As Christians we know what Scripture says: God has demonstrated his love for us in a profound way, for “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That is, God has definitively proven his love for us. Even though we were sinners, that is, we were “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12), God demonstrated his love for us by coming to this world as one of us, by living the life we should have lived, and then dying the death we should have died. This thoroughly demonstrates his love for us. But…does God like us?
It may seem like an odd question, like we’re in fifth grade slipping a note to a pretty classmate with the question, “Do you like me?”, with boxes to check for either “Yes” or “No”. It is a profound question, however. Many who recognize the seriousness of their sin are tempted toward self-loathing. The natural and extremely common perception of God makes the whole question extremely troubling.
In popular culture, and all too often, in the minds of many Christians, God’s default mode is one of anger and wrath. We know the trope of the angry god of the mountain who will send earthquakes and volcanic eruptions unless you offer a sacrifice that appeases the god’s anger—for a time. In other words, a sacrifice will temporarily interrupt the god’s desire to pour out wrath and judgment. A person can, by performing the right ritual, cause a god to “forget” his anger and wrath. The default mode is anger and wrath. Too often we think of the one true God in this way.
We see this in the myth that “the Old Testament God” is wrathful and angry but “the New Testament God” is loving and kind. God is God! He is holy and just, therefore there is wrath for sin. He is also loving and kind and merciful. The attempt to pit God against himself is absurd. The Old Testament is filled with stories of God’s love and mercy and kindness. The New Testament warns of his wrath and the coming judgment.
I said in a sermon a couple weeks ago that God’s “default mode”, so to speak, is his desire to bless. This gets directly to the question of whether God likes us. Again, we see our own sin and we know our struggle with it more than others, for we know what goes on in our heads, and we often despise it. Surely if we loathe ourselves God must loathe us as well—but good news! Jesus has appeased God’s anger and wrath and so we don’t have anything to worry about! The mountain won’t shake anymore. But does God like us? First, let’s tackle what it means that God’s default mode is to bless.
Why did God create the world? There isn’t a verse that directly states this, so we must answer theologically. The sum total of Scripture shows us God created the world that he might share himself with others. He created humans, that he might walk in friendship and fellowship with beings he created in his image. We see God’s default mode on display when Adam and Eve sinned against God, violating his character and his direct command to Adam. What was God’s immediate response? Genesis 3 tells us God called out to Adam, “Adam, where are you?” God knew, of course. God was seeking Adam, as he had often done.
Why was God walking in the garden looking for Adam? Old Testament scholar Clinton Arnold is insightful.
But in this context, [the sound of Yahweh walking about in the garden] clearly connotes the intimacy that God and humanity enjoyed in Eden prior to the transgression. And this is the tragedy, because the loss of that free intimacy is apparent to the humans instantaneously. They were ashamed to be in God’s presence, and so they hid themselves “among the trees of the garden”, thus attempting to turn God’s good and gracious gifts into barriers against his wrath.
Clinton Arnold, “Genesis”
Sin is the intruder here. Sin is the thing that interrupts what is God’s “default mode”. He shows up in the garden to walk with Adam and Eve, and when the reader is expecting anger and wrath, we are met with God’s incredible and profound mercy. Yes, there will be judgment for their sin; they will be cast out of the garden, but this, too, is the interruption in God’s plan. His plan is to walk with his people in the cool of the day. Because God is holy, sin interrupts God’s plan for fellowship with the very people he created and delights in. We see further that sin is the interrupter of God’s plans when God makes clothing for them to hide their nakedness, by offering the first sacrifice in history. He is showing them what it is going to cost to get back to his original aim, his original purpose, which is to walk with them in friendship and in fellowship. God’s default mode is this, and sin interrupts it.
