17. Amazing Grace
When you sin, which way do you run? Do you find yourself, like Adam and Eve, running away from God? Or do you run to Him so that He can make it right?
Genesis 3:8-10 (ESV) And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Earlier in this book, we recounted the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God had placed them in a perfect environment where they could enjoy all that He had provided. They could eat from every tree except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sadly, devastatingly, the fateful day came when they disobeyed God and, in defiance, ate the forbidden fruit. At that moment, everything changed. Their paradise turned into a nightmare. They had rebelled against God’s command, and now they were experiencing guilt, shame and fear. For the first time, they realised they were naked and used fig leaves to cover themselves as they felt estranged from each other and from Him. Then they heard the sound of the Father calling them. And in desperation, they hid from Him.
When we studied this story earlier in this book, we reflected on how we imagine the tone of the Father’s voice on that day. And in the following chapters, we discovered that this was not the sound of an angry judge desiring to punish and bring revenge. Instead, it was the expression of a broken-hearted Father, who wanted to make things right and to restore their relationship with Him. In their guilt and shame, however, Adam and Eve did not understand the heart of the Father, and they hid from Him.
We, too, if we have not understood the grace and forgiveness of God, can respond to Him just as they did.
As Christians, we know that God has made us right with Himself through Jesus’ death. Jesus died for our sins, and we are forgiven when we receive His sacrifice on our behalf. However, when we sin, we can feel unworthy and undeserving of His favour or blessing. Wrongly thinking we need to make up for what we have done, we find ourselves keeping a running score on how good we have been. When we have been good, we believe we are more worthy of God’s love, but when we have not lived up to what we think we should, we wallow in unworthiness. And we hope that, given time to work hard enough at being good, we can make ourselves more acceptable to Him.
We need to realise that just as there was nothing Adam and Eve could do to rectify what they had done, so it is with us. No amount of repentance or good works can undo our sin. And no measure of good behaviour will ever be enough to merit God’s love and acceptance. No matter how hard we try, we will never be good enough. We received God’s forgiveness by His grace alone when we first came to Him. And the Father intends that we continue to walk in this grace every day of our lives.
Unless we understand His grace, we will find ourselves driven by a sense of unworthiness that we can never escape. Forever striving to be good enough, but still falling short of the mark. Whenever we believe that our goodness warrants favour with the Father, we are acting as if Jesus’ death was not sufficient to pay for our sins. We are living as if we can only be worthy before God by our own efforts.
The Father wants us to come to Him when we sin. He already knows what we have done. There is nothing we can confess to Him He does not already know. But He wants us to come to Him and admit our fault so we can experience and understand His forgiveness afresh and remain in a close relationship with Him.
1 John 1:9 (ESV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This verse promises that God will always forgive us. Not because we are good enough, but because He is faithful.
When you sin, which way do you run? Do you find yourself, like Adam and Eve, running away from God? Or do you run to Him so that He can make it right?
Further reading: 1 Jn 1:5-10; Heb 4:15-16; Rom 8:1
Don't allow your failures to keep you away from Him any longer. He loves and accepts you despite your performance.
Spend a few minutes right now opening your heart to Him and allow Him to affirm His love for you.
This is an extract from my free book Knowing God as Father, which is available for download at Knowing God as Father.