Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:9 (NKJV)

 

The fall of Adam affected not only him, but also God. Both, however, take a fundamentally different approach to sin. While Adam chose to hide in shame and cowardice, God made it his priority to look for Adam and find him.

God's first words to Adam were not "you have messed up!" but "where are you?" Despite Adam's defiance, God was relentlessly pursuing him and eagerly awaiting the opportunity to show love and mercy. We get a glimpse of the gospel here. God takes sin seriously, yet He took the initiative and took action to forgive and reconcile us to Him before we ever understood how far we have fallen.

Sin can keep us from God, but sin cannot keep God from us.

We cannot tell if we have been truly forgiven if God just forgives us without reconciling with us. But the good news goes further. It is through God reconciling us with Him that we know we are truly and forever forgiven.

Forgiveness and reconciliation make it possible for God to deal justly with sin and justify the sinner. God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. The finished work of the Cross reveals God's restorative justice. God did not send Jesus to condemn us (since we are already condemned and punished by sin) but to save us.

God didn’t just save your soul. God recreates you in Christ, renewing your mind and restoring your heart as well as your body. His transformative work in you will have an impact on your relationships with others, bringing peace and harmony where there was once strife and division. It is in our forgiving and reconciling that the gospel really comes alive. This makes our witness to the world more authentic and convincing.