Book Summary and Reflection

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God

By D. A. Carson

Reflected by Ron Chimzimu

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In his book, the Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, D. A. Carson ventures to show that even

though the topic of the love of God seems very simple, and perhaps too easy, to understand, it is

in fact a very difficult doctrine. In this paper I will try to summarize and reflective on a few areas

that stood out the most for me.

Firstly, I agree with Carson’s observation that the doctrine of the love of God is difficult because,

in the western contemporary culture, belief in God’s love is set in a different framework than

Biblical theology (Carson, 9). My own observation is that it is not only in the west where the

Bible and sound doctrine are no longer central. As more and more countries are becoming

“westernized,” the centrality of the Bible is slowly waning, while the universal and fundamental

need for God’s love remains, especially in times of need. The problem is that in the absence of

sound biblical teaching, people develop their own concepts of God’s love. A culture dominated

by feelings and sensuality can only perceive God in terms of his supposed “inner feelings”

instead of his will and character as portrayed more accurately in Scripture. Inevitably then, if

anyone tries to teach the love of God from a Biblical perspective, people would naturally be very

uncomfortable with that teaching; hence Carson’s observation that in the western culture “the

love of God has been stripped of anything that culture finds uncomfortable (Carson, 11).

On the part of the people who are supposed to understand God’s love better, i.e. Christians, there

has been a tendency to generalize and misunderstand God’s love too. Carson does a great job of

showing us the different ways that the Bible speaks of the love of God. He delves into God’s

intra – Trinitarian love, (16) God’s love displayed in his providential care, (16 – 17) “God’s

salvific stance toward his fallen world,” i.e. “God’s yearning, warning, and invitation to all

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human beings as he invites and commands them to repent and believe,” (17, 18, 75). God’s

special love toward the elect i.e. God’s particular, effective, selecting love toward his elect, (18)

and finally, God’s conditional love toward his covenant people as he speaks in the language of

discipline (19 – 21). From my vantage point view, I see that, as teachers of the word of God, we

have not invested enough time and effort into teaching believers how God manifests his love

differently. Most average Christians seem unable to understand these categories. I remember a

certain guy saying that God loves everyone (basing his argument on the clear demonstration of

God’s love through His providential care on all people in spite of the people’s beliefs of spiritual

stand); therefore, God cannot love any special group in a special way. The logic behind his

reasoning was that if God loved any group of people in a special way, then God was unjust and

unfair. In his mind God could never have favorites. This man’s understanding clearly

demonstrates how ignorant people are as regards the different aspects of God’s love.

Secondly, the relationship between God’s love and his sovereignty, more specifically “the

affective element of God’s love,” was a bit challenging to my mind. At the very onset, the idea

that God has emotions sort of opened a floodgate of questions in my head. It seemed to imply, as

Carson puts it, “a God who is changeable, given to mood swings, dependent on his creatures”

(49). I don’t fault those who espouse the “doctrine” of God’s impassibility. But upon further

reading and reflection, I realized that God has emotions too, but that his emotions are never out

of control. Carson says that God’s love is both the model and the incentive of our love (48). If

God’s love did not have an emotional element to it just like human love, how then could have his

love been a model us? It is true that our passions quiet often determine our direction and

sometimes control our wills (49), but I don’t think the same is true about God. As a sovereign

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being, who is sufficient in himself, his omniscience and omnipotence make him completely in

control of all things, including his own emotions. God acts (loves) according to the counsel of his

will (Ephesians1:11), under the influence of his passions.

Finally, point that gripped my attention in this book was on the relationship between God’s love

and God’s wrath (65- 83). Perhaps this is the major challenge that people have regarding

understanding God’s love. People seem unable to reconcile these two. In fact these two look so

antagonistic from each other from a human point of view. I was once teaching about the wrath of

God in some village. One gentleman asked me why God would get angry with anyone if God is

truly Love. At this point I realized that if people do not understand the other attributes of God,

they can never truly understand his love. And so I committed to teaching the other attributes of

God too. When people understand that God in his nature and perfection cannot tolerate sin, the

difficulty of his love versus wrath becomes easy to resolve. Somewhere Carson says that God

“loves in perfect harmony with his other perfections (64). He further adds that “the price of

diluting God’s wrath is diminishing God’s holiness” (67).

In conclusion, I believe that God’s love understood Biblically is tough love. It is not the kind of

love that the world imagines. When God loves, it is deep. It led his Son to die on the cross; it

makes him provide even for those who hate him. His love has substance to it. I believe that God

wants us to emulate his love.