Unconditional and Non-Transactional

The Love of God is unconditional and non-transactional. God is Love, and in Jesus Christ we see exactly what that looks like: self-giving, other-centered and cross-shaped. We hear it in the words of Jesus, in his Great Sermon:

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. 

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:27-36)

There are no conditions here, no transactions, no negotiations. There is only love and grace and mercy, freely extended. This is how God is with us. St. Paul understands this very well — how deeply he has experienced it himself. Listen as he lays out the way of grace and of God in dealing with others, even with enemies:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

What is God’s way of “repaying?” Evil for evil? No! Rather, overcoming evil with good. That is the way of Love, and so of God, for God is Love. Paul again shows us the unconditional, non-transactional nature of love in one of his most famous chapters:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

Yes, faith is important, yet it is not our faith that saves us. Paul tells us this expressly in Ephesians 2:8. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Yes, we are saved through faith, but it is not our faith. None of it comes from us; none of it is our own initiative. Faith is not a condition we must, or even can, meet. Rather, it is through the faith and faithfulness of Jesus Christ that we have been saved. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). Our faith is but grateful recognition of the divine grace and faithfulness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that has set us free.

A conditional salvation and transactional gospel utterly misunderstands the grace of God.

The Only Thing That Matters

The only thing that matters is faith working through love. (Galatians 5:6) 

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:11-16) 

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. 

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:8-10)

Part of the Plan or Unintended Consequence?

It is really a question about the character and sovereignty of God: If Eternal Conscious Torment were part of God’s plan from the beginning, then what would that say about the character of God? On the other hand, if it were an unintended consequence, then what would that say about the sovereignty of God?

God is Love. Whatever the sovereignty of God is, it cannot be anything other than a manifestation of the love of God. In St. Paul’s wonderful description of  Love in 1 Corinthians, we know that love is not coercive. From the same source, we also know that love never fails, never gives up. Love always perseveres.

Did God choose to create a world in which some would suffer eternal conscious torment, knowing full well that such would be the case? Knowing the end from the beginning — indeed, the end is in the beginning — did God choose to create some who would suffer eternally? That does not sound like the God who is Love (1 John 4:8) but rather a monstrous deity, not worthy of worship.

Or imagine a scenario where God really did not know who would accept or who would reject God. To proceed to create in that situation would mean that the eternal torment of any soul — any one of us — would be an acceptable risk, therefore an acceptable loss, to God. Surely that is not the way of Love.

For God to create a world in which all finally turn to God does not require that God must overcome human will, for the problem of human will has never been anyone freely choosing to act against God and the good. Free will is not the ability to choose against one’s inherent nature, for there would be nothing to distinguish such from random event. But free will is the ability to act according to one’s true and inherent nature. 

What is the true and inherent nature of humans? It is that of creatures created in the image of God, to be like God. But the problem of the will is that because of darkness, deception, sin, and ignorance, the human will was impaired, defective, and in bondage. Shall we then imagine that God would allow anyone whose will is defective because of darkness, deception, sin, bondage, or ignorance to suffer eternal torment because of the defective choice of a impaired will is to imagine God as a pitiless and petty being.

The doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment is not a biblical one but is cobbled together from various strains. Nor is it a benign doctrine but one that does great damage to both the character and sovereignty of God — and so also to God’s holiness.