One might be prone to ask, why did you not start with “creation” in a section about God’s sovereignty over all reality. God’s power/ability is first, an intellectual ability. Creation or the material comes later as a consequence. Not only does creation come later, but in the ordering of reality, the decree of creation comes last in God’s ordered decisions. The intellectual infinite power of God is seen in His own mastery of His mind and in the relationship of the Trinity.

The supremacy of creation is Jesus Christ, as Paul says in Colossians 1. But right beneath, even included with Jesus as part of His body, are the elect sons of God. In this since, the world was made for man. The sabbath was made for man. This is why Paul says that “all things are yours,” to the elect Corinthians. It is also why Paul says that corrupted creation will be liberated into the valuable liberty of the sons of God, rather than just saying “God.”

As will be explained more in the section on the decrees, this means the elect would be the second decree for reality. The reprobate and then all other created things come after and to support these first 2 decrees. This shows that the love and hatred of God did not come after God created but was before. It was at the very beginning of His decrees.

The LOVE of God is a top-level order or policy,
and thus, it effects the rest of the decrees that follow.

Because God’s ordering of the decrees has a rule or policy of “LOVE” at the top level, it is important to talk about what the love and hatred of God is, before moving to other aspects of how God “uses” His sovereign power.

“[Love and hate] are policies of [God’s] thought and action. Since God is impassable, and his mind cannot be disturbed, it means that divine love is not a disturbance of the mind, but an intellectual disposition of favor and mercy. And hate is a disposition of disfavor and judgment.”[1]

Since God love’s Himself the most, His policy of thought favors Him above all others. He has exalted His Word and Name above all creation, not someone else’s. “For You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name,” (Psalm 138:2 AMP). “As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord,”” ( 2 Corin.10:17 NLT). “Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations,” (Ezekiel 36:22 NLT).

In other words, I do not save you because I value you, but because I value my own Name above all things. The crucial point that saves the elect is that God has grafted them into His Name, by making them joint-heirs with Christ, by making them His very righteousness. God who knows in perfection how infinitely awesome He is, has rightly made a policy of thought the values Himself above all others. This is similar to a broad definition for what “righteousness” means, which is to “think and act that values God above all others.” The commands and precepts of God to man, define how man is to accomplish this.

The love and hatred of God to man is first an intellectual policy of thought about this group and the other group, it is not emotional. In Christ, God took His intellectual policy of thought of love to His elect and publicly revealed it in a blood oath contract, in the New Covenant.

God’s love as “a policy of thought and action,” to act “favorably to this group,” is similar to a contract, but with oneself, rather than between two parties.  Vincent Cheung describes God’s “Contract”[2] in the N.T. as having the quality that the two groups know how the other will always act under the stipulated conditions. Earlier Vincent said, “God’s mind is so integrated that He only does what He wills,” because of His lack of emotions and perfect knowledge and mastery of His Mind.  In this light, God’s contract with the elect is the public expression/revelation of His “eternal policy of thought about them.”  The new contract is a stipulated policy of thought and action to this group, that is made public. God is letting the elect know that He only does what He wills, and the eternal/immutable policy for the elect, has been revealed in the New Contract.  In the eternal Mind of God it is a “policy of thought and action,” in the public revelation it is a “contract of promise,” made in the blood oath of Jesus’ atonement.

One way to view this, would be to consider me as a person who extraordinarily likes chocolate. Chocolate is my favorite by a tremendous amount. Thus, every time there is a choice given me about what candy, or desert, I always, and I mean always, chose my favorite, which is chocolate. God is immutable, so that even with a chocolate lover like myself, there is always the chance I could change, even if slight, but not God.  God does not experience fluctuations. Thus, He is not changed by emotions. God only does what He wills to do. He has willed to love the Elect. He has willed to make you in Christ, His favorite. Every time there is a choice between the elect, reprobate, angels, or other created things, He always picks His favorite to favor them, which is you.

The application for this doctrine is for Elect to gain inner power and ability by renewing their mind on how great God’s love is to them.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:16-19 NLT)

Paul says you grow stronger by understanding and having faith in God’s limitless love for you.

As in most things a “policy” might have a highest or lowest threshold that triggers the policy. Like a computer program, you might have thresholds that trigger a particular program to execute. However, the Scripture defines God’s policy of thought and action of favor for His elect as not having something, to small or to high that would escape His favor from being triggered and applied.

The death of God’s own Son, did not negate God’s policy of thought and action to give favor to His elect, to trigger and engage.

 “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners,” (Romans 5:8 NLT).

Paul argues from this that if God’s policy of favor triggers for such a huge thing, then how much more for the little things.

“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else,” (Romans 8:32 NLT)”

Jesus also affirms this truth.

