"Love Wins" - Hebrews 1:9

There is a Rob Bell book coming out soon entitled, Love Wins. Of course, I haven't read it yet as it is it not even in print. But I have seen the promo video and it is pretty clear from the video that Rob Bell is going to be articulating the position that we cannot be sure about who will be in heaven with God. He uses Gandhi, a Hindu, as an example of someone that we can't say  for sure is in or out. I don't know exactly what he is going to say but if the title of the book and the video is any indication, he is going to say in the end, "love wins". Let me say right now..I agree. The love of God is going to win in the end. No doubt about it. But what kind of love are we talking about?

Hebrews 1:9 says that "Thou [God] hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness..." This is a quote from Psalm 45:7, which is an Old Testament passage, but the writer of Hebrews includes this truth in the New Testament. So, God's Word, Old and New Testament, says that "God loves righteousness". But this is a little abstract. What about people?

Psalm 11:7 says, "For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face." Here the Scriptures state again that "God loves righteousness" and people who are "upright" i.e., righteous, will see Him someday. That is, they will be in His presence in heaven. The Bible says that no mere mortal in human flesh can look upon God and survive (see Exodus 33:20, I Timothy 6:16). So God loves righteousness and righteous people.

But the problem is that no one is righteous, not even one person (see Romans 3:10). There is no one who has ever lived that is righteous. Not Mother Teresa, not Gandhi, St. Francis of Assisi or anyone else you can mention was inherently or completely righteous on their own merits except the God/Man, Jesus Christ. He alone was a perfectly sinless person (Hebrews 4:15). That is why we must put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ in order for God to consider us righteous in Him (see II Corinthians 5:20).

Is God's love going to win in the end? Yes, no doubt about it. As Ephesians 1:4-5 says,

"In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed upon us in the Beloved."

God loves righteousness and God loves righteous people. But there are none. So, God in love sent His Son, "the Beloved" one, to die in our place so that we can be righteous and He can love us eternally. So love is definitely going to win. What do you know, Rob Bell and I finally agree on something!