God’s generosity is revealed most clearly in the gospel of Jesus Christ as being extravagant. He enjoys giving his best to no-good sinners.

One autumn day, a certain driver for a shipping company gave way to his lower nature and stole a package. It was a small package from a jewelry company, and his imagination got the best of him—notions of diamonds and riches that could pay off his gambling debts.

He of course knew well he was risking his job, but he was sure he was clever enough to get away with it.

He was wrong. He was nothing special, definitely not clever, just another average student during his school years who since getting this job had an unremarkable level of productivity and who at the casinos had a predictable string of losses.

His venture into crime was quickly uncovered, and he was summoned to a meeting with his supervisor. The supervisor confronted him, laying out the evidence. But then he did what is incomprehensible. Instead of summarily firing the driver, he made him an offer.

“If you will sign a confession of your crime and return the stolen goods, not only will I not fire you, I will forget it happened. I will not put this on your record. What’s more, in five years I promise to promote you and double your salary. In five more years, I will make you a part owner of the company. Thereafter you will receive one hundred shares of company stock as an annual bonus. Finally, I require that you follow me as your mentor for the rest of your days.”

Get real

Okay, so this little parable is far-fetched. Sure, you can find supervisors who give an employee a second chance, but no one promises a thief a promotion and an outlandish raise.

Unless you are the God of the gospel. Compared to what God offers sinners in the gospel, this little parable describes a piddling reward for amending one’s ways.

God’s generosity to a thief

For example, as Jesus hung on the cross, one of the thieves on another cross, who earlier had joined the crowd in heaping abuse on him, had a change of heart. He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42–43)

For a few hours of this criminal’s faith, Jesus did not promise him probation, not merely pardon, but paradise.

God’s generosity to a wasteful son

Similarly, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, when the son who had wasted his father’s inheritance on parties and prostitutes returned home prepared for the worst, his father gave him the best.

“The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.” (Luke 15:22–23)

Jesus did not promise this foolish son a chilly reception and a long rehabilitation making up for what he had wasted, but a party and the robe, family ring, and sandals of a true, beloved son.

God’s generosity to his servants

Jesus told another surprising parable.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

“And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went.

“Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

“And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

Immediate wages

“And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

“Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

Seemingly unfair generosity

“But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” (Matthew 20:1–16)

Jesus said God will not give his workers what they deserve, but rather generosity, extravagant generosity, generosity so extravagant it seems unfair.

Extravagant generosity

In fact, the gospel promises one extravagant reward after another to sinners who sincerely believe in Jesus.

1. He makes them sons and daughters and heirs of all he owns, which is everything (1 Corinthians 3:21–23).

2. He gives them an eternal, resurrection body in the likeness of Jesus (1 John 3:2).

3. He makes them his holy priests (1 Peter 2:9).

4. He makes them powerful kings (1 Peter 2:9).

5. He gives them the glories of the kingdom of God (Luke 12:32).

6. He gives them the pleasures of paradise (Luke 23:43).

7. He gives them the rights of citizenship in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21).

8. He rewards them with blessings of the New Creation that for now are only hinted at with symbols and metaphors, like the right to eat from the tree of life; imperviousness to the second death; hidden manna; authority over the nations; the morning star; a white stone with a new name written on it; white garments; one’s name written in the book of life with permanent ink; the acknowledgment of one’s name before the Father and his angels; a tattoo bearing the names of God, the New Jerusalem, and Jesus; and a seat on the throne with Jesus. All these rewards mysterious to us now but guaranteed to be good. (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26–28; 3:5, 12, 21)

9. Best of all, he gives them himself as redeemer, father, friend, king, Lord, elder brother, God, eternal provider, protector, shepherd, and so much more.

All this and more the gospel promises to sinners. While the Old Covenant definitely reveals God’s enormous generosity, nothing reveals his extravagant generosity more than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: Sinners expect the worst from God.

