If God is Good, Then Why Doesn’t He Save Everyone?

Every Sunday, churches everywhere boldly proclaim the goodness of God in song and preaching. Voices come together in unity. Many people even raise their hands in praise. The truth of God’s righteous character is taught from the Scriptures, and God’s people joyfully affirm it all!

But how can we sing about the goodness of God when it seems that He isn’t good to all people? How can we proclaim God’s lovingkindness when He chooses some for salvation, while others will remain apart from Him for eternity? Or perhaps the more important question is how can a loving, gracious, merciful God not save everyone from the eternal wrath of separation from Himself?

For centuries, theologians have been wrestling with and debating the theological truth that God doesn’t save everyone. (The belief that God saves everyone is an erroneous doctrine called Universalism.) Why the wrestling? Because there are verses in God’s Word (Ezekiel 18:23, 2 Peter 3:9) that suggest God’s desire is for all to be saved from eternal punishment. None are more direct than the words of the Apostle Paul in his first letter to his understudy, Timothy: “…God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

Yet, if this is the desire of God, how can an all-powerful God not sovereignly make His desire a reality? How can an all-loving Deity not accomplish what His heart longs for concerning the pinnacle of His creation? These questions keep theologians productive in their ongoing study, and keep men and women who consider the deeper things of God up at night, wondering.

So, where do we turn for the answer to these eternity-shaping questions? To the truth of what God reveals about Himself in His Word, of course.

When we dig into the New Testament Scriptures, we can reference passages from the mouth of Jesus Himself that declare a desire that all would come (Matt 11:28), and also that He (Jesus) only receives those that the Father has given to Him (John 6:44).

How can these seemingly divergent views of Jesus regarding man’s salvation be true? Scholars call this an antinomy, which means the ideas being considered are a logical contradiction that cannot be resolved. While God’s sovereign control and His willingness to empower humanity with free will seem to be mutually exclusive ideas, they’re not. The problem isn’t with God’s rule and reign. Rather, it’s with our finite ability to comprehend the two seemingly contradictory thoughts.

What this sort of antinomy requires of all people is that we should humble ourselves, remembering one essential truth about Almighty God. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah helps us with this powerful truth:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isaiah 55:8–9

This is a game changer for all who wrestle with the antinomy of God’s sovereign will and human responsibility in matters of saving faith — because Isaiah reminds us that our perspectives and understanding of God do not reign supreme. Rather, they are in submission to the One who does.

This causes us to consider God’s saving grace towards sinful men and women (Rom. 3:23, 6:23) with a humble heart. And it is precisely here, with a humble heart, that we can see the power and beauty of God’s saving actions.

God has a general love for all people. This is reflected in the common grace that He freely gives to all people — the blessing of children, good health, successful careers, leisure time with friends, etc. God also has a special love for those He’s chosen for Himself (John 15:16, Eph. 1:3–4, 1 Thess. 1:4, 1 Peter 2:9). He will not reject those who come to Him in humility. Theologian Michael Bird [SO1] explains how God’s deep love is modeled to His chosen people this way: “He demonstrates that [special] love by choosing a people for salvation even though neither they nor anybody deserved it.”[1]

God’s character is so holy that He simply cannot accept those who willfully reject Him — even though His love for them remains. The mystery is that He offers His amazing grace to any of us, while also allowing the unrepentant to follow their ways apart from Him.

This is the essence of how we approach the question: if God is good, why doesn’t He save everyone? We must look at God from a posture of humility. We should not look up to the heavens wondering why God doesn’t do things the way we would — a.k.a., save everyone. Instead, we should turn our gaze heavenward and reflect on the holiness of Almighty God. The more we reflect on the character of God — His goodness (Psalm 145:9, Mark 10:18, James 1:17), His righteousness (Romans 1:16–17, 3:21), His mercy (Psalm 103:8), His grace (John 1:16–17, Titus 2:11–14), and His love (Psalm 36:5–7, John 3:16, Romans 5:7–8), the more we’ll see that He is holy and worthy of nothing short of all glory.

As we come to understand what the Word reveals about the Father, we’ll be led to full dependence and trust in His character and plan. Both are far superior to what we can fathom! The character of God shows us that He does not delight in the destruction of sinners, yet we can trust that He is good — even though we may not fully understand His ways.

Further Reading:
Blog Post: Does God (Really) Desire All to Be Saved? By Tony Reinke
Essay: Does God Desire All to Be Saved? by John Piper
Book: Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

References:
[1] Michael F. Bird, Evangelical Theology (Zondervan, 2013) 529