Thus, even the smallest things, like counting the your hairs, or giving you your daily bread, is not too small to trigger God’s policy of thought and action of favor to His elect.

“What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin[k]? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows,” Math 10:30-31)

Thus, no matter what trouble of life today you find yourself in, if you cry out in faith to God, it triggers God’s policy of thought and action of favor. You realize you do not deserve such love? Great! It is unmerited. Your faith qualifies you. Your faith gives you direct access to heaven, to trigger God’s favor for you.

This comment about God’s grace, or spelled out in a phrase “unmerited favor,” is another point to see how God’s policy/disposition of favor triggered, even when God needed to give us this favor without us working or earning it. Also, we talked about God’s love policy triggering at the highest and lowest thresholds, however, Paul says something a little different when He says in Ephesians 1:6. Paul say the Father has put us into His “beloved,” or His beloved son. This is like saying, “highly loved.” The Father loves His only begotten Son, with the highest type of favor, or His greatest favorite. This was like the example of me saying chocolate was by far my greatest favorite.

This gives us three ways to define God’s love for us, so that we know how awesome it is.  God’s love is toward us:

First, God’s favor is an immutable thought policy; the threshold of this favof triggers at the lowest thing, and it triggers the greatest thing.

Secondly, this favor is an unmerited favor (grace).

And lastly, when this loyal favor triggers, the amount of favor that it triggers is not small or even medium, but a super abundant favor; yes, as much as God favor triggers when considering His Beloved Son. We have been part of His body. We are His righteousness. We are co-heirs with Him. We are made One with Him, and Jesus One with us (John 17). In fact, we are even called, “Christ-ians.”

A quick note about logic. The positive always comes first, not the negative. In logic this is said as, a negation; and this can only happen if there is a positive first. Take for example justice and injustice. Injustice has no intellectual understanding without the positive understanding of Justice first. Something can only be negated, or a negative form given, if the positive is first. Therefore James says that mercy triumphs over judgment. God’s love is first, not hatred. God has always loved Himself, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit for all eternity. There was no hatred there. The definition is all positive. A negation is not intellectual without knowing what it is negating. You must love first, then the negation, which is hate.

This will give some broad insight why the “end” or original intention of God’s decrees is positive, not negative. Love (to Jesus and the elect) is a higher top level decree compared to hate, (to the reprobate),( Romans 9:21-23).

This will also give us a quick/broad scope critique against such worldviews, where hating is the end result, or a higher top level ontology over love, (a world where hateful demons are hurting and hating everything). When one begins to examine how a situation ended up like that, it will be seen as saying a negation came first. However, saying the negation came first, is logically and metaphysically impossible. Its like saying “blue fives are faster than clouds predicates swimming panda seven’s.” Just because you can say something with your physical mouth, does not make it true, or intellectual. A story in anime or TV that makes such a premise is talking about something that is delusional and impossible.

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that?” Matthew 5:43-46.

^“But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Luke 6:35

A quick note about other uses of the word “love” in the bible. Jesus says to “love” your neighbor and even your enemy, by doing them “good and blessing” them. Jesus is obviously not talking about the type of eternal, electing and saving love that is given to the Elect. Only God can do that. The love in this context is a pragmatic, practical or natural benevolence. God’s eternal, electing, and saving love is the fuller definition and scope for what love means. This definition of love in our present passages is about a narrow use of this bigger love. It is a smaller subset definition of what love is. It is about practical actions to another person that helps them, and blesses them with good things. In essence it is referring to the definition of good and evil, when it is about harm or blessing a person.

God is the foundation for defining value and definitions, not something else. If God wants to have a fuller definition of what love is within the Trinity, and extended to the Elect, and another narrower use of it, then that is His choice. He is the foundation, and there is no other beside Him. This narrow use of love is also more focused on the “here and now.” The fuller definition of love is about past, present and future; it is eternal love. The context will determine which definition of love we are talking about.

Jesus says to love, and then defines it as “good,” “blessing,” and “kindness.” This is how Jesus defines a narrow love given here and now to people. God then says, He shows this SAME TYPE of love, when He is “good” and “kind” to evil reprobates, by giving them rain, sunlight and many natural goodies. Jesus again reaffirms this love by the story of the good Samaritan. The question is what does it mean to “love” your neighbor. The Samaritan helps and gives blessings/gifts, such as paying for the medical and housing of the injured man. Jesus defines this as “love.” When God sends rain to the crops of a reprobate, and this rain helps the parched crops so that they produce, God helped and gave a gift/blessing by paying for the producing of the reprobate’s crops. God loved them. And yet, they were unthankful for it. God loved Judas, by washing his feet. Think about God Himself, washing your feet. His hands touching your feet and cleaning the dirt off. It was not an illusion. Jesus loved Judas, and Judas repaid that love with hate. After this example, Jesus again says, for the disciples to “love” each other, by the example He gave them.  The gospel says that Jesus “loved” the rich young ruler by telling an infallible truth concerning how the man can truly find salvation. Many businesspeople pay high dollar to receive special insight into the business world. Jesus gave this man insight, that is true and powerful. Jesus gave it free of charge. It was love and kindness. The young ruler returned this love, by rejecting it.