Generations later Adam and Eve’s descendants have also turned away from God, refusing to walk with him even in the fields they must now plow and plant in, in order to survive. Once again sin is the thing that disrupts God’s plans. It isn’t that God is sitting on his throne, filled with wrath, just waiting for the opportunity to pour it out. Instead, God is seeking to bless the very people he made and sin interrupts this plan for blessing. We read this in Genesis 6.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
Genesis 6:5-6 ESV
It’s hard to think of God experiencing grief, yet this is how Scripture depicts God’s response to the wickedness of humans. If his default mode were anger and wrath, he would be delighted at the opportunity to display it! Instead, God is grieved by it, for this was not the purpose for which he created humans. There is, of course, judgment. The flood destroys nearly all life on planet earth. Only Noah and his wife and three sons and three daughters-in-law survive to repopulate the world. As the world’s population began to grow again, so did sin and rebellion. People once again began to forget the Lord so rather than pour out anger and wrath as his default mode, he acted according to his nature.
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3 ESV
All that God promised Abram, later renamed Abraham, is summed up in this: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”. This is what God has been seeking from the beginning of his creation. This is God’s “default mode”. God desires to bless, and he blesses by sharing himself with others. He blesses by allowing others to enjoy his goodness—the very beings he had to create in order for there to be others to enjoy him. Sin interrupts this desire in God, so God acts in a manner to ensure that he will, in fact, be able to bless. Abraham is merely told to respond to God’s promises; nowhere is he told how to receive them. He simply will receive God’s promise to bless. The right response, of course, is faith, yet God makes this unconditional promise because of his desire to bless.
We see this same desire to bless in the life of Jesus. Throughout his earthly ministry the people of Israel continued to reject him. They refused to believe the miracles he performed, though the miracles were blessings. Whether he was feeding people or raising the dead or healing the sick and the lame or calming the storms, his miracles were blessings, for he had come to bless. Still, they rejected him. He said this concerning Jerusalem:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
Matthew 23:37 ESV
Do you hear wrath and anger in this? To be sure, judgment is coming, but it’s coming because Jerusalem’s sin interrupts God’s plans! God must remove the interruption that he might return to his plan, and his plan is for blessing, for mercy and grace. Notice what he says. “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings”. Like a hen desiring to protect and nurture her chicks, God has desired to protect and nurture Israel. What happened? “And you were not willing!” Sin is the interruption, the thing that brings about God’s wrath, for it seeks to prevent God’s will from being done.
Throughout Israel’s history God sought to bless, to pour out kindness and prosperity. From the beginning God has sought to be Emmanuel—God with us—but we were not willing. As he did with Abraham, God knew he had to do something on his own, so he took on human flesh, became a man, lived a righteous and faithful life, then died an unrighteous death for the sins of his people. Thus he demonstrates once for all his love to us in Christ.
The easy question is this: would God go through all that for a people he didn’t like? It’s even easier to dismiss this argument, though, for this demonstrates what every parent experiences from time to time: it is possible to love your child without actually liking your child in a given moment. Yes, you would give your life for your child—do anything to protect your child—but sometimes you just, you know, want to be alone. You can love from a distance.
When we look at the big picture, however, we see something profound. God’s desire is not to love us “from a distance”. God did not cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness so that he could love them from a distance. God did not save Noah and his family so that God could love them from a distance. God did not promise to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham so God could love them from a distance. God did not become one of us, live, die, and rise again so he could love us from a distance.
God came to be Emmanuel—God with us. Consider the apostle John’s vision of the end. He sees the new heavens and new earth and notice the description of the new earth in Revelation 22.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:1-5 ESV
The new Jerusalem is on earth and is a massive garden that covers the entire planet. As with the garden of Eden, a river flows through this garden—the river of the water of life. We see again the tree of life, and it bears fruit all year long. Its leaves will heal the nations, the various cultures that have formed throughout history. Just a few verses prior John saw this new city:
By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
Revelation 21:24-26 ESV
The “glory and honor of the nations” are its cultural treasures. God’s intent from the beginning was for those he created in his image to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth—subduing it, bending it to their will, causing it to flourish even more. As they develop new languages and cuisines and styles of dress and technologies, God is delighted and pleased with their treasures. This is why the new earth is the ultimate goal for humanity!
