The Love Gospel is a label for a theology that believes God’s love, in and of itself, provides eternal salvation for all of mankind, whether they want it or not – i.e., Universalism through Love. Emphasizing love, at the exclusion of other aspects of God’s nature and attributes, proponents of this theology put a love-spin on everything and portray love as a divine get out of jail free card, God’s supernatural emotion stipend, prompting the sound-bite “love wins.”
The Apostle John made the primary assertion that "God is love." “God" has the definite article and "love" is anarthrous; the predicate is expressing the quality, character, or nature of the article here. This means, God as to His nature is love, He has a nature that is loving. But God is not literally ‘Love”, God is not an emotion! John also states “God is spirit” (Jn. 4:24) using the same Greek grammatical construction; God has a nature that is spirit, not physical or visible. John also said God is light and in Him is no darkness at all: “Be holy, for I am holy”, “A just God and a Savior.” (Heb. 1:16; Is. 45:21) The Bible states categorically and unconditionally that God is holy; much of the N.T. is about the reconciliation of God's love and God's justice, a reflection of His holiness, which is found in the cross. God's holy demand for justice made the cross necessary, providing the opportunity for His love to be demonstrated. We simply cannot dissect God's nature and attributes; He is infinite in all of His perfections, holy in all His ways.
Jesus established the Great Commandment, encapsulating all of the Law and the Prophets, as the way to inherit eternal life: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:25, 27, 28) He then established obedience to His commandments as the demonstrated evidence of our love for Him, obedience to all His commandments, the new covenant (1 Jn. 5:2-3). If the truth is that God’s unilateral love provides a free ticket on the Love Train to eternity with Him, then we can ignore obedience, repentance, faith, loving God or others, and… well, pretty much everything, reducing the Bible, Edward Scissorhands style, down to a 3x5 card that says “He Loves Me.”
It would be most foolish to think God’s love for us would somehow override His command to holiness or His demand for justice. Blindness of this magnitude is motivated by man's desire to "help" God by tweaking His message into a “Cool" and "Relevant" love wins gospel where free will and our choices don’t matter. Ultimately, The Grace Gospel is repackaged cheap grace… or rather no grace at all since grace in not necessary if love empowers our salvation. Just bask in God’s love, satisfy the flesh, and be led by Self. But what about “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Gal. 6:7-8) We are all farmers, sowing daily that which we will eternally reap. The scriptures speak of a great falling away in the end times, and of deception that tempts the very elect. Deception is to be deceived, to believe what is false… what time is it, anyway?
LOVE LOSES WITHOUT OBEDIENCE
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