Love never fails, that is God's love never fails, but does it? That is my only comfort in life and in death that God's love in Christ never fails, and I rejoice that He could love a wretched sinner like me.
That statement, Love never fails, can only be true if God loves some. If God loves everybody, then it would seem that God's love does fail, as the objects of His love are damned in hell in spite of that love. Is that not a failure on God's part? Surely it is more consistent with biblical revelation and to say that God loves some, and those shall certainly be saved?
It is not an answer to say that many do not respond to His love. Unreciprocated love is failed love. If I love someone and they do not love me back then my love (as strong as it is) has failed to win my beloved to myself. Shall I then not be most miserable? If my love fails to save a loved-one in danger, then I will be devastated. Can we attribute the same to the ever-blessed God? Does God love everyone and stand idly by as many of His beloved perish? Can He be happy as His beloved are under His wrath for all eternity? How can heaven be a happy place if the King is sad?
Also why do some respond to God's love and others do not if they all hear the same message? Either God makes the difference in calling some and passing by others, or man makes the difference in having the good will, or sense to choose the love of God. That must mean that the final reason for salvation is not that God loves the person, or that Jesus died for that person, but that the sinner (because of some quality in his soul which the Christ-rejector does not have) chose to believe and accept of his freewill. That means that Christ is not the author and finisher of my faith, but that I am. I cannot affirm such a thing.
What does the Bible say about the love of God? Well the first thing which could be mentioned is that God hates the workers of iniquity. That is inconsistent with a universal love of God. Psalm 5v5, Psalm 11v5 and Romans 9 all prove that God hates some, who are destined to stumble at the Word (1 Peter 2 v 8b). That is an awesome thought, but the Bible reveals God to be so, and we are called to love Him as He is.
More importantly, however, is that the love of God is a saving love. Those whom God loves, He saves to the uttermost. If God loves a person, He shall be saved. God will overcome that sinner's rebellion, will call him effectually by the Spirit through the preaching of the Word of God and will keep him until the end.
Consider:
Gal 2 v 20 ''loved me and gave himself for me'' (NB. love results in Jesus' sacrifice)
Eph 2 v 4-5 ''But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us ...'' (NB. Love results in regeneration. Whom God loves He regenerates)
2 Thess2 v 16' 'God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation...'' (again love results in salvation)
Rev 1 v 5 ''Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins'' (again, love results in salvation)
Rev 3 v19 ''As many as I love I rebuke and chasten'' (God's love results in His fatherly discipline which is part of salvation).
Nowhere in Acts do we find the apostles preaching to the unsaved and saying ''God loves you and Jesus died for you''. Were they lousy evangelists?
God's love is expounded to the saints, not to unregenerate sinners, in the Epistles.
I am not aware of any Bible passage where God loves someone and they end up in the abode of the damned. The Gospel is consistent and full of comfort. What comfort to the believer to know that God's love is sure and will not fail him. All the beloved will be saved, for He is not willing that any of them shall perish, and He being God will have His will come to pass. If all I have to hope in is my freewill, woe is me, for I could fall ten thousand times because of the fickleness of my will, and I make myself to differ, thus stealing some of God's glory in salvation, a serious thing indeed.
I only ask that you test all things by the Word of God. I write only out of love to my Saviour Who said ''I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee'' Jeremiah 31v3.
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