Book Review: The Great Love of God
In the good work of biblical counseling, perhaps you’re like me in the homework you assign. Alongside Scripture meditation and practical “doing” assignments, I also require counselees to read through specific books. The books almost always pertain precisely to the exact problem the counselee is facing. If it’s marital problems, read When Sinners Say “I Do.” If it’s anger, read Uprooting Anger.
This practice is right and good, and it should continue. But there are some occasions when it may be better for counselees to read a book that doesn’t zero-in on their problem but simply points them to God. Of course, you, as the counselor, can use such a book to address their specific problem in your meetings together. But we should consider the possibility that thinking about the problem too much may keep their eyes fixed on themselves instead of the Lord. A book, however, with an objective of highlighting the character of God can help drown their sin in His glory. With that in mind, consider the latest book by Heath Lambert, The Great Love of God: Encountering God’s Heart for a Hostile World.
After feeling the impact of his books Finally Free and A Theology of Biblical Counseling, I was eager to pick up this new release, and I was not disappointed. In his writing, Lambert is devotional without being watered-down and theological without being inaccessible. As a pastor, it’s the kind of book I’m on the lookout for, a book that I can hand to anyone in our congregation and know they will benefit.
In Finally Free, Lambert seems to be sitting across the table from you in the counseling room, addressing the sin of lust from a Christ-centered perspective. But in The Great Love of God, it feels more like you’re sitting in a chapel surrounded by a larger audience as he expounds the heart of God and applies it to all of us. Surely, you can’t take the biblical counselor out of Lambert, so you definitely recognize that mark of his ministry as you read, but this book is meant to gain a broader hearing.
Lambert writes this book fueled by personal experience with the love of God, which, for other authors, would give me pause, thinking that they would define God’s love by their experience. But at every point, Lambert stays anchored to the biblical text, showing us that the love he has experienced is the love of God described in Scripture. His encounter with the love of God occurred against the backdrop of intense suffering, which keeps the book from sappy sentimentality and shows his readers that God’s love for God’s people is present in the darkest trials.
After telling his story in chapter 1, Lambert spends chapter 2 explaining the three well-known words found in 1 John 4:8: “God is love.” This is a necessary chapter to begin with as Lambert leads his readers on a journey into the heart of God. The strength of this chapter can be seen in statements like this:
The fact that God is love means that when you experience his love, you are not experiencing something foreign to him. You have not encountered an add-on to his personality. Love is not a thing God picked up along the way. It is not a skill he had to learn. When you experience God’s love for you, you are experiencing something that comes from his very nature. Love is in God like heat is in fire. If you take heat out of the fire, you lose the fire. If you take love away from God, you no longer have God. (p. 15)
In the next few chapters, Lambert explores what God’s love is like and what it does for those who have come to Christ by faith. He turns to Scripture, for example, to show us how God’s love is like that of a faithful shepherd, a great dad, and a faithful husband. These biblical pictures help us bring God’s love down to earth so that we don’t lose sight of it as something purely mystical that doesn’t make sense to our finite minds. But much of the meat in the book is found in the chapters that describe the activity of God’s love. Lambert shows his readers that God’s love delights in His people, gives wonderful things, and protects His people. Along the way, Lambert adds insights from these realities to help us appreciate the depth of God’s love. Consider this nugget from the chapter on the protection God’s love provides:
Oh, how you need to consider all the ways God has protected you that you’ve never seen. You didn’t experience the drunk driver who never crashed into your minivan because God protected you, turning the car away from the intersection where your family was heading. You didn’t die from a viral infection because God protected you, keeping you from touching a virus-contaminated door handle when a person walking out the same door held it open just as you arrived…. Every day we are living in a world of narrow misses that we will never know about…. Sometimes God is protecting you the most when you are able to see it the least. (p. 81)
Up to this point in the book, Lambert has done an excellent job as a guide through the beautiful landscape of God’s heart, but, for me, the last several chapters are most helpful. He first tackles a couple of thorny issues related to God’s love: suffering and the existence of hell.
Pointing to the narrative of the raising of Lazarus in John 11, Lambert reveals how God, sometimes, loves His people with suffering, saying, “We often think of suffering in terms of what we lose. But the Bible speaks of suffering in terms of what we gain” (p. 104).
In the outstanding chapter on hell, he takes the opportunity to draw out two more attributes of God’s love that explain the reality of hell. God’s love is both righteous and jealous, and thus, “hell poses no problem for the love of God” (p. 113).
In the final chapters, Lambert turns to the Christian’s response to God’s love, making it clear that we are to trust in God’s love, love like God loves, and obey God’s love. This is a crucial way to end the book, because, as Lambert emphasizes, “real love reshapes you” (p. 124). We don’t simply observe God’s love and passively nod our heads as we think, “Good for Him.” His love transforms us and calls us to action.
The Great Love of God is a book I highly recommend for any biblical counselor, counselee, or Christian. I pray it has a wide readership. In fact, I wish that the title was more gripping for this reason. Though the title is true, it has the potential, I think, of being overlooked when it should be embraced. To fuel your faith and your own love, grab a copy to read… and a few more to give away.