 

God’s HATRED is the reverse, it is a policy of thought to ALWAYS act in an unfavorable way, particularly in regards to eternity. It is an eternal hate. This love and hatred is always God’s policy to these groups. Take for example when Paul says in Romans 8 “He works all things for our good.” God plans for a big good, and so He gives temporary evil for the Elect to overcome, and then by this receive this big good. This can be seen in the story of Joseph. The same is for those who He hates. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” (Matthew 5:45 NIV). Jesus is referring to good benefits in the common sense, in basic pragmatic things like rain (etc.) and not spiritual or an intelligent working of all things for their good. And so, even when God is presently giving reprobates (love) natural blessings like rain or other circumstances, God is working out that they be fattened for the day of slaughter (Psalm 73).[3]

God is working all things for their destruction and suffering.  Their receiving the common pragmatic good of God, is God’s policy of thought of loathing to set them up for death. Their receiving of God’s pragmatic, common love, is designed to work all things for their bad and destruction. It is the reverse for the Elect children of God. God defines this pragmatic kindness as “love,” thus, their rejection of it, leads to their eternal damnation and hate. Even though this is the narrower definition of love, because God defines it as love, it is real and not imaginary. The eternal definition of love does not negate this presently applied pragmatic love; rather, it establishes it. Presently applied love is a subset or subcategory from the parent of eternal love. The reprobates receive this temporary love, use it, benefit from it, and then they discard it, ignoring the God who gave it to them. Paul says in Romans 2 that the goodness and kindness of God, (Jesus defines this as love) should lead you to repentance. The reprobates in addition to ignoring giving thanks to God for His love, ignore His command to repent and be blessed.

The gospel message, because it is God’s truth is valuable and good to pursue in and of itself. It is wrong to say, “we only study God’s Word to be better people.” This blasphemy tramples on God’s Word as if it does not have infinite intrinsic worth. God and the Bible are interchangeable. To diminish the Word, in any way, is to diminish God. To study the Bible is an infinitely valuable pursuit, in and of itself. Even though reprobates reject the gospel message, to give them God’s Word, is giving them something that is INFINITE VALUE in and of itself. Jesus defines neighbor and enemy love as “blessing them.” That is, blessing someone with gifts and things of value. To give a cup of cold water to your enemy, even if he later rejects it, is still a good gift. It is love. Their rejection of it does not negate the act as love. Giving a reprobate the message of Jesus is to gift them something of infinite value, their rejection does not negate the act as love. Their rejection of this gift, is designed for their destruction and hate. Even if you love your enemy so that God might later rain down coals of fire on them later, your love given in the present is still love, because Jesus defines it that way. The end result does not negate Jesus’ infallible definition of love given to your neighbor and enemy.

“Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that is for honorable use and one that is for ordinary use[pee pot]? And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And he did so in order that he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory.”
(Romans 9:21-23, LEB []-by author)

As Paul says about the twins, “before they were born,” and then to clinch the nail on the other side, to stop any possible rabbit trails of excuses Paul says, “before they had done good or evil,” “I loved Jacob and hated Esau.” Paul then repeats this doctrine by saying “from the same lump,” God then molded the clay forms of the elect and reprobate. A lump is about being neutral; it is like saying, “before they were born or had done any good or evil.” God did not start with a bad “chamber pot,” to then form some for honorable and non-honorable use. No. God started with a formless lump. This means God had an idea what He wanted them to be, before they were formed, and then molded them into that form.

This is talking about man, before Adam’s fall and all man were born evil. To consider a man as sinful, is not to consider them as neutral clay lump, but as already a chamber pot. However, Paul teaches God is deciding the outcome of men, when they are still an unformed lump. A lump is not already good or evil, righteous, or sinful. The next sentence deals with how God treats the chamber pots and vase’s after considering them in light of Adams fall. Because He already decided to make the Elect into a vases, He saves them in mercy. This mercy is used to show them how much He loves them. God demonstrates that His eternal, immutable love, is exactly that. Not even sin Satan and death and stop it. Likewise, the chamber pots left in their sinful state and are hardened even more to fatten them up for damnation; they are used to support His plan to make the Elect into beautiful vases.  

