God's love...conditional or unconditional?

What does it mean - and not mean - when were are told God loves us unconditionally? 

* For those who are in Christ, Gods love is totally unconditional. Nothing they do, good or bad, can add to or take away from his infinite never-ending love. 

Rom 5:8  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Eph 2:5  even when we were dead in our trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved—

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (NOTHING!) 39 ... will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

* However the most stringent conditions required to be in harmony with God and partake in his beauty, love, and joy are still fully in effect. 

Mat 5:17  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Mat 5:18  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 

But they were also perfectly met/satisfied, just not by us. We were not able to meet them. So Jesus met them for us and then assigned/credited his track record of perfect obedience to us as if we lived it. In Christ God now see's us and loves us as if we are perfectly righteous.

*However, once we have received his free offer/gift of righteousness through Christ, our fully taking part in and experiencing this perfectly secured unconditional love is conditional. It is conditioned upon our faith and faithfulness to God. 

We are not talking about securing God's love and acceptance of us (objectively). Christ already accomplished this for us. We are talking about experiencing and participating in this fully secured love. 

There is nothing for us to do to make God's love more certain/secure and us more acceptable i.e nothing we do will add to or take away from that love in and through Christ.

Because of Christ's faithfulness/efforts we are free to pursue God with his perfect love fully set upon us even if we do not pursue him perfectly. Nothing stops God's love; not even our unfaithfulness.

Our being perfectly loved in Christ regardless of our faithfulness frees and empowers us to become perfect in devotion and faithfulness to Christ. 

In summary here are the two contrasting ways we relate to God's love: 

• his love is unconditional -- or rather conditioned upon Christ's efforts 
• our experiencing and fully participating in it is conditional - based on our faith/faithfulness.

This is possibly one of the hardest distinctions to grasp and causes great confusion for many. We mix these up all the time. I did and on occasion have to remind myself of this. 

We must keep these separate while at the same time see how they are vitally connected. The latter -  participating in God's love - is grounded in and flows out of the former - we are perfectly and fully loved in Christ. We must constantly remind ourselves that we are fully accepted and loved no matter what and yet at the same time know that to fully participate in that love, requires our complete trust/obedience. 

Without the former, the latter would not be possible and without the latter, we will never fully participate in the former. In other words, to fully benefit from the former, we must do the latter.

The following verses support the latter i.e. the conditional nature of experiencing/ participating in God's love.  

John 14:21  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest  myself to him.”...

This verse tells us obedience is:

 *evidence of our love for God, not the cause of it 

"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me..." 

*it is also the means by which we experience the Fathers love 

"... he who loves me will be loved by my Father...," 

*and Christ's love 

"...and I (Christ) will love him and manifest myself to him.”  

John 14:23  Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Again  

*evidence of our love 

"...if anyone loves me, he will keep my word..."

*means by which we experience God's love 

"...my Father will love him..." 

*and Christs...

"we will come to him and make our home with him..."

Heb 4:16  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jas 4:8  draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The following shows how the latter is only possible because of the former. 

Heb 7:19  (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

Heb 10:22  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Heb 11:6  And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

The following verse shows how we can never experience the former by our efforts/obedience to the law.

Heb 10:1  For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

The following passage shows how we are free to do the latter because the former has been fully taken care of. 

Romans 8:1-4 ¹There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For a more succinct explanation click here