God’s way: He is over-the-top generous with bottom-feeding, no-good sinners.

Life principle: If you want the good life, you want God. (John 10:10)

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

We are the unworthy beneficiaries of a generous-hearted God. We are the recipients of his gracious love.

“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love’” (Exodus 34:6).

God’s love is gracious. Because of his grace, God loves us before we are good, before we are lovely.

Grace means giving to others what they do not deserve or have not earned. Grace is the overflow of God’s infinite love, goodness, and kindness, which is so great that he delights to bless even those who have offended and rejected him.

When God loved us in our sins, it was not as though he was a dog lover who walked by a pet rescue center, saw a cute, sad-eyed puppy in the window, and just couldn’t help himself but had to take that puppy home to the family. No, God’s love for sinners is his overflowing grace that delights to extravagantly love and show immeasurable kindness to those who least deserve it. In his grace, God chose to love people who were an abomination to him. He didn’t feel good about fallen sinners. Far from it.

For example, read the story of how God felt about the people of the world prior to his sending the deluge in Noah’s time: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (Genesis 6:5–7 ESV).

I’m going to give some Scriptures now that may shock you. You may even think I have lost it theologically, but please read to the end so you get my full, balanced explanation, and why it is important to understand and believe what these Scriptures say if we are to understand his love, grace, and gospel. If you don’t read to the end, you will misunderstand me.

Here we go. Notice in Scripture how God feels about both sin and sinners: “There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16–19). Notice that it is not just lies that God abominates; it is also the false witness who speaks them. It is not just discord that God hates; it is also the one who sows it.

As Psalm 5:4–6 says: “You are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.”

It sounds shocking to say God “hates evildoers,” but it cannot be otherwise. God is perfectly good, and perfect goodness cannot be indifferent about evil. Perfect goodness must hate and oppose evil. For example, a perfectly good father wants the good of his child and therefore hates any evil that could harm his child.

To use another example, no one would suggest that God could be indifferent toward the evil of Adolf Hitler or the mass shooters who plague American society. If God is perfectly good, he must hate the evil of a sociopath, or any other evil that God recognizes as such but that we often minimize or overlook because we are guilty of these evils or know someone who is guilty. (See Hebrews 1:8–9, in which God says of Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.”)

You may be thinking, Wait a minute; the Bible says God hates the sin but loves the sinner. That is an appealing saying, but it is not in the Bible. There is certainly a sense that God loves the sinner, but it is emphatically not that he feels good about them. God loves sinners in the sense that he cares about them, wants them to be saved from the guilt of sin, offers his Son Jesus to them as Savior, and for the present time patiently shows undeserved kindness to them in hope that they will repent and become children in whom he delights.

So when God loves sinners, it is an act of grace, not attraction. He gives love and chooses (Exodus 33:19) to have compassion on and show mercy to those who do not deserve it and in fact actually provoke his holy and just wrath and hatred. He gives extravagant love to his enemies (Matthew 5:43–45). In love he gave his beloved Son Jesus for sinners. That was the greatest expression of gracious love in human history (John 3:16–19). Jesus came to express and display the gracious love of God and his choice to show compassion and mercy to sinners (John 1:14–18).

But Jesus loved sinners

Still, this just does not sit right. If God loathes stubborn, proud, unbelieving sinners and regards them as his enemies, why did Jesus in his lifetime not express that? Jesus was the friend of sinners. He hung around tax collectors and showed kindness to prostitutes. He expressed compassion for those in bondage to Satan’s torments.

What’s more, it was the Pharisees—the bad guys of the Gospels—who despised sinners, while Jesus loved sinners and defended them from the Pharisees. And Jesus said he was the perfect reflection of God the Father.

So the idea that God in one sense loathes and—in another, limited sense—graciously loves sinners seems unthinkable.

Understanding the seeming contradiction

Three truths explain the paradox.

