The Love of God with R. C. Sproul, “God’s Benevolent Love,” 7

The Three Kinds of Love in God’s Character

In our last session, we looked briefly at the popular idea of the unconditional love of God. And I expressed a serious warning about how easily that idea can be misunderstood by those who hear it. And I promised at that time to talk about a certain sense in which God's love is unconditional and that sense in which it isn't in this lecture today.

And we all understand that it's the woman's prerogative in this world to change her mind. And likewise, it's axiomatic that the theologian's prerogative is to make fine distinctions. And so what I want to do today is to distinguish among three specific kinds of love as it relates to the character of God.

And those three types of love that we distinguish may be defined as, first of all, the love of benevolence, secondly, the love of beneficence, and thirdly, the love of complacency. Now, I've found as I go out and about that very few Christians are aware of this historical distinction of these three types or categories of love.

And so I want to take some time today to define them and to see if we can find some biblical examples of each of these. But let's start, first of all, with God's love of benevolence. And, first of all, put it on the board.

God’s Benevolence and the Good Will of God

And we've heard this word, certainly, from time to time, and we can break it apart in terms of its linguistic roots. We have a prefix and a root. The prefix bene means good or well. We think of the benediction at the end of the service, which is really a good saying, where we're asking that God would treat people well in that final pronouncement.

And the word valence comes from the Latin volens, which means will or willing, and so literally what we have when we speak about benevolence is some kind of good will. And its antonym or its direct opposite would be malevolence, which is an evil will or an evil disposition that we, of course, never attribute to God.

And so the benevolence of God has to do with His good will toward people. Let me remind you of the heavenly announcement that is reported by Luke in the Christmas narrative, where with the appearance of the angels, we read in chapter 2 of Luke in the eighth verse, now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were greatly afraid. And then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Here we have the angelic announcement, the enunciation in this case of the birth of Jesus the Savior.

And then we read, Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men. Now we're all familiar with that verse, on earth peace, good will to men.

Other translations render it somewhat differently and say, peace on earth to men of good will. Because there is a grammatical ambiguity here which leaves open the question of whether that good will is an expression of God's good will towards us, or whether it is God's promise to people who are extending good will to one another.

I prefer the classical rendition of this that it has reference to the good will of God. And of course when we speak of the good will of God, we're being almost redundant. In fact, we are being redundant, because God doesn't have any other will except a good will.

We can assume that His will always manifests His character and His person, which is good. Now one of the things we've been trying to do throughout this series on the love of God is to see how the attribute of divine love relates to other attributes of God.

We've seen how that God's love is a holy love, it's an eternal love, it's a sovereign love, and so on. And now we see that His love is inseparably connected to His goodness. In John 3, 16, that famous verse, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and so on, which describes the will of God in sending His Son into the world.

And when God sent the Son into the world, this was not merely an expression of His will, but obviously it was an expression of His good will, that He was pleased to send His only begotten Son into the world.

Now sometimes we hear in descriptions of rulers, historically, of the so-called benevolent dictator. Some folks have taken the thought of a benevolent dictator as being an oxymoron, because the idea of a dictator we usually associate not with benevolence, but with malevolence, with somebody who is wicked or oppressive and tyrannical, and so on.

But we understand theoretically and even in history, there have been those who have risen to positions of power who have been kings, for example, or emperors, who manifested a goodwill toward their subjects.

And we find that ultimately, God, who is the supreme governor of heaven and earth, is one who has even higher authority than any earthly dictator, nevertheless, He rules and reigns by benevolence, by a goodwill.

Now I may also add to this the idea that when we speak of the benevolent love of God, we are talking, again, about His will and that dimension of His will that we call the will of disposition. And this describes God's basic posture or attitude towards His creatures.

Let me take a moment to look back into the pages of the Old Testament to a text that I think is important with respect to this issue, and I've already lost it, but I'll find it quickly enough, to the book of the prophet Ezekiel, to the 33rd chapter.

In Ezekiel 33, beginning at verse 10, we read these words,. Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel,. Thus you say, if our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, And we pine away in them, how can we then live?

Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, But that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn away from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?

I believe it was from this text that Francis Schaeffer borrowed the title for perhaps his most famous work, How Shall We Then Live? Because Ezekiel mentions that basic question here. But notice that in this particular verse, he says that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, because His basic attitude even to fallen mankind, even those who are exposed to His wrath, is a disposition of kindness, of well-being.

Now, we have to see that this particular statement about God's not taking any pleasure in the death of the wicked follows right upon an earlier statement that I'll call attention to in verse 7. Ezekiel says, So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them from me.

When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.

Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you've delivered your soul. Now, it's so important that we understand this, because some people, based on the principle of God's love of benevolence, have drawn from this idea the whole concept of universal salvation.

That is, if God is basically benevolent in his disposition to all mankind, and he loves benevolently all people, then obviously in the final analysis, no one will perish, no one will go to hell, because for God to send somebody to hell would be to be in violation of this characteristic of his being, namely his benevolence.

But here we see in Scripture just the opposite, that in this close conjunction between these two statements on the one hand, he warns the people of the consequences if they don't warn the impenitent wicked about turning from their sins, and then says if they are warned and they do not turn from their sins, then they will perish in their iniquity.

