Loving the God Who Reprobates

I was so encouraged by what I was reading tonight in the devotional Taste and See by John Piper. He describes a conversation with a woman who had recently learned the Biblical reality that “if God chooses unconditionally who will be rescued from the corruption and condemnation of sin… then He also passes over many and leaves them in sin and truly-deserved condemnation (which is called reprobation).” This woman asked, “How shall I love Him… in His electing and reprobating freedom?”

Part of Piper’s answer is as follows:

It isn’t surprising, is it, that if our mind undergoes a kind of Copernican revolution in regard to the place of God in our intellectual universe, another kind of Copernican revolution in our very experience of the love of God might be required? I don’t think this can be put neatly into words, but my guess is that a supernatural and spiritual God-centered love for God is going to be of such a different kind than the love for God that we experienced before He took His rightful place, that the two will seem almost like opposites.

I don’t think that they are necessarily opposites in those who are truly born of God. A little seedling looks almost opposite to an oak tree, but they are of one piece…

There’s a great deal of trust in the love of God, and a great deal of love in the trust of God. He is of such a kind that what He reveals will always be in part awesome, in part threatening, in part winsome, in part tender, in part severe, and we will find ourselves pulled in many directions as we try to get our heart around Him. And then we cannot begin to stretch that far without breaking, yet trusting still…

Let us tremble that we, for absolutely no cause in ourselves, have been plucked from this horrid condition and have been made to trust Him and have been covered by His infinitely valuable blood so that we will render to Him praise for His mercy forever and ever.

I know that in one sense what I have spoken here are words, words, words. But I am closing with the prayer that the Holy Spirit will come and set them on fire with light and passion and love.

The knowledge of God’s complete sovereignty is deep and soul-swaying. Its mystery is certainly not anything to shrug off, and it cannot be dismissed in mere casual discussion or intellectual assent. It should stir the depths of our hearts. It may shake us to the core. Yet may we trust still. May we praise, and love, and glory in the God who both saves and reprobates.