IS GOD'S LOVE UNCONDITIONAL?

IS GOD’S LOVE UNCONDITIONAL? 
It’s misleading to call God’s love unconditional. From the very beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, there were conditions to remain in His favor. In Genesis 2:16-17 God told them “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” The relationship that existed between God and Adam and Eve had a condition placed upon it, and, of course, we all know how that worked out. All the promises of God have conditions attached, and in this sense, it’s misleading to call God’s love "unconditional."
God's divine forgiveness is NOT unconditional; our salvation is conditional on repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. The first command of Jesus recorded in Mark's gospel is "repent and believe". Those are conditions. That is, we must humble ourselves before God in prayer, acknowledge we are a sinner in need of a Savior and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, with a faith that obeys His commandments. If we do not meet the conditions to repent and believe, He does not forgive, and without forgiveness there is no salvation.
Try as you might, you will not find the phrase "unconditional love" in Scripture, nor will you find the concept of “unconditional love” within the writings of the Church Fathers, nor will you find any other Christian author who used that term before the 20th century. Of the more than 800 instances of "love" in the Bible, none states or even implies that God's love is unconditional. God’s love is conditional on our keeping Jesus' commandments. Jesus said "IF you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
Unconditional means ‘without conditions or limits.’ God's love is not 'unconditional' in any sense. The term unconditional love is a humanistic psychological term and not found in the Bible. For love to be unconditional it would require there be no moral judgement or expectation of something in return. Unconditional love is the acceptance of a person without him or her meeting any conditions, but this is quite contrary to the revealed Word of God, yet this is the greatest popular myth coming from the pulpits of Christian preachers and teachers today. It’s true that salvation is offered without conditions in the sense it is offered freely, and not based on our human merit or worth, but on God’s undeserved goodness and mercy. But His divine forgiveness is NOT unconditional: Scripture makes it crystal clear that salvation is conditioned on faith and obedience. Hebrews 5:9 says that Jesus "became the author of eternal salvation to all who OBEY him."
No matter what Bible translation you use, you’ll discover that God’s love is conditional, but we have to be aware that the enemy will work hard to redefine and misrepresent God’s love. Many today are diluting God’s Word for the sake of loving others, mistakenly thinking they’re reflecting the love of God.
Ironically, far from ‘unconditional love’ being a Biblical term it was actually coined in 1934 by Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst. Fromm was an atheist who rejected all forms of authoritarian government including God's, taught an unbiblical self-love, and argued strenuously against Christian faith. When this false love gospel made its debut in America in the 1960’s with the LSD-using hippies and flower children, it was condemned by preachers everywhere, and rightly so.
The "Unconditional Love Gospel" perverts God's Word by twisting scripture to suit an agenda. Pastors and teachers who propound this gospel of false love notice that people like them much more when they don’t talk about God’s law, sin, guilt and repentance. So, they remove these topics from their sermons and fixate on the idea that ‘God is love’ to the exclusion of His other attributes. This not only improves their popularity but generates substantial financial gain.
Prominent preachers and teachers have introduced the false doctrine of unconditional love into contemporary Christianity. The love that’s being preached today sounds to me like the over-indulgence of a doting grandparent instead of the vigorous concern of a Father for the best interests of His children. They’ve exaggerated the sentiment that "God is love" until His love has become an ooey, gooey, sickeningly sweet cliché. This corrupted doctrine ignores the other attributes of God's character, gives us a false view of God's temporary mercy towards the unrepentant, and takes away the fear of God's wrath.
Biblical love demands that we preach the truth– what people need to hear, rather than what they want to hear. Most people today have no desire to hear the truth, because they DON'T love the truth. When you tell them the truth, they become angry, defensive and argumentative because it doesn’t fit their preconceived ideas and opinions; often, it doesn’t fit their lifestyle. This is really no different than what happened in the Book of Acts when Jesus’ disciples preached the truth. Mobs of angry people wanted to tear them to pieces, and many were beaten and martyred. But genuine love compels us to preach and teach the truth of God’s word even when it endangers our lives.
