God Loves Man - Lee Brainard

God loves man and has the best of intentions for him. This is clearly taught in the Bible and exhibited in the gospel. But men tend to disbelieve this fact. Their eyes are open to their experience and closed to the Word of God.

A few insist in public forum that God does not love man — painting him as a mean old bully or an indifferent old codger. With most men, however, their unbelief is less obvious. They speak well of God as a matter of social etiquette, and only let the truth out in bursts of anger when things don’t go their way — God hates me, things never work out for me, I’m just a crap magnet. All such lines — ultimately — blame God as unloving and uncaring.

Is this a fair assessment? It would be if God had promised us a utopian existence down here, free of pain and disappointment, and had failed to deliver on his promise. But this is not the case.

We live in a broken, sinful, sin-cursed world. This is not the time for love manifested in utopian blessings — that is yet future. This is the time for love manifested preeminently in the gospel offer of salvation — eternal life to all who believe on Jesus. Those who say “yes” enjoy a living hope in their heart which enables them to patiently endure the trials of this life (Rom. 8:16-18, 28, 35-39).

~Lee Brainard, April 25, 2015