How are We to Respond to God

God at times is presented as a type of Santa Clause. If you are good, he will bring you gifts. In God’s case, if we are good, nothing bad will happen to us. We live a life of fear wondering how not to get God angry with us. However, this is not the picture the Bible gives us. God is not the bad guy in the sky waiting for you to mess up, so that he can punish you. I guess a lot of the preaching over the years has built this image of God.
Yet, I see a different picture in the Bible. I see a God who is a Father and accepts the failings of his children. Even with our own children, we cannot scold them for every mistake they make, or they just fear and avoid the parent. God knows that we will make mistakes in life. A verse in the Bible says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8, 10). God is never surprised by our actions. He knows us very well. As a good parent, obviously he wants us to live the best lives possible. He knows that if we follow his direction, life will go better for us. What parent does not give their children advice on how to live?
Most of all God has made provision for our failings and wrong doings. God gave Jesus Christ as the one who paid for our mistakes. He is called the “atoning sacrifice.” He died for our sins, so that we could escape the wrath of God. God accepts us, because all our sins have been forgiven, and God does not hold them against us. This is how a holy God can be in our sinful presence. The punishment for sin has been given to Jesus Christ. He took the penalty for us. Why did he do this? Because, he knew that his death would pay the price for all people’s sins. The Bible says, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the appeasement for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). “I have been crucified with Christ . . . and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). This is the wonderful message of the gospel. God now accepts us in Christ. By believing in this gospel message, God justifies us; declares us innocent. That is he makes it as if we had never sinned. All we have to do is confess that we need Jesus Christ to make us acceptable to God (1 John 1:9). This faith in what God has done for us brings us total forgiveness and acceptance.