God Is Love, But…

⚠️ Every post begins with a question and grows from my ongoing search to know God and understand His purpose for humanity. What you read here reflects my current view—born from study and wonder, and I often revisit and update my writings as I continue to learn and see more clearly.

There is a phrase often spoken in Christian spaces—sometimes whispered, sometimes shouted—that sounds humble but hides a quiet contradiction:

“God is good, but He is also holy.”

As though holiness somehow stands in tension with goodness.

This article examines one of the most frequently repeated claims that has portrayed God as internally divided.

“God is love, but He is also justice.”

At first glance, this seems reverent, balanced, sensible.
Yet beneath the surface, this framing subtly suggests that God’s love must be restrained, tempered, or counterweighted by something else, as though love and justice were competing inside God, pulling Him in different directions.

Scripture, however, never presents God this way.

The Bible does not say:

God is love and justice.
God is love but also wrath.
God is mercy balanced by retribution.

Instead, Scripture gives us something far more radical, cohesive, and beautiful. It tells us what God is, and then shows us how everything else flows from His character, which does not change.

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What Scripture Actually Says God Is

The Bible makes a small number of direct identity statements about God; statements that speak not merely of what He does, but of His essence:

“God is love.” — 1 John 4:8 

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” — 1 John 1:5 

“God is spirit.” — John 4:24 

“Our God is a consuming fire.” — Hebrews 12:29 

Notably absent from this list is one phrase many assume must be there: “God is justice.” Justice, in Scripture, is presented as the shape His love takes when it confronts what harms, distorts, or destroys His creation.

In the Book of Hosea, God’s justice is revealed as His unwavering faithfulness to love, doing what is right not by withdrawing, but by remaining present, pursuing, and restoring what belongs to Him. 

“How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? …
My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.” — Hosea 11:8 

What is just in Hosea is that God does not abandon, replace, or exclude the unfaithful; instead, He restores through union, bearing the cost Himself and extending His own name, provision, and future to those who have none, because justice, in God, flows directly from who He is.

For the expanded Hosea narrative on relentless love, see foot note: ¹

Justice Revealed as Self-Giving Love

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” — 1 Peter 3:18 

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:21 

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…” — Romans 5:6, 8, 10 

God’s justice is self-giving rather than retaliatory.

Justice Revealed as Reconciliation

“In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…” — 2 Corinthians 5:19

“And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” — Colossians 1:20 

“More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” — Romans 5:11 

God’s justice restores communion, transforming enemies into friends.

Justice Revealed as Inner Restoration

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…” — Ezekiel 36:26 

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” — Jeremiah 31:33 

“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…” — Joel 2:28 

God’s justice restores the will from within, not by imposing punishment from without.

Love Is the Substance — Justice Is the Expression 

This distinction matters. When we reverse it, when justice becomes primary and love becomes secondary, we distort the Gospel. We begin imagining a God who must be persuaded to love, rather than a God whose love explains everything He does.

Scripture never pits love against justice. Instead, it grounds justice in love.

Consider how love is described, not sentimentally, but functionally:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant…
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.” — 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 

This is enduring love, patient love, corrective love, hopeful love.

God does not become divided within Himself when acting justly. He is not bipolar. He does not set aside His own being in order to act righteously. He does not pause being a loving Father in order to discipline or rescue His children from self-destruction.

If God is love, then every act of discipline and chastisement must look like this.

“Our God is patient and kind… bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never fails in restoring His creation.”

Anything called “justice” that contradicts patience, kindness, endurance, or hope cannot reflect God’s nature, no matter how religious the language used to defend it.

“God is love; He does not have love as something added to Him…
He is love; it is the way He is in His essential nature.
He is the definition of love; love is the way He is—agapē.”
— Malcolm Smith

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God Is Light — Reality Revealed

Scripture also tells us:

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” — 1 John 1:5 

Light does two things simultaneously:
It reveals truth.
It dispels darkness.

Light does not torture darkness.
Light does not negotiate with darkness.
Light simply overcomes it by being what it is.

Judgment, in this sense, is light’s triumph over darkness, where illusion collapses and truth stands unveiled. God’s justice is not the punishment of wrongdoing, but the dispelling of darkness as light reveals our true identity and restores it.

And Scripture promises:

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” — John 1:9 

Everyone.

