Gold. Dark. Red. Clean. Green.

Yo.

A few weeks ago I was talking with a good friend of mine and we were walking and talking. She asked about an apologetics conference I had attended and my thoughts on it. I told her about one of the biggest things for me was the idea that people were not originally created as perfect creatures. Although God said good, even very good, he did not say perfect. And I explained how a number of times myself or others had explained the gospel with that as one of the points 'people were made perfect, but because of sin we became separated'. People would then ask questions about how we could be perfect and then be made to sin, etc. etc. But we were not perfect. Adam and Eve were good, but not perfect. We were never perfect and therefore, knowing we would fall short of His glory and perfection, God would have to do something to make a way for us to be reconciled to Him.

After I had said something along those lines, my friend was slightly astonished. She asked where I had learned that? (that people were made perfect) So I explained about how waaaaaaay back in Youth Fellowship our youth leader had given us these bracelets with 5 beads representing the gospel: gold - representing God and our relationship before the fall, how we were perfect and in perfect relationship with Him; dark - representing that fall into sin and impurity, brokenness, and corruption; red - representing Christ's blood on the cross which was shed to make a way for us to be reconciled; clean - representing our newness of life in Christ, righteousness white as snow, clean before God because of Christ's great exchange; and green - a growing relationship with God as we daily live following Him in spirit and truth.

Still astonished. I think she may have punched my arm. Probably not. She explained that the gold bead wasn't about people at all, but about God and about the streets of the new Jerusalem that was to come where we again would live in relationship with God. She said more than that, and she said it as if I was a 4 year old (she had learned much from the Child Evangelism Fellowship).

And my eyes were opened! Then I started thinking, maybe this is why I always thought I needed to be perfect before coming to God, because I thought perfection is what was needed to be in relationship with Him (as I had though Adam and Eve showed).

But in the Bible people are never spoken of as being perfect in their own ability. It goes on endlessly about how no one is righteous, not even one, none could stand before God, people feared angels, people thought they'd die in God's presence. People are not perfect, especially after the fall, but before too. In other places it does however refer to God as holy and perfect. (Lev20:26, Deut14:2, Josh24:19, Matt5:48, 1Pet1:16, etc.) and the streets of new Jerusalem, where God will be our light, as being golden. It also speaks of our need for repentance and to claim forgiveness in Christ, to deny ourselves and follow after Him.

Ttyl.

D.Fa