“God is love.” That is a basic foundational truth of followers of Jesus.
“God is a Righteous Judge.” That is a basic foundational doctrine of almost any Christian you have ever met, any may be your belief as well.
And you wouldn’t be wrong; God is a righteous judge. However, the former truth is of greater importance and of greater power than the last one. How so? Love is preeminent over all things, even judgment. Even the Mercy Seat when sprinkled with blood on the Ark of the Covenant covered over the judgment for the sins of the people of Israel because love covers over a multitude of wrongs.
God’s love is far deeper and higher and wider and more majestic than we can grasp in even hundreds more years-worth of lifetimes. God’s love extends so far that he became, in Jesus, the “lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world”. Literally this translates out to “the lamb who was slain before the moment of conception of time and space.” In other words, Jesus was slain in Eternity as well as at a moment inside the flow of Time. If he was slain in Time for us in Time, who then was he slain for in Eternity but those in Eternity??
God in his love is not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL should come to repentance. For does it not say that “all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?” I personally know two people who both died and went to hell, and from hell they called on the name of Jesus and he delivered them and brought them back to life. If it was impossible to get saved in Hell, then both of these men would still be dead and would be there now. Instead, they are not because ALL who call on the name of Jesus WILL BE SAVED. It is a promise from God to each of us and He will in no ways break that promise. There is no negotiating the terms of that promise to fulfill our own inner sense of justice because He and He alone is the Righteous Judge. If He says it, it stands.
This immense and immeasurable love of His is scandalous. It’s shocking. It can be so controversial as to be shockingly unseemly at times. But this is the love of our Heavenly Father – that while we were still sinners Jesus Christ died for us. But here’s the scandal – Jesus didn’t just die for all humans. He died for ALL. Colossians 1:19-20 says “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Who else could this be referring to but fallen spirits, as God has stated he will reconcile ALL in heaven and earth to Himself.
Wait, you mean God wants to get Satan saved? Bingo. Is it really too hard to believe that God, in His infinite love, could still love Satan? I’m not talking about loving evil, but loving Lucifer the angel whom he created with his own hands. Lucifer who gave his own heart over to darkness and took upon himself the name “Satan,” which is in actuality a title meaning “adversary”. God still loves Lucifer just as much as he did the day He made him. The Father’s heart still weeps over the loss of that child of his, and how Lucifer’s hate turned him into a bitter, dark, evilness that reached out and swallowed up the light of a great many others. It is hard for us to grasp this concept and the depth of the Father’s love, even for demons, but this much is true: God changes not.
And if He changes not, then His love for the enemy – for Lucifer and his fallen angels and those who have sided with them – the witches and warlocks and sorcerers and the like, are not too far from God’s love. No, in fact they themselves run from his light and love, but God is only ever chasing them with his Goodness. For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever.
There is the matter as mentioned earlier that God is a righteous judge, and for this reason Hell and such exist. God will most certainly judge everything that hinders love. Satan was cast out of heaven because he was actively destroying the work of Love that God created. God is not wimpy or unable to protect or save, but He is far more redemptive even in that judgment and justice than we can even comprehend. Is there punishment for Satan? Certainly. But I suggest that he even now lives in eternal torment, as the light of God is always and ever shining its way toward him and is a light that even in the darkest places in the spirit realm Satan cannot truly escape.
Some have questioned whether this has any value or point whatsoever. After all, how can knowing whether God loves Satan or not make any difference in our lives? Perspective. It’s all a matter of perspective. If we look at the most unlovely and evil beings in all of time and eternity and realize that God’s heart is still big enough to have room for them in it, how can he fail to love even the most unlovely human on this planet? If we get a perspective of Eternal Love, then we can only but emulate that love to those around us, even those who we consider unlovable. After all, it only takes one drop of His love and a heart can be changed forever. Why not let it start with yours?