“He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son.” — Colossians 1:13

“Then again, I am also writing to you a new commandment, which is true in Him and also in you. For the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining.” — 1 John 2:8

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” — 2 Corinthians 4:6

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God Is Spirit — Shared Life

To say that God is Spirit is to say that God is immaterial, invisible, infinite, and unrestricted by physical boundaries.  Scripture speaks of Him as “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible” (1 Timothy 1:17), not to imply distance or absence, but transcendence without limitation. 

The Greek word pneuma (πνεῦμα), used in “God is spirit” (John 4:24), evokes breath, wind, and life—an unseen yet powerful reality that animates, sustains, and permeates without being confined.

This is why the psalmist can ask:

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” —Psalm 139:7–10 

As Spirit, God is without beginning or end; therefore, unchangeable in His being and purpose.

This understanding is essential for grasping the promise of the Spirit’s outpouring: 

“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” —Joel 2:28 

If God’s Spirit is poured upon all flesh, then His justice cannot mean abandonment, exclusion, or condemnation. Justice, in this light, must mean transformation by association, awakening by revelation, and renewal by God’s own life within, even beyond the conquered grave.

The final aim of God’s Spirit-filled purpose is not partial restoration, but fullness:

“When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.” —1 Corinthians 15:28

All things are brought into Him, and God becomes all in all.

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Consuming Fire — Love That Heals and Purifies

Perhaps no image has been more misunderstood than this one:

“Our God is a consuming fire.” — Hebrews 12:29 

Godly fire, in Scripture, consistently serves a purpose:

It purifies: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver…” — Malachi 3:3 

It refines: “I will refine them as one refines silver…” — Zechariah 13:9 

It removes what cannot endure: “The fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” — 1 Corinthians 3:13 

Jesus Himself says:

“For everyone will be salted with fire.” — Mark 9:49 

Everyone.

What survives the fire is what belongs. What burns away is what never did.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” — Matthew 3:11

Fire symbolizes the Spirit’s refining work, purifying what has been corrupted and removing what does not belong — not by burning flesh, but by cleansing the soul.

P.S. Soul – Psychē (ψυχή) refers to the seat of human life as experienced: our will, perceptions, assumptions, desires, and interpretive framework about reality. It is the lived self: how we think, choose, fear, hope, and understand the world.

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Justice in Scripture

Having established that love is God’s essence, Scripture confirms that divine justice is the expression of who God is, revealed in His ways and actions as inseparably merciful, loving, and just.

“The Rock, his work is perfect,  for all his ways are justice,  a God of faithfulness and without iniquity,  just and upright is he.” — Deuteronomy 32:4 

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.” — Psalm 89:14 

Steadfast love is how God’s justice is applied.
Justice and faithfulness are not separable or competing aspects.

We have heard, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and assumed God would punish those who do evil, while teaching us—fallible human beings—to forgive our enemies. We missed the fact that God’s “vengeance” is completely different from our assumptions about it.

Notice what Paul says while instructing believers to leave it to God to deal with those who persecute them:

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all…  If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” — Romans 12:17, 20–21 

God does not hold a higher standard for us than He holds for Himself.

Jesus echoes this same divine logic:

“But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” — Matthew 5:39 

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” — Luke 6:27–28 

Paul reinforces it again:

“See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:15 

The New Testament reveals divine justice not as punishment aimed at persons, but as God’s righteous and loving action against what deforms, enslaves, and destroys human life:

“God… sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” — Romans 8:3 

God’s justice is:

Toward sin itself, not the sinner

Toward death, not the dead

Toward deception, not the deceived

The triumph over our true enemy reaches its climax at the empty tomb:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” — 1 Corinthians 15:54

Divine justice does not condemn people; it abolishes what is destroying God’s offspring.

P.S. Humanity is God’s offspring through Adam—flesh (Luke 3:38), and through Jesus—Spirit (Luke 1:35). See also Ephesians 4:6; Malachi 2:10; Ephesians 3:14–15.

The Wrath of God — Love in Relentless Motion

Scripture never presents God’s wrath as the suspension of His love. If God is love, then His ‘wrath’ cannot be something other than love, nor can it function in opposition to His nature.

The Greek word orgē (often rendered as wrath) does not describe volatile anger or emotional loss of control. It denotes settled passion and persistent opposition to whatever threatens what is loved. God’s wrath is not rage aimed at His children; it is love aimed at their destruction.

