Who God Is

"He IS forgiveness."

GENESIS 3 is not God, in His wrath, pronouncing curses. Genesis 2:17, which precedes it, isn’t God threatening man with death. There is a greater picture, and it shows who God is. He is comfort. He is peace, shalom, well-being. So those interpretations are wrong.

“Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” (Psalms 25:5)

He isn’t the God of punishment. He’s the GOD OF SALVATION. Punishment is laid judgment. Judgment isn’t always punishment. This is what we’ve missed. Judgment today, from God in the New Covenant, is reward. It’s mercy. Jesus said He’d been made Judge (John 5:22) because His judgment would provide salvation (John 12:47).

“And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” (John 12:47)

God’s mercy glows in the Old Covenant as well. Mercy is who He is. Many times, the words of prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah come to mind, though His people deserved punishment, FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE, He said He would pour out mercy. These are the words of Psalm 23:3. He will lead us on paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Psalm 119:68 says God is good and does good. This also shines His character, and in seeing it, in knowing Him well, we are no longer deceived by false witnesses. False visions. If you tell me He made you sick to teach you something, I know that’s wrong. By His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5; 1Peter 2:24).

Think of Job. His story tells us Job was mature and did not sin. Yet we hear him say, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away (John 1:21).” In the sense Job meant it, this is untrue. God did not take Job’s children, his earthly goods, or his health. Our loving God would never do that! So how do we see his words? Job spoke sincerely and he trusted God. Though what he said was an incorrect image of God, he did not curse God and die, like his wife suggested. He submitted to Him in obedience, as he believed.

Applying these thoughts to Genesis and sin, we must see Truth about salvation. God’s words to Adam were not God’s curses but sin’s. God told Adam the moment would come when he’d have a temptation to sin, Genesis 2:17, so that he’d know of it and refuse it. At the same time, God knows all things and so had already foreordained Jesus’ death and Resurrection (1 Peter 1:20). What we see as curses are results of sin. What God did, before Adam ever breathed, was provide salvation.

You see, it isn’t that God has a list of retributions, punishments He will use against those who won’t repent. That’s our unforgiveness. He IS forgiveness. Instead, our sin separates us from His Presence, and outside of Him there is nothing. He is goodness, kindness, patience. He is generous, joyful, and the ultimate example of self-control. After all, the Spirit parted an entire Sea in a moment of time and made the land beneath the water dry (Exodus 14:16). Even larger, in a single day, God created all animal life. He lit the earth on Day 1 without there being any sun or planetary system. He doesn’t have to make some big move to make His point. But He does like to make His point.

He created all scientific law, I think, so He can break it.

Point is, sin is being without God. Salvation returns us to Him. And Jesus did that through extreme obedience, NOT as taking our punishment. That’s what many think. No, He became the permanent Way toward mercy. He walked the path of obedience Adam failed to walk and in laying down His will, felt all that sin could dish out. He was human flesh suffering. He was God the Christ in His death and after His death. And King of Kings Resurrected. He is human flesh perfected (Philippians 3:21).

He brought the will of God in heaven to the earth (Matthew 6:10) to fulfill the words to Israel (they have an everlasting covenant, Genesis 17:7), and the words of God through angels at His birth. There is “on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14).” That’s Him.

“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” (Genesis 17:7)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com