The Greatness Of God’s Love For Us

When you hear of atrocious deeds, do you ever wonder if God still loves their perpetrators? If God’s love is also for them?

A lot of times, when we hear of evil in the world, the question that comes to mind is why God let it happen. We often hear people ask after a tragedy, “why does a good God let bad things happen to good people?”

But have you ever stopped and wondered, how does a good God still love bad people instead? I never thought about that until about a few weeks ago.

I watched a six-part documentary about a particular singer and the crimes he committed during his career. His list of crimes included sleeping with underage girls, sexual abuse/assault, and kidnapping. Several of these women appeared in the documentary and shared their gut-wrenching stories of abuse at the singer’s hand. It was sickening.

By the end of the first episode, I was ready to delete all his songs from my iPod. And by the end of the sixth episode, I was willing to send him to the stake to be burned alive. I was infuriated by his actions, heartbroken for the women who suffered because of him, and appalled that he escaped justice for so long.

Rage consumed me, and I craved for justice. I wanted that artist to pay for his crimes, sentenced to life imprisonment so young girls would be far from his reach. Even more, I wanted him to also suffer in eternity. I am not proud of it, but I wished he would never repent or find Jesus so he could rot in hell forever (not very Christian, I know).

While I was ruminating on these not-so-Christian-loving-forgiving ideas, a random thought just popped into my head: God loves him.

Pause

Next, the following verses came unbidden to my mind.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Another pause

What?!

Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love, which includes all the crimes of that singer. It doesn’t matter how much harm he has caused; God still loves him. The thought made me a little uncomfortable, and I wrestled with it.

I knew God’s love was great and all that, but surely, He couldn’t possibly keep on loving people like that singer, people that are pure evil, people that commit heinous crimes, and inflict tremendous pain on others.  

How could God still love them? At the very least, He could love them a little less. I opened my Bible to re-read those verses because it couldn’t be right. That’s when I noticed the end of the text, which says, “the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

I had a little aha moment.

God’s great unfailing, unstoppable love is for those in Christ, those who have accepted Jesus in their lives and follow him, not people like that singer.

But before I could pursue that erroneous thought further, another verse popped again in my mind. This time it was Romans 5:8, which says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ”

God demonstrated His great love for us while we were still sinners, not when we became cloaked in Christ’s righteousness. He showed His great love when we were His enemies, not when we became adopted in His family.

It amazed me and also humbled me.

A lot of times, when we say that God will forgive all our deeds regardless of what they are, we might restrict it to our list of sins. That’s what I did. I had unconsciously confined God’s love and grace to the depth of my actions and depravity.

But God’s love is infinite! It goes way beyond the worst thing I could ever do. By capping His love, I never appreciated what it meant for God always to love us and forgive everything, even if we commit some unspeakable evil.

And it’s not like He hears of our deeds on TV or by a friend, God sees everything we do. God was present when that singer committed his crimes. God also knew every detail of every heinous act the singer did. Nevertheless, God still loves him.

It blew my mind and gave me a new sense of awe of God’s love. Even writing this, I still can’t believe just how vast and limitless His love is. It’s far beyond my understanding.

May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:18-19

Of course, that doesn’t mean God is not just or doesn’t care if we sin. God’s wrath is real, and He hates sin. But His love and grace are higher than His anger.

I came across an excellent example of this in Exodus 20:5-6 .” You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

His punishment lasted for four generations while His mercy for thousands! I had read those verses before, but when I re-read it considering what God had recently shown me, I was again amazed by the depth of His love, and how much higher it is compared to His wrath.

God’s essence is love (1 John 4:8). His love is higher than the mountains and more profound than the oceans. If you are like me and have confined it, I invite you to meditate on God’s love and understand what it means for God to love the worst person you have ever known.

And I hope you will be humbled and awed by the immense love of our God. For though we cannot earn God’s love, we can certainly appreciate it.

    Grace and peace to you!