The first evangelists never assured unconverted people that God loves them. This is not to say conclusively that He does not love them in any way whatsoever. But the undeniable fact is, the love of God for man was a total non-factor in the evangelistic preaching recorded in the New Testament. In the book of Acts, for example, the greatest manual for evangelism that exists, the word “love” is never even used. So the first supposedly essential phrase – “God loves you and wants to save you” – has absolutely no biblical precedent… Likewise, and contrary to the second common assumption about the essential content of the gospel message, the words, “Christ died for you” were never addressed to unconverted people. The only people who are ever assured in the Bible that Jesus bore their sins on the cross are Christians. You will search the Bible in vain to find words like, “Jesus died for you,” presented as a promise or an appeal to the lost.