.

And John Calvin wrote in his commentary on Romans 4:6 thus:

Dissipated also, in like manner, by the words of the Prophet, are the puerile fancies of the schoolmen respecting half remission. Their childish fiction is,—that though the fault is remitted, the punishment is still retained by God. But the Prophet not only declares that our sins are covered, that is, removed from the presence of God; but also adds, that they are not imputed. How can it be consistent, that God should punish those sins which he does not impute? Safe then does this most glorious declaration remain to us—“That he is justified by faith, who is cleared before God by a gratuitous remission of his sins.” We may also hence learn, the unceasing perpetuity of gratuitous righteousness through life: for when David, being wearied with the continual anguish of his own conscience, gave utterance to this declaration, he no doubt spoke according to his own experience; and he had now served God for many years. He then had found by experience, after having made great advances, that all are miserable when summoned before God’s tribunal; and he made this avowal, that there is no other way of obtaining blessedness, except the Lord receives us into favour by not imputing our sins. Thus fully refuted also is the romance of those who dream, that the righteousness of faith is but initial, and that the faithful afterwards retain by works the possession of that righteousness which they had first attained by no merits.²

Calvin gave an amazing explanation of Psalm 32. David’s anguish, his bones’ waxing old, was from the knowledge of his sins and misery, not from God’s punishment. God will no longer punish you for your sins. The only way to God’s mercy is through Christ. Professor Dykstra has made Psalm 32 to be centered on man and his work. He has taken away the basis of forgiveness—Christ, the vine—and made forgiveness dependent on the work of man, the branch. Christ, the vine, is not enough.

At the February 2024 meeting of the Protestant Reformed Classis East, the doctrine that Calvin had said is “fully refuted” was added to the doctrine of the PRC. The issue before the classis was Rev. K. Koole’s use of the following quotation of Herman Witsius:

We must accurately distinguish between a right to life and the possession of life. The former must be assigned to the obedience of Christ, that all the values of our holiness may be entirely excluded. But certainly, our works, or rather these, which the Spirit of Christ worketh in us, and by us, contribute something to the latter.³

This quotation was not condemned, and the classis judged that Reverend Koole’s explanation and use of this quotation did not contradict scripture and the confessions. But this quotation is almost word for word what Calvin refuted:

The romance of those who dream, that the righteousness of faith is but initial, and that the faithful afterwards retain by works the possession of that righteousness which they had first attained by no merits.

The PRC has puerile fancies of forgiveness in two parts: the payment and the experience. One has the right to forgiveness by Christ alone, but the possession of his forgiveness is in the way of his holy living. The new doctrine that the PRC holds to creates a distinction that makes justification to be of grace and works. The PRC mixes grace and works. This doctrine means one of two things for a person. One who is proud will look to his works to find comfort in them. He will think that he can fulfill the demands of God’s perfection or that God does not require perfect works. Another will be in despair, knowing that God’s justice cannot be satisfied by his own filthy rags.

Christ has already taken our sins and their punishment and put them on his account. He has borne the full wrath of God, so that we never will experience the wrath of God. God’s wrath is not upon us for our sins, whether we have repented or have not repented. Belgic Confession article 21 says about Jesus Christ,

He hath presented Himself in our behalf before the Father to appease His wrath by His full satisfaction, by offering Himself on the tree of the cross and pouring out His precious blood to purge away our sins…

Neither is it necessary to seek or invent any other means of being reconciled to God than this only sacrifice, once offered, by which believers are made perfect forever. (Confessions and Church Order, 47–49)

To put our confessions of sin before God’s blessings makes Christ’s death insufficient, and it makes Christ an incomplete savior. It also takes away from the aseity of God’s love. God is not dependent on man in any sense. Yet, we must repent before God’s wrath is appeased? Does an independent God wait on that repentance in any sense? By no means. Christ is our complete savior in every part of salvation, imputing to us his own perfect obedience from eternity and freely giving to us all the blessings of salvation. Christ is enough to bring us to the Lord’s table.

Repentance and the confession of the sinner are fruits. God’s love works in the sinner. God’s loving hand gently bends the will of man toward repentance. The Spirit works a hatred for sin in our hearts. He bestows upon us the amazing knowledge of Christ’s work, and we repent as a result. God’s love gifted us that repentance.

Grace or Work?

Rev. Gerrit Vos wrote a meditation in the May 15, 1953, issue of the Standard Bearer, explaining God’s unchanging love. Vos wrote this during the conditional covenant controversy in the PRC in opposition to Rev. Hubert De Wolf’s teaching that there are certain prerequisites that one must fulfill to consciously experience his salvation. I quote from Vos’ meditation at length here:

What do you desire? To be saved by grace or by works?

