God’s Unconditional Love: Tips for Understanding God’s Love

Throughout history, we human beings have done dreadful things.

One that has impressed me the most was an event that occurred not long ago in the year 1937 known as the Nanjing Massacre or Rape.

There is a full article on Wikipedia in Spanish and another in English referring to the atrocities committed by a division of the Imperial Japanese army against Chinese civilians in the city of Nanjing.

Things ranging from massacres and rapes of children to cannibalism or forcing innocent people to commit incest.

The following lines are going to be horrible to read and can hurt sensitive people; they are not suitable for all audiences.

I will dare to illustrate the magnitude of what happened with just some of the testimonies of the people who were there living what happened.

This is so that you can see with me within the human heart and fully understand the subject I want to address today.

“The seventh and final person in the front row was a pregnant woman.

The soldier thought he might well rape her before killing her, so he pulled her out of the group to a place about ten feet away.

While attempting to rape her, the woman resisted fiercely.

The soldier stabbed her abruptly in the belly with a bayonet.

She gave a final scream as her intestines spilled.

Then the soldier stabbed the fetus, with its umbilical cord clearly visible, and threw it aside.”

“Women were often killed immediately after being raped by mutilation (their breasts were cut) or by stabbing them either with the same bayonet or with long sticks of bamboo or other sharp objects that were inserted into the vagina of the victims so that they would eventually bleed.

In the case of pregnant women after rape, they often bayoneted in the womb, made open cuts, and tore the uterus to remove the fetus.

There are witnesses who remember Japanese soldiers throwing babies into the air to capture them with their bayonets.”

“There are also accounts of Japanese troops forcing families to commit acts of incest.

Children forced to rape their mothers, fathers forced to rape their daughters.

In turn, the monks who had devoted themselves to a life of celibacy, were also forced to commit rape and have sex with each other, for the amusement of the Japanese army.”

Dr. Wilson, in another letter to his family: “they (the Japanese soldiers), bayonet wounded a child, causing his death.

I spent an hour and a half this morning trying to heal another eight-year-old boy who had five bayonet wounds, one of which penetrated his stomach, causing a portion of his intestines to fall out of his abdomen.”

The brutal killings of civilians have estimated at least 300,000 people and the duration of the barbarity was only six weeks.

Why did the Japanese soldiers do this?

Basically, the reason given by sociologists in studying the case is the fact that the Japanese soldiers were tired, frustrated, bored, and disappointed.

This story falls short of the millions of atrocities committed by humanity on a daily basis.

Think of the number of horrific crimes committed today in a world of more than seven billion people.

How does that make you feel?

When I think of how God feels to see humanity lost in sin and evil in such a way.

When I think about it, the strangest and most incomprehensible verse in the Bible comes to mind.

You probably know it by heart, but today by the grace of God you will fully understand it.

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.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

| John 3:16-17

That’s right.

This is the strangest and most incomprehensible verse in the Bible.

And you will say to me: Why, Daniel?

Think of the Nanjing Massacre, think of the Jewish Holocaust.

Think about what you saw yesterday in the news of your country.

Think of the evil things that go through your mind every day.

Think about the sad things that happen in the house of one of your neighbors.

Think about how you treat your family members or behave towards people in need.

What do you see?

I see evil, I see evil in my heart.

I see evil in yours, even if I don’t know you.

I am aware that only the grace and mercy of God has allowed me not to fall prey to the evil that resides in me and that wants to control me to do things as atrocious as the ones you read.

And my question is, how can God love me, being as holy as he is and being as bad as I am?

My question is how can God say that he loves so much such a vile world, full of murderers, thieves, rapists, pedophiles, liars, manipulators, unscrupulous, intolerant, and selfish people?

How can God not only say he loves that world, but also show that he loves it so much that he gave his own son as a sacrifice so that all, absolutely all people who have stepped on this planet could have access to repentance, the forgiveness of their sins, salvation, and eternal life?

How?

How can you love in that way something as perverted, horrible, and grotesque as humanity?

Although I do not understand it,  I know the answer.

(…) God is love. (…)

| 1 John 4:8

I don’t get it.

But that’s the truth.

God is love.

That’s God’s love.

God’s love is unconditional, He doesn’t love you depending on what you do or don’t do.

If we wanted to try to approach the magnitude of the Lord’s love, we would say that He loves us like a mother or father loves a criminal child.

I don’t know what you’ve been doing with your life, I don’t know what you were doing yesterday, what you plan to do today.

But I know there’s evil in it.

And I also know something else.

God loves you unconditionally, no matter what you have done or will do in the future.

Jesus gave his life not so that the saints and best-bearers of the human race could have the opportunity to receive forgiveness.

No.

He gave his life so that people like the Japanese soldiers who perpetrated the Nanjing Massacre could have access to repentance and salvation.

For in God’s eyes, all human beings are not only equally sinful, but equally loved.

That’s not to say that God because God loves you, then He agrees that doing whatever you want He’s going to save you.

No.

On the contrary, even if you feel like a faultless person, I must tell you that only the sacrifice of Jesus makes you feel justified.

Accept God’s infinite love and supreme grace, I promise you that your life will never be the same again.

It is time to accept Christ’s sacrifice in your life and in your heart, and allow his Holy Spirit to change the old for the new.

It is time to live in the glory of his presence, in the joy of freedom from sin and the ineffable joy of his forgiveness.


What reflections does this reading leave you with? Is there anything you’d like to share with us about what the Lord has done in your life? What is your current situation? Share a comment with us.

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