As C. Baxter Kruger puts it:

“God’s wrath is not the opposite of His love.
God’s justice is not the opposite of His mercy.”

Orgē: Fatherly Zeal, Not Divine Rage

Throughout Scripture, orgē is paired with patience, longsuffering, and mercy, not volatility. This alone dismantles the idea of wrath as divine temper.

“For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you… with everlasting love I will have compassion on you.” — Isaiah 54:7–8

“I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” — Jonah 4:2

Wrath, then, is not God losing control. It is God refusing to lose His children.

As Malcolm Smith writes:

“The wrath of God is His passionate, limitless love to overcome anything and everything that would separate humankind from His love purpose.”

The Cross: Wrath Revealed as the Defeat of Destruction

The clearest revelation of God’s wrath is not destruction from heaven, but the incarnation and death of Jesus. If wrath were hostility toward humanity, the cross would depict divine withdrawal.

Instead, Scripture says God was in Christ, entering our violence, sin, and death in order to heal them from within.

In this sense, Jesus Himself is the ‘wrath’ of God, the fiery, holy, unrelenting divine opposition to our self-destruction.

As Kruger writes:

“The greatest example of the wrath of God is the incarnation and the death of Jesus…”; ” The wrath of God is the love of the Father, Son and Spirit passionately opposing our self-destruction.”

God does not put love aside when He acts justly.
He acts justly because He is love.

Wrath is not God against us.
Orgē is God for us, against everything that destroys us.

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Why “God Is Good, But…” Misses the Point

When we say “God is good, but…”, we unintentionally imply that love has limits—limits defined by something more ultimate than love. This framing places goodness under suspicion, as though it must be balanced, restrained, or corrected by another attribute.

Scripture never does this.

God’s justice does not restrain His goodness.
His justice is His goodness in action.

Love is the substance.
Light is the revelation.
Fire is the purification.
Spirit is the restoration.

God’s justice is the trajectory love takes until everything false is undone, everything true remains, and everything is restored to the goodness with which God first greeted creation:

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” — Genesis 1:31

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Love Wins Because Love Is

The Gospel does not announce a God torn between mercy and judgment. It reveals a God whose love is so uncompromising that nothing opposed to life can endure His presence forever.

And because love never fails, neither does His purpose.

“declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,”—Isaiah 46:10

“For from him and through him and to him are all things.” — Romans 11:36 

That is not sentimental optimism.
That is theological coherence.

And it is very, very good news.

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BONUS: God’s Justice is Restorative, Not Retributive

By Mike Dale

• God’s judgments are not an end state; they move people back into righteousness.

“But judgment will return to righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.” — Psalm 94:15

• God’s judgments are instructional and corrective, producing repentance rather than endless torment.

“When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” — Isaiah 26:9

• God’s justice does not fail until it is fully established everywhere, meaning it succeeds universally.

“He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law.” — Isaiah 42:4

• God’s justice is temporary in severity and rooted in mercy, not eternal affliction.

“For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly.” — Lamentations 3:31–33

• God’s justice cannot be separated from mercy; they function together, not in opposition.

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face.” — Psalm 89:14

• Divine justice is explicitly described as loving correction, not final rejection.

“For whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” — Proverbs 3:12

• God’s discipline has a stated goal: righteousness and peace, not endless punishment.

“For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit… afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” — Hebrews 12:10–11

• God wounds only to heal, revealing judgment as restorative by design.

“Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.” — Hosea 6:1

• God’s justice culminates in the complete removal of sin, not its eternal preservation.

“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity… He delights in mercy… You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” — Micah 7:18–19

• God explicitly denies that destruction is His goal in judgment.

“Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die… and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” — Ezekiel 18:23

• God’s justice aims at repentance and life, not death as a final outcome.

“For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies… therefore turn and live!” — Ezekiel 18:32

• God limits judgment so that human beings are not crushed beyond restoration.

“For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail before Me.” — Isaiah 57:16

• God’s wrath is temporary, while restoration is enduring.

“For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life.” — Psalm 30:5

• God’s justice operates within a universal mercy that encompasses all creation.

“The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” — Psalm 145:9

• God’s justice and salvation are united and result in universal allegiance.

“There is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior… To Me every knee shall bow.” — Isaiah 45:21–23

• God’s justice is revealed as salvation, not endless condemnation.