Some will want to resist this. However, if I wanted to express the doctrine that God is in absolute control and man’s choice is not free, I would say, “God decided to love this person and hate this other guy, before they made their own choices of good and bad.” Thus, the objection to say Paul meant something different is a smoke screen, because it makes what Paul says, which is the opposite of their (free-will) position, mean its opposite. For example, if I was against the idea that Johnny’s favorite food is a banana, and Johnny says, “Bananas are my favorite food,” and then I respond, this means Johnny’s favorite food is not bananas, it shows that I am intellectually broken and bearing false witness.  If you see your opponent making both the affirmation and negation of a doctrine mean the same thing, then you know they just exposed how rebellious, disobedient and stupid they are.

As with man, it first started as love toward the Elect, as those who were always with Christ. “Even before he made the world, God LOVED us and chose us in Christ,” (Eph 1:4 NLT).[4] Because man has no ultimate self-causality, God choosing them in Christ in love, is the foundation of their being and existence. It is their antecedent, and so the consequent for them means that love is always affirmed for them in all outcomes. Therefore, for this chosen group in Christ, even after the fall and sin, because love is their beginning and policy from God, mercy triumphs in them, and not the negative of hate and condemnation.

The reprobate group were created to give a backdrop for God to teach the Elect about His love to them, in Christ. The reprobate are the extras in the TV show to showcase God’s main actors, His beloved children. The reprobate are like a filler section in an anime/tv series to give the Elect a place to have character growth. The reprobates are the cannon fodder to provide a context for the elect to practice their kingdom power against; to practice their sword and magic skills. Just as Goliath was the context for God to showcase His love to David, by empowering David with faith to destroy the monster. Not all monsters are the giant type, for Paul says that our weapons are used to tear down arguments from the devil. But the devil uses the reprobates to propagate his arguments. The Elect use this in context, to tear them down by the Spirit and truth; by this they level up in Spiritual maturity and gain new spiritual skills and even temporary material treasures. By seeking His righteousness first, God promises to give the Elect, the material treasures and things that the pagans seek after; the pagans seek more than the bottom minimum. They conveniently store up material treasures for God’s children to unlock at the end of each boss fight, when they seek God’s spiritual treasure first. Furthermore, Acts 10:38 says the devil oppresses and victimizes by sickness and broken bodies. Jesus started the War by healing all those oppressed by the devil. After His departure He has now endowed the Elect with the baptism of the Spirit. They are to pick up Thor’s Hammer where Jesus left it, and now they are to start destroying the works of Satan. The reprobates are thus, the monsters in a video game that give opportunity for the Elect to level up in Spiritual strength, by demolishing the works of the devil, which manifest in the reprobate, who are his fodder spawn. God’s policy of thought and action of favor to His children, is seen in God making them victorious over the devil and the reprobates. By this God’s chosen ones, are made ready for the main story, which is heaven. Thus, the reprobate are first conceived in hate and created in hate by God, to help the Elect to see how great His love is for them.  

…Paul explains in Romans 9, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath – prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory…?” (v. 22-23). In other words, God keeps non-Christians alive and functional so that they can provide an environment for Christians to interact with, to learn and practice the word of God, and to witness God’s wrath against these people that refuse to believe in Jesus Christ.

Suppose a man wishes to preserve some beer bottles to use as targets when he plays with his rifle, and to show off his marksmanship to his children. He would collect these bottles, clean them, and preserve them in a safe place. He offers to these bottles a natural benevolence, but he has no personal concern for them as he does his children. And when the time comes he will line them up and shoot them to a thousand pieces without any remorse, while his children praise him and rejoice with him.

Does this mean that non-Christians are preserved and cared for by divine providence, just so they can be used and discarded? This is precisely what Paul 88says in his letter to the Romans. And he adds that God has “the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use” (v. 21). In those days, “common” vessels include receptacles for trash and feces. This is God’s estimation of non-Christians. It also offers a basis to illustrate God’s great mercy toward those of us who believe in Jesus Christ – it is as if we have been changed from toilets where people dump their excrements into spectacular vases through which God displays the beauty of his wisdom, power, and glory…[5]

———EndNote———–

[1] Vincent Cheung. Systematic Theology. 2010. 78

I find Vincent’s definition of God’s love and hate is to be correct, and so I will use it. However, I am not claiming that I am using this definition just like him.

[2] Paraphrased from Vincent Cheung, “Our Contract with God.” See the book, Contract, 2020.

[3] “Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction. In an instant they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors.”

[4] Philippians 4:3 NLT, “… They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.”

Revelation 13:8 LEB , “And all those who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name is not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.”

[5] Vincent Cheung. Systematic Theology, 2010. Pg. 72-73