Book Interaction: The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God

Carson’s The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (2000) may be slim in the number of pages (88 pages including end notes), but it is packed full of helpful insight on the neglected and often confused subject of the love of God. Carson begins by describing the cultural factors such as naturalism and pluralism and the accompanying sentimentalism and syncretism that make understanding the biblical doctrine of the love of God difficult. He also acknowledges the ever-present difficulty of reconciling the love of God and the sovereignty of God especially in light of terrible tragedies that mar human history. With this foundational work in place, Carson identifies five categories to describe the way “the love of God” is used in the Bible including (1) Father for Son, and Son for Father, (2) God’s providential love for all creation, (3) God’s salvific stance toward a fallen world, (4) God’s particular love for the elect, and (5) God’s conditional love based on obedience. Ignoring or confusing these categories in biblical interpretation leads to a skewed view of the love of God. After a chapter on methodology in which Carson calls for approaching “texts in contexts” rather than focusing on a particular word group (Carson, 30), he carefully nuances his understanding of God’s sovereignty and wrath in relationship to God’s love.

In our culture infatuated with self-image and self-esteem, we are frequently told that the best thing that we can do for ourselves is to love our self and/or forgive our self. Other people are to love us by accepting us as we are. Carson’s work powerfully rebukes both of these notions by teaching that the best thing that God can do for you is not to love you “as you are.” God does not love you “as you are” as if His love is dependent on you, the object of His love. The love of God emanates from His character, His nature, His existence. His love is no more dependent on you than is His holiness, omniscience, or eternality. He is the center of this reality, not you and me! In Carson’s words, “his love…wells up amidst his perfections and is not generated by the loveliness of the loved” (Carson, 69).

We cannot rightly see God’s love until we dispense with our culture’s conception of love, which is self-focused and leads to the glorification of self-expression as the new moral absolute. Our culture’s view of the “love of God” is sentimental drabble meant to soothe guilty consciences, or outright heresy that should be called by its correct name and then condemned, “universalism.” By contrast, the love of God may be difficult to grasp intellectually, but when one is grasped by the love of God, responding in loving obedience to Him makes perfect sense as the true moral absolute for all humanity.