Is God's Unconditional Love Conditional?
Read these comforting words: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ...For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35a & 38-39). These and many other Scripture texts assure us that God's love will always be there for us. In that sense, God's love is unconditional.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
But let's not ignore the other parts of this Romans passage: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose" (verse 28). There's the condition: "those who love God"! Also, after the above quote - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" - he writes: "Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, 'For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter'" (verses 35-36). It's clear that the Apostle Paul was writing this to disciples who were being persecuted for their faith, telling them to be faithful, hang in there, because God is always faithful toward us.
In 2 Timothy 2:12-13, St. Paul writes - "If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful. God cannot deny Himself." God's love and faithfulness are unconditional, unchanging, infinite and eternal. But our love and faithfulness... well, it can be fickle, we can faint under fear, but if we deny God, He will deny us - not that He stops loving us, but that we have turned ourselves away from receiving His love.
Jesus said that our heavenly Father "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). That's unconditional love. Like a human father who loves his newborn baby girl before she is at all able to do anything for him, he gives her a home, works to buy her food and new diapers after she messes her diapers, takes her to the doctor, teaches her how to walk and talk, takes her to that first day of school, etc. This is unconditional love. It's like God's love – "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). We mess up, He forgives and cleans us up; we trip and fall, He disinfects our scrapes and bandages us up.
Hopefully, we finally begin to learn how to return His love – "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). But eventually, He says to some – "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:21–23).
One of the most-beloved passages of Scripture is – "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:16–18).
God loves the world unconditionally so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, but our part for having eternal life is conditional upon believing in Him. If we reject Jesus, the unconditional love of God is still there but it does us no good – we haven't met the condition that is our part.
Another Scripture passage is – "Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed" (Romans 2:4–5). God is holding His unconditional love out to us – it's always there, it's eternal; but we must respond to His love by repenting.
What is real repentance, or being truly penitent? The Apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the church in Corinth, repremanding them for immorality; then they repented, so he wrote another letter to them – "For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while. I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world works death" (2 Corinthians 7:8-10).
The "sorrow of the world" is "Oh-oh! Mama caught me with my hand in the cookie jar, now I'm going to get it!" – that's false repentance. Godly sorrow that leads to true repentance is feeling deep shame and sadness for breaking God's commandments... and even more, it's the firm decision to turn around and change one's direction. We no longer want to "Do It My Way!" As Paul wrote – "He [Christ] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
And here's the conditional aspect again – "If you keep My [Christ's] commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love" (John 15:10). If we really love Christ, we will gladly keep His commandments, not do our own thing.
So God's love is unconditional on His part, but it's conditional on our part.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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Thanks, Bob - very helpful (and thought-provoking).
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