I can say with almost complete confidence that my favorite book of the Bible is the book of John, but really, how can I only have one favorite? I don’t even have a favorite verse – I have many. You can’t just read a scripture passage once or twice in your lifetime and call it good. No, I’ve read some of the same passages at different times in my life and have walked away with a new thought or insight almost every single time.
Our adult daughter was reading through the story of Adam and Eve the other day and had this very thing happen to her. She’s read this story before – she grew up in the church! This time she noticed something that hadn’t stood out to her before: God knew what Adam and Eve had done – knew even before creation that they would fail – but He still showed them love. He could have washed His hands of them, but He chose to cover their shame out of love.
The last time I read that same passage (Genesis 3), I noticed that God went looking for them. They were hiding from God because they felt shame in their nakedness. He knew exactly where they were and what they had done, but He walked through the Garden of Eden calling for them. They had betrayed Him, but He still sought them out. We noticed different things about the same passage, and we were both impacted by God’s goodness.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. John 1:1-5 NASB
Most new Christians, from what I’ve seen, are directed to read the book of John. Apparently, it’s the place to start. This is a phenomenal way of showing the relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as well as Jesus’ miracles, His life, death, and resurrection. Jesus, the Son of God, shows up on the scene as a man, but He was directly involved with forming Adam from dust and Eve from a rib. He was part of breathing His very breath into their lungs!
And He called for them as they hid in shame. By the way, He’s still calling for those who are lost.
Can you imagine? Jesus was there and already knew that He would die a horrific death on the cross to set things right. And He chose to not simply start over! Instead, He gave us a picture of what was required to cover the cost of their betrayal: blood. For Adam and Eve, it was an animal as a temporary solution, but at just the right time, it would be His own blood being spilled.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NASB
Jesus came full of grace and truth. He came into a fallen world that He had created with grace and truth. All of the sins committed, all of the times we’ve walked away from God, all of the times we’ve not trusted Him – all of it – He came to cover it with His abounding grace. But He never said that sin was okay. He never said that sin wasn’t a big deal.
He came full of grace without neglecting the truth.
As I pondered this, I recognized even more deeply that God never changes. Truth – whether that’s described as the weight of our sins or the basic instructions of how to live uprightly – has never gone away. And the grace that covers our shame has been there since the beginning. God has always – say it: ALWAYS – dealt with us in grace and truth. He is the same today as He was in the beginning. And He’ll be the same tomorrow.
I’ve been chewing on this and connecting how this applies to different areas of my life (it applies to all of them), and especially in the areas that I struggle with the most. To be a bit transparent, I struggle with my value. I struggle with feelings of inadequacy, those sinister whispers of you’re not good enough, and the fear that I’m always falling short and failing. When you’re always trying to prove yourself worthy, you tend to neglect leaning on the only One who can actually make you worthy.
The truth has hit me like a punch in the stomach: all of those failings reveal a lack of trust in the One who has covered me in grace since the beginning.
I know that we all struggle with fear at times. We worry about sharing our faith with others because they might not like us, they might call us names, they might view us as a hypocrite (um, do you know my past?), or they might even lash out with violence. We saw that played out with the assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10th. We’re afraid that if they hear the message of God’s goodness, they’ll think poorly of us. What? I never want anyone to think that I’m ashamed of being God’s daughter!
Many of us struggle with trusting God for His provision. Have you noticed how easy it is to rely on credit cards to step in instead of trusting God to take care of all our needs? He saw the need for Adam and Eve to be covered, and they didn’t even ask Him for help – they hid from Him! But He provided for them anyway. We might see that we can earn points or perks or cash back with credit cards, but we forget that God provides for us from the riches of His glory (Philippians 4:19) – that far exceeds any perks a credit card can offer!
I see areas in my life that I failed, and I’ve struggled with it because my failings don’t just affect me. The harsh reality is that I’m lost without Him, and my failures might be the difference of others remaining lost, too. But from the beginning, God doesn’t offer just truth. He couples truth with grace – the free and unmerited favor of God. Something we cannot earn and something so amazing that we cannot fathom its magnitude.
For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift]. John 1:16 AMP
It’s like a gentle reminder that says that no matter how we fail, nothing is beyond God’s redemptive power. We fail to speak – God is able to redeem that. We fail to trust Him – God is able to redeem our short-sightedness. We fail over and over again in our relationships – but God even redeems relationships. But the ability to redeem our shortcomings doesn’t mean we should be okay with continuing in them.
Just because I know I’m forgiven if (I mean when) I lose my patience with my kiddos or my husband, doesn’t mean I should just be okay with lashing out at them. As I lean into God and His grace, I can’t help but embrace truth as well. It truly is grace and truth. I want to be patient. I want to be kind. I want to model God’s love and grace to others. I want to be the reason that someone accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior – I certainly don’t want to be the reason they reject Him.
Accepting the richness of God’s grace comes with the responsibility of also yielding to truth. It’s not an either / or way of life. It’s recognizing our errors and running to God with them instead of running away and hiding.
The enemy will whisper lies to you telling you that you’re not good enough to be saved – Jesus’ death and resurrection gave you the right to become a child of God (John 1:12). The enemy will tell you that you’re a failure – you’re more than a conqueror (Romans 8:35-39). The enemy will tell you that you can’t be used because of your past (or even your present) – but Jesus already provided redemption for the whole world for all time (Hebrews 10:10, I John 2:2).
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]. John 10:10 AMP
God is calling to you. He’s patiently calling so that we can be restored through Jesus, the One who was in the beginning, saw the pain of His death on the cross, and still saw YOU as worth it. That is grace and that is truth.
That is Jesus.