Liberal churches are preaching love without truth which is blind sentimentality empty of real love. All the love in the world means nothing if you don’t have the truth. Love without truth is a distorted view of love that leaves us in denial about our own sins; it’s self-serving and hypocritical. Conservative churches are preaching truth without love: Truth without love is harsh, judgmental and self-righteous. (An example is Westboro Baptist Church who shoves hate filled signs in the faces of unbelievers.) Truth and love are inseparable!
Romans 6:23 NIV says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God loves people unconditionally in the sense He has provided a remedy for our breaking His righteous laws. But unless we repent and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we cannot be reconciled to God and receive the gift of eternal life. God does not offer forgiveness and eternal life apart from faith and repentance. That’s called a condition.
To say that God loves us with an unconditional love creates false ideas about forgiveness. If God were to love unconditionally, He would be compelled to forgive unconditionally. Unconditional love would require that God forgive the criminal, the pervert, the degenerate, and the reprobate without need for repentance, otherwise His love would not be unconditional.
This false teaching of God’s ‘unconditional’ love leaves a person believing that even if they live an unrepentant, willful, sinful lifestyle after being saved God will forgive them. After all, isn't His love unconditional? But Scripture plainly tells us without repentance there is no forgiveness. Repentance is a condition we must meet in order to receive forgiveness for our sins. And Jesus says that sins against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. Whatever happened to God’s unconditional love?
If God's love were unconditional then why did he destroy the people of Noah's day in a global flood?
If God’s love were unconditional then why did He need His Son Jesus to die on the cross; it would have been unnecessary.
The Bible teaches us that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” Why would anyone fear God if His love is unconditional? If God loved us unconditionally, there would be no reason for anyone to fear God. Sadly, our generation doesn’t know or comprehend the things that anger God. We have been force-fed the doctrines of unconditional love and self-esteem for so long that most people don't really view themselves as sinner’s worthy of divine wrath.
God’s love, agape love, is to pay attention to someone’s need and do something to meet that need. God’s agape love is the kind of love that dies on behalf of those who have no legal right to exist, but God’s love is not corrupted human sentimentality that enables us in our sins and overlooks our transgressions.
If God's love were unconditional, then everybody would be saved, since they would not have to meet any conditions. We would end up with universalism. But Jesus said: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him…” (John 14:23). Jesus clearly says if you love Him and keep His commandments, God will reciprocate that love. God’s acceptance and approval - His love - is conditional. We must love and obey His Son to become a recipient of His love. "Let no one deceive you with empty words....the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 5:5, 6)
We are not justified by God's love. We are justified by faith. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” When scripture says that "God so loved the WORLD," it is speaking of the universal love of God for the world of humanity whom He created in His image. The Greek word transliterated as "world" does not mean that God loves those who refuse to repent and obey Him, for every person who fails to do so will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. God’s love for the sinful, fallen, rebellious world of mankind is not the same as His love for those who repent and receive Christ and follow His commands.
John 3:36 NKJV says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Jesus says if we don’t believe, if we resist the conviction of the Holy spirit and reject His free gift of eternal life, we will be cast into the Lake of Fire; the place of everlasting destruction for those who do not obey the gospel. [2 Thess. 1:8-9] What happened to God’s unconditional love?
The fact that at a point in time past God demonstrated His love by giving us a Savior, does not imply that God loves unrepentant wicked sinners. God loves and forgives everyone who follows His command to REPENT AND BELIEVE in Christ for salvation. The fullest expression of God’s love is revealed to us through sending His only Son so that ‘whosoever’ believes in Him will not die but will have everlasting life. The amazing and magnificent love of God is not diminished in any way by rejecting the fallacy that it’s unconditional.

​By Lynette Hughes