There is the prevailing thought that the Living God of Heaven is against… Consequently, God is seen by many as a God who rejects, a God who is arbitrary, a God who could not be pleased, appeased, or approached.

The truth is, God is holy, righteous, and just. The term holy is difficult for us, but think about holy as pure, sinless, and without any evil at all. God is not like us; he does not have a dark side. God cannot be tempted by evil (James 1:13).

When God created man and woman, he created them in his image (Genesis 1:27), but he also gave them the freedom of choice. People had the power to choose against God and they did. The initial choice in the Garden of Eden against God and his commands resulted in man becoming a fallen creature, alienated from God and separated from his blessing. God already had a plan in place to correct that situation and redeem fallen mankind to himself.

God’s system is cause and effect. Adam’s sin brought many effects: for the woman childbearing became exceedingly painful (Genesis 3:16), and Adam’s work became painful toil (Genesis 3:17). When the oldest son of Adam, Cain, killed his younger brother, Abel, God said, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). The murder committed by Cain required retribution. Cain knew that the effect of his action was that he was fair game to be murdered as well (Genesis 4:13-14).

God never intended for things to be that way. Redemption was in place. When God pronounced the woes on Adam, Eve, and Satan, he also declared that the Seed of the woman who was Jesus Christ would bruise the head of Satan and destroy evil from the earth (Genesis 3:15). Jesus Christ, in the mind of God and in the plan of God’s redemption, was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). All of God’s plans are centered on redemption.

This is stated well in the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel 14:14: “God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.” This particular occasion was the estrangement of Absalom, the son of King David, after Absalom had killed his half-brother, Amnon. Amnon had raped Absalom’s sister, Tamar, and thus incurred the wrath of Absalom.

Joab, David’s general, had brought a “wise woman from Tekoa” to come and talk to King David in an effort to arbitrate the rift between David and Absalom. These words by this “wise woman,” declaring the redemptive heart of God, moved David’s heart to allow Absalom return to Jerusalem.

God is God; we are fallen. We need his redemption. We do have the power of choice and that power can estrange us from God forever. But that would not be God’s plan, because he has always planned redemption.

The Rev. Dan Puckett is a minister with Life Action Ministries.