That is the question. Shakespeare would say: To be or not to be, that is the question. And it fits here too. To be or not to be in the arms of God unto all eternity. Tremendous question.

There are those that want to be saved by works. Foolish? Yes. Stupid? Yes. Proud? Yes. Offending to God? Yes.

Did any attain unto salvation by the works of the law? No, not one.

Did the Pelagians learn that lesson through the ages? No, they did not. It is an error that is as old as the sinner. Cain is the first Pelagian. He cast a disdainful look at weeping, sobbing Abel, as that righteous man gathered his sticks of wood for the altar, after killing the lamb of God, and went to work: he was going to be saved by his own toil. He brought the sacrifice of the labors of his hand: the fruits of the field. Foolish, stupid, proud, impossible, and an offense to God. But he brought it.

Did he learn the lesson? Even after he killed the correct worshipper? No. Did he learn the lesson after God took him to task and set a sign on the crooked worshipper? No.

Did his corrupt stock learn that lesson? No. They continued the impossible task.

Brethren, that is bad! Very bad.

But it is not the worst you can do.

You do worse when you mix work and grace.

Nebuchadnezzar had the oven made seven times hotter because of the challenging answer of the three children. Why? Because he was very angry. I assure you that God hates the mixer of grace and work much more than the blunt Pelagian.

When you work with all your might to lay hold of salvation, and really hate grace, but when you nevertheless prate about grace no end, you are a double offense to God.

It is either or: grace or work!

Do not mix them. This mixture is a fire that burns and evokes great indignation with God.

Grace or work.

Either the one or the other.

What is salvation by grace?

It is this: God loved you before the world was made. Sovereignly, lovingly, He saw you and willed you and determined you, and said within Himself: on you I will look with favor from this eternity to that eternity. I love you now while I am dwelling in eternity. All the dynamo of My Being is set on you in sweetest love.

I am going to love you when you stand before Me in Paradise, where all things around you testify of that love and will help you to love Me.

And I am going to love you when you shall have become wicked and when you shall smite Me in the Face. I will still go on loving you.

I am going to love you when I will come to you and will stand before you in the Face of My Anointed Son. And I will speak and sing to you of this My everlasting love.

I am going to love you when you shall hate Me and despise Me and turn your back upon Me. I will never cease loving you no matter how wicked you shall have become.

I am going to love you when I shall hear your voice, cursing and swearing and calling upon Me in heaven to witness to the fact that you will have none of Me. Even then I will still love you.

And then you shall tear at Me and beat Me and crucify Me and kill Me, but My love is eternal, and I will still go on loving you.

And then I shall prove My everlasting and beautiful love, because I will actually die for you, the wicked sinner!

But My love is so great and so beautiful and so strong that death shall not be able to hold me in its cruel cords: I shall awake in the garden of Joseph.

And then I shall stand before you, and I will say to you: Do you love Me?

And you? There shall be a blush of shame on your cheeks, and you will stammer: Yes, Lord, Thou knowest all things: Thou knowest that I love Thee!

And I will say: Of course, you love Me! I know it. It was I that placed that love in your breast.

Listen, My dear people, I will save you from yourselves, from sin, from guilt, from death, from the curse, from hell, from damnation, from the devil, from the wicked, from the earth, and I will give you My own virtues: I will make you beautiful and spotless as the angels in heaven, no, more beautiful than they: the greater is served by the lesser. You shall exceed in beauty the holy angels of God.

And I will write My new name on your heart, your forehead. And you shall be called The Beautiful!

And I will recreate a new Heaven and a new earth so that you may have a new dwelling place forever and ever.

And I will come and dwell among you and be a Father unto you and you shall be My sons and daughters.

And your peace shall flow like a river.

And great shall be the peace of your children.

And all this love I will spread abroad in your hearts, while you are walking in the valley of the shadow of death. And that love shall burn in you and shall quicken you, and you shall begin to sing with breaking voice, and you shall look up to Me at times and you shall say, weeping as you go, Abba, beloved Father! I shall continue to spread love in your heart, and faith and hope, and you shall work for the night is coming. You shall notice in your heart, in your inmost heart, that you want to be pleasing unto Me, and you will needs work, but you shall weep again, and say with burning eyes, at night, when all is black: O my wonderful God: to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not!

And then I will show you the nature of My everlasting love, and I will say: I forgive you all your good works! Fret no more, and worry no more! Did you not hear Me say: It is finished!?

