If you read the Bible carefully, giving thought to the meaning of every phrase, and if you have any grasp of the insufficiency of language for describing certain categories of thought, it should be no problem for you to understand that there are many different "kinds" (for lack of a better word) of God's love (I apologize for that long sentence). But if you have ever doubted God's unwavering love for you as a Christian there is one kind of love that you should understand, namely, sovereign love.
As the Apostle Paul makes his great argument in Romans 9 for unconditional election in order to defend the justice of God for not saving the entire nation of ethnic Israel he points to the twins, Jacob and Esau. "...when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'"
And then Paul quotes a verse from Malachi. In the first verses of the book of Malachi the Lord is making a similar sort of defense, namely, a defense of His love for Israel. It does seem that this sovereign love is for a peculiar spiritual nation within an ethnic nation that, during Paul's time, would grow to the nations.
What is so important about this? The sovereign love of God is an impossible thing to understand. But the Bible gives us examples of it to show us the unshakable nature of God's love for His people. If you ever doubt the love of God just look at a passage like the one Paul quoted in Romans 9:13:
As the Apostle Paul makes his great argument in Romans 9 for unconditional election in order to defend the justice of God for not saving the entire nation of ethnic Israel he points to the twins, Jacob and Esau. "...when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'"
And then Paul quotes a verse from Malachi. In the first verses of the book of Malachi the Lord is making a similar sort of defense, namely, a defense of His love for Israel. It does seem that this sovereign love is for a peculiar spiritual nation within an ethnic nation that, during Paul's time, would grow to the nations.
What is so important about this? The sovereign love of God is an impossible thing to understand. But the Bible gives us examples of it to show us the unshakable nature of God's love for His people. If you ever doubt the love of God just look at a passage like the one Paul quoted in Romans 9:13:
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