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4 ESV
What groom doesn’t utterly and completely delight in his bride? God’s people are prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and her husband takes great delight in her. As with a newly married couple, now God’s dwelling place is with his people. They share a home, so to speak, with an intimacy that marriage can only hint at. Finally, God wipes away every tear from every eye and the very thing that would interrupt such a love story will be gone forever, for the former things—sin and death—will have passed away. We see this language of marriage as a picture of Christ and the church throughout Scripture. Paul, of course, stated this directly. We see John reference it here. It’s in the Old Testament as well. The prophet Zephaniah saw the day of God’s salvation this way:
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3:16-20 ESV
“I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
“Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.
“At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the LORD.
Do you hear the delight in God’s words to his people? God will rejoice over each and every one of his people. He will quiet you with his love. That is, you will finally be at peace, complete and utter peace. The voice in your head—you know, the one that sounds exactly like you, the one that tells you again and again to loath yourself, to hate yourself, to be disgusted with yourself—will be silent. Instead of the lies we tell ourselves, we will hear God rejoicing over us with loud singing. Think about that! One day God will serenade his people! In the words of one Old Testament scholar,
That Almighty God should derive delight from his own creation is significant in itself. But that the Holy One should experience ecstasy over the sinner is incomprehensible.
O. Palmer Robertson, NICOT
Does God delight in us? There are times I don’t like me, so why should God!? It’s strange to say, but God truly delights in us. You could even say he adores us. Think of that! How in the world!? It’s true. God likes us. It has taken me a long time to come to grips with this. As a child I knew I was different—odd, somehow. My interests do not tend to be the things that most find interesting. I rarely encounter a person with multiple overlapping interests that I have, but the truth is God made me the way I am, complete with my strengths and weaknesses, with the particular personality I have, because he delights in who he has made me to be.
This is true for you, as well. Whether you feel all alone in your particular struggle with sin, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. This demonstrates God’s love and God’s love cannot be separated from his desire for us. This means God desires to walk with you even in your particular struggle. Just as much, God desires to walk with you with your particular interests and personality—including your personality quirks!
If you enjoy working with flowers, so does God, for he is the one who created so many varieties. If you enjoy reading or writing poetry, so does God, for he inspired many to write poetry to be included in holy Scripture. Do you like music? So did a “man after God’s own heart”. Do you like working with your hands? The God who orchestrated the necessary circumstances for a virgin to conceive and bear the Son of God chose for her husband—the man who would raise God’s Son in human form—to be a carpenter. If you like working with your hands, God certainly does, too!
When Jesus nicknamed James and John “the sons of thunder”, he was being funny! Yes, it was descriptive, but it was also funny. Think of the story of Jesus calling Nathaniel to be his disciple. In John 1 Philip told him he had found the Messiah. Where? In Nazareth! Nathaniel’s reply was, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” What a snarky reply! In the very next sentence, what did Jesus say about Nathaniel? “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Jesus responded to Nathaniel’s snarky reply with a bit of snark himself. The point is Jesus loves humor and loves plays on words.
Do you struggle with certain sins that make you ashamed and cause you to despise yourself? Consider Jesus’ response to the rich young man who asked him how to inherit eternal life. Jesus knew the man loved his riches too much to follow him, yet we read this:
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Mark 10:21-22 ESV
Did you catch that? Jesus looked at the man. He knew the man would hold too strongly to his riches to repent and believe. He knew the man was trapped in his sin, yet what does Mark say? “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him”! Listen carefully: your struggle with sin does not cause God to dislike you. Your struggle with sin does not prevent God from loving you. His love is not based on your ability to fight against sin or your ability to “be good”. God’s love for us is rooted entirely in himself, and his love causes him to delight in us—warts and all, so to speak.
This doesn’t mean we should walk around like Stuart Smalley with his “Daily Affirmations”, repeating over and over, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it! People like me!” Instead, God’s love is a gift we receive through faith in Christ. There is no ground for boasting, save in Christ. We boast in him. We boast in his love. We rest in this truth: the God who claims us for himself exults over us with loud singing, and this is because of how great he is.