1. Jesus introduced a special period when God is offering mercy. In the salvation offered through Jesus, God opened a window of opportunity that will one day shut. In Jesus, God offers his gracious love (hence the topic of this post). God is offering his love to all, to the undeserving, the idol worshipers, the arrogant and rebellious, inviting them to humble themselves, repent, follow Jesus, and be saved. This is the gracious era of salvation, and Jesus offered it during his ministry. For this limited era, Jesus came not to condemn, but to save.

But this is only a season. This is not a permanent state of affairs. This door will close.

The New Testament says: “‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Again, the New Testament says, “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil” (Romans 2:4–9)

The Book of Revelation also makes clear that this period of God’s gracious, loving welcome to sinners will come to an end. When it does, the wrath of God that never left his heart but has been stored up against unrepentant sinners will finally be expressed in a great and terrible judgment. And it will be expressed not just by God the Father, but also by Jesus (see Revelation 6:16; 14:10; 19:11–21). As always, Jesus is perfect theology.

2. Jesus came to be our mediator and high priest. He came to mediate between us and God. Even though in his hatred of evil, God was against us, in gracious love he chose also to be for us (Romans 8:31–32) by sending a mediator who could satisfy his holy wrath, turning it away from us by taking it upon himself at the cross. The cross is the unmistakable evidence that God never lost his hatred of evil and evildoers, but in gracious love chose to save evildoers through the blood of Jesus.

So, Jesus showed kindness rather than hostility to sinners because that was his special role as the Mediator, the High Priest, the Savior, and the Lamb of God. Sinful humans could not come near to God without a mediator and Savior. This merciful, mediating role does not deny God’s wrath toward sinners, but rather emphatically affirms it. There would be no need for a mediating high priest if God felt good about sinners.

3. During his earthly ministry, Jesus actually did display God’s wrath and hostility toward some sinners. These sinners were of course primarily the Pharisees, and Jesus did not treat them warmly because most of them were beyond salvation, for they knew better and had hardened their hearts.

Jesus felt anger toward them: “Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come here.’ And he said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored” (Mark 3:1–5).

In his words he expressed utter loathing for them: “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew 23:33) (Read the full-length, scathing declaration of Jesus’ loathing for the Pharisees here: Matthew 23:15–35).

Pharisees were not the only ones toward whom Jesus expressed the wrath of God: “In the temple [Jesus] found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables” (John 2:14–15). That’s not nice, nor is it warm and welcoming, nor is it merciful.

Avoiding the pharisees’ error

As important as the truth of this post is, it can lead to error. Again, it was the error of the Pharisees. They hated sinners, even though they themselves were grievous sinners, blind to their own wickedness. Jesus condemned them for hypocrisy, selfishness, greed, hardness of heart, self-righteousness, injustice, godlessness. They thought they were good enough for God. They imagined they had kept the requirements of the law of Moses and judged others for not keeping it.

Why this is important

The reason this difficult truth is important to believe is it compels us to speak the gospel to lost people and urge them to come to Christ. If we believe God has warm and fuzzy love for everyone regardless of what they do or believe, we easily assume that God will certainly forgive and accept everyone but the most hardened sociopathic killers. It reminds us that apart from Jesus, the people you know and love are lost and facing eternal condemnation. You need to risk offending them by talking to them about the good news of Jesus.

And these truths give the proper warning to non-Christians that all is not well between them and their Creator. In fact, they are living under the shadow of a coming storm worse than any hurricane (Romans 1:18; 2:5, 8). God loves them, but he does not accept them and will certainly judge them if they do not trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: We think God loves us because we are lovable, because we are good.

God’s way: God gives you his love based not on your merits or your loveliness but rather based solely on his grace. He gives love you do not deserve.

Life principle: We must respond to God’s gracious love by repenting of breaking God’s commandments, by trusting in Jesus Christ to be our Savior from the guilt of our sins, and by following him from now on as our Lord.