Love Before the World Was Made

Before There Was a Universe to Love

Try to imagine nothingness. Not darkness, because darkness requires light to be present. Not silence, because silence requires sound to be absent. Not emptiness, because emptiness requires space. Try to imagine the absence of all things. No matter. No energy. No time. No space. No creation. Nothing but God.

And in that nothing, before there was anything at all, before the first star ignited in its vastness, before the first human heart beat its first beat, before any of us existed in any form whatsoever—God loved you. Not the idea of you. Not a category of people called "the elect" in some abstract sense. You. The particular, specific, unrepeatable you. Your face. Your name. Your life.

This is not sentiment. This is not poetry, though it deserves poetry. This is theology. This is the heart-shattering reality at the center of Christianity. Your existence in the mind of God predates your existence on earth. Your being loved by God predates your being born. Your adoption into His family was decided before there was a family to adopt you into.

Listen to what Paul says:

Before the foundation of the world. Do you feel the weight of those words? Before God ever spoke existence into being, before He said "Let there be light," before the cosmos exploded into being in the infinite creativity of God, He had already set His love upon you.

This love is not a response. It is not God looking ahead through the corridors of time, seeing that you would be good enough, and then deciding to love you based on that foresight. No. This love is original. It comes first. It is the cause of everything else, not the result of anything you do or could do.

The Love That Predates Everything

Most people think of love as something that grows. It starts small—a spark of attraction, a moment of connection—and then it grows as you learn more about the person, as they prove themselves worthy of love, as they give you reasons to love them. This is the only kind of love we can manufacture. This is love that must be earned.

But God's love is not like this. God's love is not reactive. It does not wait for data. It does not need time to develop. It is not the conclusion of an argument. It is not a response to beauty or goodness or worthiness. It is original. It comes first.

And it comes from a mind that exists outside of time. A mind that does not discover things as they happen. A mind that knows, from before the foundation of the world, every circumstance that will surround your life, every sin you will commit, every failure and weakness and darkness in your heart. And knowing all of that, God chose you anyway. God set His love upon you anyway. God said: "I will have this one. I will redeem this one. I will make this one My own."

Think about what this means. God did not choose you despite knowing who you would become. He chose you knowing exactly who you would become. He knows your future sins as well as He knows your future faith. He knows your future failures and your future victories. He knows the ways you will dishonor Him and the ways you will glorify Him. And before time began, He loved you.

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)

Notice that word: drawn. The drawing is not the cause of the love. The drawing is the expression of the love. God's love for you is so complete, so certain, so real that it draws you to Him. It pulls. It calls. It reaches out from before the foundation of the world and touches your life right now, in this moment, with the weight of an eternity of love behind it.

Security in a Love That Came First

Do you understand what this does to your sense of security? Do you understand what it means for your salvation to rest not on your choice, but on God's choice made before time began?

If your salvation depended on the steadfastness of your faith, you would be in constant danger. Your faith fluctuates. Some days you believe with confidence; other days you doubt. Some days you feel God's presence; other days He seems distant. Some days you run toward Him with enthusiasm; other days you run away in shame. If your salvation depended on that, you would be lost and found, lost and found, eternally in flux.

But your salvation does not depend on that. Your salvation was decided before you could doubt, before you could fail, before you could sin. It was decided in the love of God, and that love does not fluctuate.

This is what Jesus means when He says to His disciples:

Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Matthew 16:17–18

The revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God—this revelation does not come from human reasoning or human effort. It comes from God the Father. And the church that is built on this revelation cannot be overcome. Not by the powers of death. Not by the gates of hell. Not by your sins or your failures or your weakness.

Because the church is built not on your strength, but on Christ. And Christ is built not on your love, but on God's love. And God's love is eternal.

Loved While You Were Still a Thought in God's Mind

There is a sequence in Scripture that should make you weep. Paul describes it in Romans:

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:29–30

The chain is unbreakable. Foreknowledge leads to predestination, which leads to calling, which leads to justification, which leads to glorification. If you are chosen, you will be called. If you are called, you will be justified. If you are justified, you will be glorified.

But notice where it begins: foreknowledge. God knew you. Before time. God knew you with a love so deep, so complete, that it set in motion the entire trajectory of your salvation. Before you were born, before you took your first breath, before you had the capacity to know yourself, God knew you and loved you with an eternal love.

And in that love, He predestined you. He marked you out. He said: "This one will be conformed to the image of My Son. This one will be like Christ. This one will be My beloved child."

John Owen, the great Puritan theologian, understood this. He understood that election is not God looking down through time and saying, "I will choose those who choose me." Rather, it is God, in His eternal counsel, setting His love upon sinners and determining to redeem them through Christ. And that determination is so complete, so certain, that it brings about everything necessary for their salvation—their calling, their conversion, their justification, their sanctification, their glorification.