“The LORD has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.” — Psalm 98:2–3

• Jesus defines divine justice as healing and liberation.

“He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives.” — Luke 4:18

• God proves His justice by forgiving and restoring sinners.

“That He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” — Romans 3:26

• All prophecy points toward universal restoration as the goal of God’s justice.

 “Whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things.” — Acts 3:21

• God’s justice results in the reconciliation of all things, not their eternal division.

“For it pleased the Father… by Him to reconcile all things to Himself.” — Colossians 1:19–20

• God’s justice is complete only when nothing remains unreconciled.

“Then comes the end… that God may be all in all” – 1 Corinthians 15:24–28

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FAQs

1. Hosea – Union as the Method of Divine Restoration
   The prophetic vocation of Hosea is unique in that the message is not primarily spoken but enacted. Hosea’s marriage is not an illustrative metaphor appended to prophecy; it is the prophecy. The command to marry Gomer (Hosea 1:2) places the prophet himself inside the condition he is sent to address, collapsing the distance between divine accusation and divine involvement.
   
   In the ancient Near Eastern context, marriage functioned as a public, covenantal union involving shared name, property, honor, and social standing. By marrying a woman publicly identified with prostitution, Hosea does not merely associate with sin abstractly; he legally and socially binds himself to a person whose identity carries stigma, moral suspicion, and communal dishonor. From that moment forward, Hosea’s prophetic authority is exercised from within shared disgrace, not from moral separation.
   
   This is critical. Hosea does not correct Gomer before union. He does not require transformation as a condition of belonging. The union itself establishes the framework within which faithfulness, discipline, and restoration occur. The text consistently presents Hosea bearing consequences that arise from the relationship—loss, public shame, emotional suffering—without ever framing these as penalties imposed on Gomer. The prophet absorbs the cost of her condition simply by remaining bound to her.
   At the same time, Gomer’s status is materially altered by the marriage. She is brought into Hosea’s household, lives under his name, and is sustained by his resources. Whatever honor, protection, or security belonged to the prophet now extends to her by virtue of union alone. The text offers no indication that she earns this status through reform. Covenant triumphs over unilateral merit.
   
   This pattern governs the theological movement of the book. Israel’s unfaithfulness is not addressed through divine withdrawal but through deeper commitment. God speaks repeatedly of betrothal, pursuit, and restoration using marital language (Hosea 2:14–23). The restoration promised is not framed as the reward for repentance, but as the outcome of God’s determination to remain bound to His people despite their condition. Judgment, within Hosea’s framework, operates as exposure of relational fracture and as the means by which false securities are dismantled, not as a mechanism for separation.
   When read Christologically, Hosea’s enacted prophecy anticipates a mode of redemption grounded in shared condition rather than external adjudication. The logic is incarnational. Just as Hosea assumes the social and emotional consequences of his bride’s shame, Christ assumes the full human condition, including its guilt, dishonor, and corruption. This assumption is not symbolic; it is ontological. Flesh is taken, not observed. Identity is shared, not evaluated from a distance.
   
   “In all their affliction He was afflicted,
   And the Angel of His Presence saved them;
   In His love and in His pity He redeemed them;
   And He bore them and carried them
   All the days of old.” Isaiah 63:9
   
   The exchange that results is covenantal, not transactional. Humanity contributes its broken state; Christ contributes His righteousness, inheritance, and standing before God. The transfer is effected through union, not moral qualification. Hosea’s life demonstrates that restoration unfolds from within relationship, not from the enforcement of conditions external to it.
   In this way, Hosea destabilizes any model of divine judgment that depends on distance, retribution, or exclusion. The book presents a God whose holiness is expressed through costly solidarity, whose faithfulness is exercised through remaining bound, and whose restorative intent operates by entering fully into the reality that needs healing.
   
   Hosea 11:8–9 (NKJV)
   “How can I give you up, Ephraim?
   How can I hand you over, Israel?
   How can I make you like Admah?
   How can I set you like Zeboim?
   My heart churns within Me;
   My sympathy is stirred.
   I will not execute the fierceness of My anger;
   I will not again destroy Ephraim.
   For I am God, and not man,
   The Holy One in your midst;
   And I will not come with terror.”
   
   2 Corinthians 5:19
   “That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
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