Coming to God with Confidence
“In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” Ephesians 3:12
Because of Jesus’s death on the cross, we have been given forgiveness from our sins. What an amazing gift! And not only that, but because Jesus died for our sins, we are now pure and have access to God.
When He created the world, God made man and women so He could dwell with them. I always love the first half of Genesis 3:8 which says that God walked around in the cool of the day. God was really with Adam and Eve like we are with a friend today. Yet the second half of the verse holds the downfall of our relationship with God.
Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and as He walked through the garden, they hid from Him because they were afraid and ashamed. Isn’t that what sin does in our lives too? Most of the time, we know we’re doing something we shouldn’t, yet instead of turning away from our sin and turning towards God, we run away, thinking God would never love us for what we did.
But that is far from the truth. Yes it’s true that because of Adam and Eve’s sin (and our own), God could no longer dwell with His people. They spent hundreds of years making sacrifices trying to atone for their sins in order to experience the presence of God, and yet they continued to sin and turn away from Him. But God had a better plan.
He sent His Son Jesus to be the final atoning sacrifice so that we could once and for all be reunited with God. 1 John 2:2 says it like this: “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” The gift of salvation and redemption is great news for us and for everyone we know.
No matter what you’re wrestling with today, you have a loving God who is ready and willing to meet you in your struggles. We can boldly approach God with confidence as Ephesians 3 says, and “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).