That despite the added qualification that we get from the book of Ezekiel, that God doesn't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. Nevertheless, though he doesn't enjoy it, as it were, he still decrees it.

And that is a point that we must remember, that even in his benevolence, God will never negotiate his righteousness or his own holiness, and he will still punish the wicked, despite his being in a disposition of goodwill toward them.

I like to think of it as a judge, for example, whose son is brought before him, who is guilty of grand larceny, and the case is heard in the court, and the judge knows that his son is guilty, and the jury brings in the verdict of guilty, and it is left to the judge to sentence the guilty party, because of what the law requires.

A just judge, in this circumstance, would impose a just penalty even on his own son, despite his personal concern, despite his personal love for that son, out of his own love for the law and for righteousness and justice, he will sentence his son to prison.

He may do it with tears, but nevertheless, because of his commitment to righteousness and to justice, the judge will do the right thing. And that we see in Scripture, with the dialogue that God had with Abraham, when Abraham sought to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, and complained that God might punish the innocent with the wicked, you know, it was finally Abraham came to his sentence and said, will not the judge of all of the earth do what is right?

And obviously, God in his judgment does what is right. He judges according to his righteousness, and this judgment is wrought even in his own spirit of benevolence toward a rebellious race of people. So his benevolence does not cancel his commitment to justice and to righteousness, as we have seen here in this text of Ezekiel.

Again, the idea is that God may punish the wicked, but he doesn't get his thrills, or he doesn't punish in a sense of glee. This is not the Marquis de Sade, this is the Lord God omnipotent, who in a certain sense is grieved by the consequences of human sin, even as he punishes them, so that his judgment never flows out of malevolence.

Ours may. We may seek judgment on the basis of an unjustifiable hatred or personal vendetta. God doesn't operate on those grounds, but rather he works according to his fundamental good will. Now, the second type of love that we're speaking of here is the love of beneficence.

God’s Beneficence, Common Grace, and Love for Enemies

And the only difference between benevolence and beneficence is the difference between willing and doing. The beneficence or the beneficent love of God has to do with his activity toward the creatures in this world, that his good actions flow out of his good will.

And what he does is that he pours out benefits, even to the impenitent, even to the ungodly in a multitude of ways. We run into this clearly in the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. First of all, let's look at Matthew chapter 5, verses 43 to 48, the end of chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus gives us this teaching where he says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Here Jesus is giving a transcendent ethic to the church.

When he stands in total opposition to the holocaust, which is the oral traditions of the rabbis, the way in which the rabbis had interpreted the great commandment in Deuteronomy that said, we are called to love our neighbors.

They added to that the idea, yes, love your neighbor, but you can hate your enemy. Jesus said, no, that's what you've heard from them. But I'm giving you a different perspective on the law, that not only are you called to love your neighbor, but you are called to love your enemy.

Now that perhaps is one of the most difficult mandates that we find or hear from Jesus in the New Testament. Because how in the world can we love somebody and despise them at the same time? How can we love somebody with whom we are estranged or at enmity?

Well, in the first instance, when Jesus speaks about love, he's not talking about feelings of affection. If you study the New Testament concept of love, you will see that it's much more often spoke in terms of its being a verb rather than a noun.

In our culture, love is almost always expressed in terms of being a noun, doing with a feeling, a feeling of romance, or a feeling of attraction, or a feeling of affection. Whereas in New Testament categories, what Jesus is talking about here is the love of beneficence, that we are called to love even our enemies with this kind of love, and it has to do with actions.

It has to do with what we do. Now listen to what he says. Love your enemies, that is, bless the ones who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

Why? That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Jesus is calling us to imitate the love of God, because this is what God does. He has a whole world that rises up in hatred against him, a world that curses him.

And while the world is cursing God, God is blessing them. While he is being treated with spite, God is pouring out his benefits and goodness to the wicked. While they are doing evil to one another and to God, God is doing good to them.

And he said, and so we are told by Jesus to behave in the same manner. Why? That we may be sons of our Father in heaven, because this is how God behaves, and he goes on and illustrates this further by an allusion to God's providence, by which his sun shines on the good and on the bad.

His rain comes on the wicked as well as the righteous, and the crops of the unjust man are watered by the rain, just as the crops of the just man are watered by the rain. And this we call in theology God's common grace, as distinguished from his saving grace, which we call his special grace, which is uncommon.

But common grace is that mercy that God gives to everybody indiscriminately. The rain, the air, food, shelter, and all of those things which manifest his beneficence. Now, I need to say one thing to qualify that, that in the final analysis, all of the beneficence of God ultimately results in greater judgment for the wicked, because one of the expressions of our sinfulness is a refusal to be grateful.

And every time God gives a human being a benefit from his mercy and from his grace, and that person has no response of gratitude, that person now adds to their guilt and their sinfulness towards God. The more blessings that we receive from his hand, for which we are ungrateful, the more we are doing what the Apostle Paul warns against, piling up or heaping up wrath against the day of wrath.

So that the very benefits and blessings that God gives to the impenitent person in the final analysis become tragedies, because of the human response to the good actions and love of God. Now, in our next session, I'll see the third aspect of God's love, his love of complacency, which is perhaps the most important aspect of that love.