Notice the phrase there, “I will love them freely.” This includes the idea of loving someone without “cause.” Now, think on that for a moment. God loves you without cause. The Father in heaven did not twist His Son’s arm behind His back and say, “Son, You have to go and die for those people and love them.” That would be a “cause.” The Son did not sit in heaven and ponder, “Those people are so adorable and desirable to Me, I have to go and save them.” Quite the contrary. Unredeemed, we are “ungodly” (Rom 5: 6), which means nothing in us is the least desirable or attractive to God! Seeing something attractive would be a “cause.” “Freely” means there is no cause except that He willed to do it for His own purposes.

Some of you wrestle with that. You want there to be a cause. But, really you don’t, because if you begin to start evaluating what would cause an infinitely holy God to do something, you will never find it. His wisdom is unsearchable. Be glad that the text says He loves "freely." If He put a condition down, you would completely fail!

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were functioning in the realm of the natural. With perfect bodies and with perfect minds, they mustered up all of the strength and devotion they had and could not keep one requirement. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God knew it already. He knew that if He was going to have a people to bear His name and give Him glory for all eternity, He must love them freely because there’s nothing in them worthy of His love. They can’t even keep one commandment.