Election is the fountain and spring of all the mercy that flows to us in the course of our lives. Everything that comes to us comes through that channel. John Owen

Everything that has come to you—every mercy, every kindness, every grace—has flowed through the channel of an election that was made before the world began. Your very redemption is the overflow of a love decision that preceded your existence.

The Drawing: Love Made Manifest

If God loved you before the foundation of the world, how does that love become real in time? How does an eternal decision become a present reality in your life?

It becomes real through what Scripture calls "drawing." When God said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness," He was describing the mechanism by which His eternal love enters time and touches your life.

The drawing is gentle. It is not violence. It is not coercion. It is the loving pull of someone who has known you forever, who has always loved you, and who now reaches out through the gift of the Holy Spirit to say: "Come home. You are beloved. You are known. You are safe."

And the remarkable thing is that when the Holy Spirit draws you, you do not experience it as compulsion. You experience it as the deepest desire of your heart suddenly becoming clear. You experience it as awakening. You experience it as coming home to a place you did not know you had always belonged.

This is why faith is not a burden. This is why conversion is not the white-knuckled determination to change yourself through sheer willpower. When you understand that you are being drawn by a love that predates your existence, faith becomes a gift. Conversion becomes surrender. Obedience becomes gratitude.

Jonathan Edwards understood this as well. He taught that when the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see the beauty of Christ, the response is not something you have to manufacture. It is something that flows naturally from a heart that has been awakened. It is the love of God, coming to you across the expanse of time from before the foundation of the world, and meeting your heart with a tenderness that makes you incapable of not loving in return.

A Love That Nothing Can Undo

Here is the most liberating truth: a love that came before all things cannot be undone by anything that comes after.

If your election were conditional—if it depended on your performance, your strength, your faithfulness—then it would be vulnerable. A moment of weakness could threaten it. A season of doubt could jeopardize it. A sin could potentially undo it.

But your election is not conditional. It is rooted in a love that existed before you had any capacity to perform or fail, to be strong or weak, to believe or doubt. It is rooted in a love that is not based on anything you do or stop doing. It is rooted in the purposes of God, in His will, in His infinite wisdom and His eternal counsel.

And therefore, nothing can undo it. Paul says:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38–39

Nothing. Not death. Not life. Not present struggles or future failures. Not your sins or your weaknesses or your doubts. Nothing can separate you from a love that predates everything, that undergoes everything, that transcends everything.

This is not because you are strong. It is not because you will never fall or fail or doubt. It is because the love that holds you was established before you existed, and it will hold you long after you have forgotten how to hold yourself.

The Warmth of Being Known Forever

Stand in the presence of this truth for a moment. Before you were born, you were known. Before you took your first breath, you were loved. Before you had done a single thing—good or bad, right or wrong—God had set His love upon you.

This is not a distant, philosophical truth. This is intimate. This is personal. God knew you. Not as a statistic. Not as one data point among billions. You. The particular, unrepeatable essence of who you are—God knew it. God loved it. God said: "I want this one. I want to redeem this one. I want to make this one My own."

Do you understand what this means for your deepest loneliness? What it means for your fear that you are fundamentally unknown? What it means for the times you have felt invisible or forgotten?

You have never been invisible to God. You have never been forgotten. Before memory existed, before time itself began, you were known and loved. Not for what you would accomplish. Not for how you would impress anyone. Just for being you. For being the particular, beloved creature that God, in His infinite love, chose to create and redeem and call His own.

But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you... for I am with you, declares the Lord." Jeremiah 1:7–8

This is what God says to Jeremiah—and through Jeremiah, to you. Do not be afraid. Do not diminish yourself. Do not think that you are too young, too weak, too inadequate. "I am with you," says the Lord. And this "I am with you" is not a recent decision. It is the expression of a love that has loved you from the beginning.

From Eternity to Now

And now—in this moment, as you read these words, as you sit with the reality of your own life—the love that was decided before the foundation of the world is active and present. It is drawing you. It is calling you. It is wooing you toward home.

This is the calling. This is the concrete expression of God's eternal love entering into time. You are being called. Not coerced, but called. The God who loved you before you existed is calling you now to know Him, to be known by Him, to surrender to the reality of a love that has always been yours.

And the remarkable thing is that this calling never lets you go. It is gentle but insistent. It is kind but irresistible. You may run from it for a time, but it follows. You may ignore it for a season, but it persists. Because it is rooted in a love that does not give up, that does not tire, that does not weaken.

The love that called you before the foundation of the world is calling you now. And it is calling you forward. Forward into a life of increasing conformity to Christ. Forward into a joy that grows deeper. Forward into a love that overflows from you to others. Forward into the very presence of God.

And it will keep calling you, keep drawing you, keep holding you, until you stand before the face of God and understand, finally and fully, what it means to have been loved with an everlasting love.