Where are you?

The most amazing aspect of our text in Genesis 3:8-9, is the voice of the Almighty God calling out to Adam and Eve, "Where are you?" Here we are given a portrait of the heart of God for sinners. It was God who was seeking out Adam, calling out to him. And this act of mercy on the part of God is the most compelling reason why God is worthy to be loved and worshipped.

God has all the reasons to reject us and judge and condemn us and yet despite our disobedience and rebellion, like a father, he is calling us to come back to himself. 2 Peter 3:9 puts it this way, "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." This call of God, "where are you", is like an open door, an invitation by God to find mercy and grace, when we come to him.

"Where are you?" is the first word of grace that came from God when Adam disobeyed and fell in the Garden. When Jesus said, 'the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost', he was doing just what God did initially in the Garden, calling humanity to himself... "where are you... stop hide from me... come back to me." May these words help us to remember that we are serving a most gracious and loving God!

Posted by Pastor James

the first necessary step to salvation

"then the eyes of both of them were opened".

today's passage comments that adam and eve's eyes were opened to their guilt the moment they sinned against God. mr. stott puts it this way: "they now saw with clarity the folly and wickedness of their rebellion against God".

as terrible as that moment must have been for adam and eve, how much better to feel guilt and "the folly and wickedness of our rebellion against God" than to have such a hardened heart as to feel nothing at all!

it is the first necessary step to our salvation.

all our lives, even as we acknowledge in some general way that we are sinners, we make endless excuses and rationalizations for our sinful behavior,

but it is truly a horrific moment the very first time our "eyes are really opened" and we see with clarity the extent of our "folly and wickedness of our rebellion against God."

guilt, shame, remorse, failure, fear, terror are inadequate terms to describe the person who for the first time realizes in a personal way their sinfulness before the living God.

that moment is as terrible for us as it surely must have been for adam and eve. like them, all we want to do is to hide, to forget, to run as far away from His presence as we can.

but it is only when we realize the extent of our sinfulness that we are driven to Jesus Christ, to plead with Him for mercy, grace, forgiveness.

i fear that too many times these days, when we sin against God, we feel nothing at all, ingenious as we are in rationalizing our behavior and shifting blame to others.

having "our eyes opened" is an unpleasant and wretching experience, but how necessary if we are ever to come to the Lord and receive His salvation! would we come to Him otherwise?

if you sin against the Lord and feel nothing, pray for "eyes to be opened", a tender conscience and a broken heart.

as terrible as it is, it is a gift, a mercy of God, this ability to feel.

Denying God's "Otherness"

This age old trick that the devil uses to tempt man to be "Like God" originates all the way back to the Garden. It is scary how this "lie' has manifested itself through the ages and today we find ourselves right there facing the same lie and refusing to acknowledge the 'otherness' of God... as Stott puts it.

Today's new age message like books from Eckhart Tolle, connecting with you inner 'spirit' and all of the other things that are blasted on television and fill the shelves at Borders or Barnes may look like a harmless, self-help messages...a message of self cultivation but it is really the same "lie" told by the serpent in the garden and man falls for it again and again.

Even as I profess to be a Christian, I am constantly having to guard my very proud, weak and sinful heart because I can easily find myself immersed or begin to turn an ear to these messages out there that are masked so well...and then the mind begins to think... and that can lead to scary things. Makes me so thankful for the GRACE of salvation.