God’s Law is good. It facilitates blessing in our lives and prosperity, peace, justice, and equality for society. The Law does not exist apart from the promise of salvation for those who love God relationally. The Law tells us about God’s lovingkindness—His forgiveness by grace for those who love Him. The psalmist continues to reflect on God’s Law and mentions God’s lovingkindness again.
The earth is full of Your lovingkindness, O Lord; Teach me Your statutes (Psalm 119:64).
God’s lovingkindness is for those who love Him according to Exodus 20:5-6. Instead of repaying us for our iniquities, He spares us and raises us up. As the psalmist reflects on God’s Law, even singing about God’s lovingkindness, he proclaims that the earth is full of God’s lovingkindness. The earth is full of God’s forgiveness and goodwill toward the people who love Him. The psalmist recognizes there are people outside of Israel who love God. If God’s lovingkindness is for those who love Him, and it fills the earth, there are people beyond the psalmist’s national boundary who love God and have His lovingkindness. There are not only a few outside of Israel in the Old Testament but enough to have the earth full of God’s lovingkindness, His salvation (cf. Psalm 119:41).
Just to show that the psalmist isn’t imagining things, here is a list of people who loved God listed in the Old Testament who were not Israelites:
- Adam and Eve (Genesis 1)
- Abel (Genesis 4)
- Seth and some of his descendants leading to Noah (Genesis 4-6)
- Noah (Genesis 5-9)
- Abraham (Genesis 12)
- Melchizedek (Genesis 14)
- Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25)
- The Egyptian Midwives (Exodus 1:21)
- A mixed multitude from Egypt during the Exodus (Exodus 12:38; Numbers 11:4)
- Jethro (Exodus 18)
- Bala’am (Numbers 22-24)
- Caleb the spy (Numbers 32:12)
- Rahab (Joshua 2)
- Othniel the Canaanite (Judges 3:9)
- Shamgar and Jael the Kenites (Judges 3-5)
- Ruth the Moabite (Ruth)
- Obed-Edom (2 Samuel 6)
- Uriah and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12)
- Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10)
- Widow of Zarapeth (1 Kings 17)
- Na’aman (2 Kings 5)
- Some Samaritans (2 Kings 17)
- Job (Job)
- Sailors (Jonah 1:16)
- Ninevites (Jonah 3)
God is not stingy with salvation. God doesn’t only reserve salvation for a single nation. He never has. Instead, God is generous to all people. The promise of God’s lovingkindness belongs to all people—showing His lovingkindness to all those who love Him and keep His commandments (Exodus 20:6).
In response to this realization, we recognize God’s goodness. His saving grace has never been bound by our national borders, denominational lines, theological categories, ethnicity, gender, political affiliation, wealth, status, power, religion, or isolation. This is good news for all people everywhere and everywhen.
Someone is Muslim because he was raised in the Islamic state. God does not withhold His lovingkindness. Someone else lives on an island and has never heard the gospel. God does not withhold His lovingkindness. Don’t misread my words. I believe salvation is found only in Jesus Christ. There is no other name by which people are saved. For everyone who loves God, I would argue even if they have not heard the explicit name “Jesus,” God is saving them. Consider John’s words in the New Testament:
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also (1 John 4:12-21).
God first loves. Unless He first loves, no one is capable of loving Him. In fact, it is the presence of His Spirit that enables people to love in the first place. If anyone on the earth truly loves, God loved him first. This is a great comfort. We believe salvation is by grace through faith. If salvation is by grace, it doesn’t depend on any person’s work except for God’s. If anyone comes to love God, God will bring him in to Christ. It is guaranteed because God is good to all people everywhere and everywhen. He doesn’t have the boundaries we do. The Bible provides some great encouragement for people who love God but question their religion, theology, or denomination. What if I am wrong in what I believe about God? Will I miss eternal life because I was wrong in this life? I submit that is far too much pressure for anyone to put on himself or others. God is the one who saves, not us. Even when we are faithless, He is faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). Any viewpoint that limits God as if He were ever bound by our thoughts or actions leads us astray. If you truly love God and aren’t using your religion for the sake of self-promotion or selfish gain, the promise is yours because God is good and full of grace. He is generous with His lovingkindness and salvation.
Take courage, brothers and sisters. Remember what it means to have faith like that of children.
In this post, you read that God is generous, not stingy, concerning salvation. This realization has implications concerning remnant theology and how many people teach that only few will be saved. If you have any questions about those things, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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