My child, My beloved child: you are saved by grace!⁴

Results of God’s Love

How beautiful it is to be saved by grace! We live our lives in this world of sin and misery. We are depraved in our sinful natures, yet God still loves us. He accomplishes the purpose of his love. He saves his people from their misery and causes them to know their salvation. God’s love graciously saves us. God’s immutable love does not change, no matter the sins into which we fall. God’s love does not react to our sins or to our works. He does not love some of his elect children more or less than others. God gives his complete love to his children. We find comfort in knowing that we are loved. We are loved in eternity. We are loved when we sin. We are loved when we love God. We do not need to worry about losing that love by falling short in our good works or our repentance. We experience that love entirely by grace alone.

We are brought into the covenant family where God loves us and we love him. God’s love consists of friendship and fellowship within himself. That love is mirrored in the fellowship and friendship of the covenant that he has made with us. The covenant and love are inseparable. Through God’s love alone we have fellowship and friendship with our Father, glorious fellowship that erupts from the grace of God alone. Through God’s love we are also given the blessings of that covenant. Those blessings of salvation are all of God and his immutable, omnipotent love. We are part of that covenant through Christ, the mediator. He is the beloved. He is the head of the body, the church. We are part of the Son, who receives the Father’s infinite love.

On this earth we still go through trials. Our trials in this life are not punishments for our sins. It used to be my understanding when going through difficult times in life that God was putting evils in my life or that he was angry with me for unrepentant sins or for the sins I was committing. This is not the case. God’s love does not falter when we sin. God and his love do not change. When God looks upon us, he sees us as righteous and holy through Christ’s blood. This is the confession of Belgic Confession article 23:

Therefore we always hold fast this foundation, ascribing all the glory to God, humbling ourselves before Him, and acknowledging ourselves to be such as we really are, without presuming to trust in any thing in ourselves, or in any merit of ours, relying and resting upon the obedience of Christ crucified alone, which becomes ours when we believe in Him. This is sufficient to cover all our iniquities, and to give us confidence in approaching to God; freeing the conscience of fear, terror, and dread. (Confessions and Church Order, 51–52)

Jesus Christ has justified us and sanctified us at the cross. Our sins are forgiven. We are righteous. We do not need to worry if we have done enough. Our sins have been fully paid for. Nothing more is required of us; no punishment for our sins is put on us. Christ in his love has gone through all the just judgment for our sins. Christ has conquered all the power of the devil. The devil has no power to work evils in our lives. God so loves us that even the sufferings we go through here on earth work toward our salvation. We have forgiveness in every sense. We have confidence that God does not hate us. We do not need to fear his wrath. We rest entirely on Christ.

Our Calling

Out of thankfulness for God’s love for us, we will live according to God’s law. The summary of the law is given in Matthew 22:37–39:

37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38. This is the first and great commandment.

39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

We love God, and we are also called to love our neighbors. Our neighbors are the people in our lives with whom we cross paths, mostly our family, friends, and church community. When we love our neighbors, we desire the salvation of their souls. What greater love is there than to want them to understand the glorious gospel message of what God has done for his elect? When we love our neighbors, we want them to experience the love of God like we do.

The pure preaching of the gospel is only preached in a true church. If your neighbor is a member of a church that holds to false doctrine, you must tell him. Out of love, you condemn the heresies promoted in that church. A common belief in the church world today is that love is to tolerate differences in doctrine and that simply confessing Christ is the basis for unity. Many say that it is hateful to live antithetically, to draw a sword against those who promote doctrines not found in God’s word and the confessions, and to tell them that they are sinning by staying in a church that preaches grace and works for salvation. The truth is that it is love, a love that comes only because God has first loved us.

You may say it is hateful for me to bring in Professor Dykstra or to condemn what he teaches, especially when I am no longer part of the Protestant Reformed Churches. But that is my calling and the calling of all those who have loved ones worshiping in the PRC. Christ is very clear in Matthew 10:34: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Jesus tells us that the truth has no peace with unrighteousness, with those who are against his truth of salvation by grace alone. We must put down the lie and defend Christ and his truth. Even after three years, we must still wield the sword. Out of God’s love, I hope and pray for the repentance of Professor Dykstra. We want those in the PRC to realize the apostasy of their denomination—a denomination that prates about grace to no end but really teaches a mixture of grace and works for salvation, a double offense to God! We must hate that doctrine and warn against it. Thus in love for our neighbors, we pray for their repentance and keep drawn the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.