Experiencing God

Recently, in some comments, we discussed Adam and Eve and the question of whether God’s grace and mercy can be experienced without the Fall—without sin. The suggestion was that apart from sin, God’s grace could not be known. This is not in direct response to the conversation, but just a review of the concept. Let’s take a closer look.

Christians sometimes speak “Christianese,” our own peculiar vocabulary. Take the word justification. We don’t mean “the way the text lies on the page,” “making excuses,” or “showing something to be right.” We usually think of “justified by faith”—as in God declaring the unrighteous righteous on the basis of faith in Christ. But Scripture uses the term more broadly. For example, when Jesus said, “Wisdom is justified by all her children” (Luke 7:35), He wasn’t referring to Wisdom’s faith making her righteous. He meant that what wisdom produces demonstrates that wisdom is right. That’s just one example.

Then we come to grace. We rightly call it “amazing”—God’s unmerited favor toward people who do not deserve it. But we often think almost exclusively of saving grace. Scripture shows there is more.

There is common grace, like God giving sun and rain to both the righteous and the wicked (Matt. 5:45). There is saving grace (Eph. 2:8–9), sanctifying grace (Titus 2:11–12), sustaining grace (2 Cor. 12:9), and serving grace (1 Pet. 4:10). All of these are expressions of God’s favor toward us who have not earned it. None of it is owed. None of it is merited.

I still maintain that the fullest experience of God’s grace is found in His saving grace. The Fall—Adam’s original sin—was truly evil, yet God intended it for good and therefore permitted it (cf. Gen. 50:20; Acts 2:23; Luke 22:22). Grace is most fully realized when we see God’s righteous wrath against “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” turned into mercy toward “vessels of mercy” (Rom. 9:22-23). Mercy can only be seen where mercy is required. Mercy is the withholding of deserved punishment; it cannot be experienced if no punishment is due. Likewise, we cannot fully grasp God’s love if He never demonstrated His love by sending His Son to die for us—a display that would have been unnecessary if no one had sinned.

So yes, Adam and Eve encountered God’s unmerited favor in Eden. They did not earn His kindness; He freely granted it. And it’s important to remember that. God does not owe us His favor. It is always unmerited. If He chose to eliminate us, He would be within His rights. But He is better than that. He is amazingly gracious.