Remembering God’s grace helps us reflect his true nature

What is God like?

Is God mostly condemning, judgmental and stand-offish?

Or is God welcoming, gracious and approachable?

A Christian’s right view of God matters immensely, because we represent God to others. They hear us and see us and get some sense, for better or worse, of the nature of God.

When Jesus walked this Earth, he was criticized loudly by self-righteous religious people for associating with sinners. Jesus hung out with “tax collectors and sinners,” the Gospels tell us, and his receptive attitude angered the religious establishment.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day kicked to the curb anyone who didn’t meet their standard of righteousness, and with actions and words sent the harsh message that God could never accept “those types” of people.

But Jesus begged to differ. And he does, still, today.

“I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents,” Jesus says in Luke 15:10.

Jesus’ statement comes right in the middle of three stories – parables – that describe the nature of God. God is like a shepherd who tirelessly searches for one lost sheep, even if he’s got 99 safe at home. God is like a woman who turns her house upside down to find one precious coin – even though nine remain in her possession.

And, in perhaps the best-known of Jesus’ stories, he tells us that God is like a gracious, loving father, who gladly welcomes back a prodigal son.

What is God like?

God’s love is relentless. God’s passion to find and rescue sinners is tireless. God’s eagerness to forgive and restore is immeasurable.

And it is this part of God’s nature that is sometimes not reflected by “religious” folks. In fact, God’s receptive attitude toward sinners quite often conflicts sharply with religious hostility toward sinners.

Consider this extreme: News from the Middle East these days is all about a group of religious people deciding that others who are not like them simply cannot be tolerated, let alone loved. So Christians and others are being beheaded, sold into slavery, or forced to flee their homeland by radical religious extremists who believe they are representing God.

It’s just that God isn’t anything like them. Nor is he anything like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Nor is he like some professing Christians who measure others by their own yardstick – not God’s – and judge them accordingly.

What is God like? God gladly receives repentant sinners.

In other words, anyone receives God’s love and life by admitting the obvious: We don’t measure up to his standard. And we never will.

By God’s grace, we don’t have to trust in our own perfection. We can trust in Jesus’ perfection, and trust that his death on the cross – on our behalf – completely absorbed the condemnation we deserve from God.

Repentance is simply turning from our self-sufficiency and turning to Jesus Christ.

And we’ve no need to worry or even wonder about God’s willingness to accept us. He has promised to accept and embrace the most rebellious of his children when they turn to him and follow him.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen, again, to the words of Christ: “I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

As Christians, we do well to continually reconnect to this simple but staggering truth about God’s grace.

It will help us represent God rightly to our community. After all, people really do listen to us and watch us. Is it possible they’re wondering … What is God like?