Looking for sinners

The LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9)

When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately tried to hide from the Lord. Of course, God knew what they had done; He knew which tree they were trying to hide behind. But rather than blast the tree and expose the cowering couple, God did something unusual—He called out: where are you?

God was seeking His wayward children; He wanted them to return. The Lord wasn’t calling Adam and Eve to come and get punished; He was calling to them to come back, because the relationship they had shared with Him was now broken. The Lord wanted them to come for forgiveness, so that the relationship they had betrayed could be restored.

Ever since that primordial day, mankind has continued to move away from God, but thankfully our Lord isn’t one to give up—He keeps moving forward, seeking we who flee His face! It is God’s nature to pursue sinners and call to them, even in spite of their efforts to avoid Him.

If we were to ask St. Paul how he ended up a saved man and an apostle for Christ, he would tell us that it was because the Lord God refused to give up on him. As a young man, Paul had opposed Christianity at every turn, arresting and seeking the death penalty for followers of Jesus. Paul believed that Jesus was a fraud and that Christianity was a false religion. But the Lord revealed Himself to Paul personally in blinding vision, resulting in Paul’s repentance and conversion. Even though Paul had spent years as an enemy of God’s people, the Lord did not give up on calling him to a new way of life. As a result of God’s persistence, Paul became an apostle and writer of half the New Testament.

No one seeks God on their own; Paul himself tells us there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God (Romans 3:11). It was up to Jesus to come looking for us; He said the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). It is only the initiative of a merciful God that accounts for the salvation of any sinner who finds forgiveness and eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus. We are eternally grateful for a Lord who never gives up but continues always to seek us.