Freedom is Good News Part 122

In our previous article we considered the statement ‘God is good’.  And I asked the question as to whether you might know someone who believes that the God of the Old Testament is mean, angry and harsh.  How would you answer them?

I might start off by quoting the verse from James 1:17 (the verse I ended with last week) “(God) does not change like shifting shadows”; or perhaps the verse in Malachi 3:6, ‘I the LORD do not change’; or maybe Hebrews 13:8, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever’.  These three scriptures are quite persuasive in letting us know that God did not change His ways from the front of our bibles to the back of them! 

It was Jesus Himself who told us that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life’.  And in the letter of 1 John 4:8 & 16 we find out that ‘God is love’!  Peter chimes in with his second letter 3:9, ‘The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you; He is  not willing that anyone should perish, but that  everyone should come to repentance.’

Wow!!  This God we are called to serve really does love His creation – He loves us and desires that we abide with Him and His Son for all eternity. 

One thing we must know about God; He is a God of justice.  He told our first parents, Adam and Eve, what not to do.  They paid no attention and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then they denied culpability for the sin, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Gen. 3:11-21)  This was the world’s first example of passing the buck. 

Again, God is a God of justice and so punishment needed to be meted out.  God went back up this ladder of blame and cursed the serpent first, then punished the woman and finally pronounced punishment upon the man.  Then God, in His mercy and love for His children, provided garments of protection and modesty.

Do you remember how God worded His one and only commandment to Adam?  “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

In a manner of speaking, they did die that day.  The special fellowship they had enjoyed with God in the garden ended and any promise of eternal life for them ended that day.  But on the other hand, the God of mercy and grace, bestowed upon them His forgiveness.