The Difference between God’s Love and God’s Salvation

Years ago, I taught that there was nothing that could ever separate you from the love of God except yourself. I would look at passages like Romans 8:35ff and show that there was no external thing that could pry you away from God but then turn around and show that Christians absolutely could fall from grace (Galatians 5:4). The problem is that though Christians can fall from grace, as a number of other passages clearly demonstrate (like virtually the entire book of Hebrews), God never stops loving us. The whole point of Romans 5 and Ephesians 2 demonstrates this perfectly. God’s love is magnified in that while we were dead in sin, He (through Jesus Christ) still loved us enough to come and die for us. It is important to note this distinction because while we can never be removed from God’s love (no matter how hard we try), we can be removed from His salvation — they are not the same thing. Both are never-ending, but God loves us unconditionally while His salvation is conditional on us being in Christ (Ephesians 1:3) and continuing to walk in the light (1 John 1:7; Acts 8:22).