Now, what about unbelievers? Well, unbelievers also experience something of God's benevolence and God's love. Now, they're not experiencing it in the way of salvation. We do call unbelievers to salvation, to repent and believe the gospel. But if they remain unbelievers, they do still experience God's, what we call his "common grace," his grace that comes in sustaining the universe. It goes all the way back to the Noahic covenant where God has promised that, until the end, seedtime and harvest, summer and winter will continue, that the giving of food, the giving of rain, the giving of care to them is displayed abundantly in preserving some of the structures of God's creation and family and in government and in order. I mean, all of this shows God's care towards both believer and unbeliever alike. And so, all of this speaks of God's love for, certainly, his people, his children, but also even unbelievers as he cares for them, calls out to them as the church ministers to them, and we see this abundantly through redemptive history as we await the coming of the end. So, all of those are ways that God's love and care is displayed to both believer and unbeliever alike.
Dr. Stephen J. Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Seminary. He is the Editor of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. Dr. Wellum has also taught at Associated Canadian Theological Schools and Northwest Baptist Theological College and Seminary.