God’s Attitude Towards You

God’s Attitude Toward You

This month, we are going to focus deeply on God’s attitude toward us. All of us have been around people who bring out the best in us and others who bring out the worst. What is it about them that makes the difference and produces such completely different results? I partly think it’s their attitude toward you. Today, we are going to explore God’s attitude toward us, which should motivate you to respond to His mercy.

In my last two articles, I covered God’s Preceptive Will and God’s Decretive Will. This month is the final category I will cover on God’s wills—His will of disposition.

R.C. Sproul states, “This will describes God’s attitude. It defines what is pleasing to Him. God takes no delight in the death of the wicked, but He has surely decreed it.” (Work Cited Section)

In R.C. Sproul’s definition of God’s disposition toward us, we see how He has what’s best for us in His mind and heart. It is in Sproul’s definition that theology (beliefs about God) comes to life. We see the decretive will and preceptive will come together to produce God’s attitude.

God’s laws (precepts), when obeyed, are the best things for His creation. However, God has decreed (decided) to allow mankind the gift of self-will, and He never causes violence to it. We will learn more about this topic when I write about God’s different causes that bring about His wills.

God Is the Greatest Good

When we read the Bible, we see two themes over and over again: God wanting to dwell with mankind, but mankind failing to follow God’s rules, which give them the right to dwell with a holy God. God wants to dwell with His people, and He communicates how mankind can do this after the Fall—through various sacrifices. However, mankind continually fails. God judges Israel, and Israel returns.

This cycle continues like a merry-go-round. What can we learn about the greatest good for mankind through these interactions with their Creator? God is continually pointing mankind back to Himself and the written Word He has given, found in the Bible.

God’s attitude will always point us back to His revealed truth found in the Bible. Why? He wants to see us succeed. He delights in our success. He delights in our greatest good. He delights in what brings life and not death. Success, the greatest good, and what brings true life—all are found in His Word.

It is in His Word—like Israel—that we should see our brokenness and failure, coming to terms with who we are without Him and the mercy He gives through His Son. God delights in giving His Son because He saw the importance of the greatest good obeying His Father’s Word when we could not.

Understanding this greatest good can help us understand God’s attitude toward us.

God’s Attitude

His attitude is delight in those who see their brokenness and their failure to keep the law and who trust in His salvation, given to all who believe. He takes no delight in those who perish in hell because of their lawbreaking. Just because He does not delight in it does not mean that He will not send lawbreakers there.

Being the omniscient God that He is, He knows the torment that awaits and the separation from His goodness. It is just for Him to enact a punishment like hell, but He does not take joyous delight in this action.

His delight comes when one sinner repents. If heaven is the place where complete obedience to the King of Kings is always carried out, let’s take a glimpse and look at the attitudes of those in heaven when one sinner repents. Here are the words of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke: “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)

God’s will in heaven is carried out completely. What do you notice from the text? It is the expression of joy. This expression is made possible because of what God delights in—sinners repenting and believing the Gospel. This is our greatest good, and it delights our Creator. How should this motivate us?

How Should God’s Decrees and Attitude Motivate Us?

Humans are motivated by so many things they genuinely think will make their lives better: health, money, friends, drugs, alcohol, sex, danger, the unknown, gambling, false religions, cults, etc. Some of these motivations are destructive, while others, at best, have their limitations and, at worst, lead to selfishness when abused.

God decided long before the world began, in eternity past, to reveal to us at the proper time the greatest good for mankind—His Son. His attitude toward us is one of life, not death. His attitude toward us is one of joy, not sorrow. However, many refuse His joyous gesture found in His ancient, revealed decrees.

The prophet Jeremiah states in his prophecy, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) The prophetic book of Jeremiah is full of the reality of Israel going into a second captivity because they would not listen to God.

Nevertheless, in this book of doom and destruction—God’s judgment brought about by their disobedience—we see God’s disposition: there is a future and a hope for them. This is what He decided long ago. However, they were going to have to face the consequences of their actions, but He would send a redeemer.

Man has been prone to try to find the greatest good apart from our Creator’s revealed guidance found in the Bible. Frank Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way” is the prophetic anthem that has destroyed humanity, starting with our father Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Will you let God’s attitude motivate you toward the truth?

The greatest good known to mankind is understanding God’s law, which He has so graciously revealed to us. This is how He reveals His will to us. Man has tried to find meaning and purpose by going his own way but continually comes to a dead end. Yet God wishes that none would perish.

His disposition toward us is one of ultimate good through giving us grace, even though we deserve death. How are you going to let this motivate you toward the truth?

A Few Application Points Until Next Month

1. If you are a believer, how are you going to let God’s greatest good—knowing His Word—transform the way you consume and apply the Holy Bible to your life?

2. If you are an unbeliever, will you let the dead ends of selfish pleasure drive you away from the judgment of God coming your way and toward the mercy found at the cross of Christ?

3. Finally, both should be grateful that God’s attitude toward us is revealed in such a way that we can know and act on it today. How are you going to share it with others until next month?

In next month’s article, I will present the first cause that brings about God’s will in His creation. I hope you read along with the others because it is in these next three articles—March, April, and May—that you will see the vast landscape of how God brings about His eternal decisions (decrees) into reality. Until then, go out and share the Gospel to see a life transformed, because the truth worth sharing is the truth that transforms.

Work Cited

R.C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1992), 67.