FB meme: The modern-day gospel says, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved."

A FB friend posted this.

The text:

The modern-day gospel says, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved."

Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, "You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life."

Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do.

The self-appointed Doctrinal Police are zealous in defending us from heresy, which is fine as far as it goes, but sometimes it seems they are looking for monsters under every rock. This is one of those times.

So the first claim seems to be that God doesn't love you before you become a Christian. I certainly admit there are specific people named in the Bible that God hated, like Esau for example (Romans 9:13), but is it fair to suggest that God hates all sinners?

A quick word search of my Bible yielded only one Scripture describing a general hate of God for the sinner, Ps. 5:5: The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. I would be reluctant to use this one verse to characterize God, especially when we consider verses that express contrary thoughts:

Jn. 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Ro. 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ep. 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.

God's love came before our repentance. Thus, it is not incorrect to assert that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. 

Regarding the second part, Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved," although a bit inelegant in phrasing, is not incorrect. There are some things a person needs to do when they hear the call of the Holy Spirit. Believe, repent, and obey.

So the meme concludes with a statement that most every Christian believes. We we once enemies of God, we were dead in our sin, we were blinded to our sin, and there is indeed nothing we can do to save ourselves. none of this contradicts the first statements of the meme.