Feel-Good and Feel-Bad Jesus
If you don’t get your idea of who Jesus is from the Bible, you may end up believing in a false Jesus. For example, as Ray Ortlund explains, many believe in the “feel-good Jesus.” He always agrees with you and never disapproves. He’s always smiling and just so grateful that you come to church every now and then. This Jesus tells you that everyone is going to heaven because everyone is basically good at heart. This Jesus is small enough to fit anywhere, but he’s not fit to be King, which is why your conscience tells you that your problems are more serious than this Jesus Jr. seems to realize.
There are others who believe in the “feel-bad Jesus.” This Jesus is really serious all the time, always pointing out your failures, making you feel that your best is not good enough. He’s harsh, so when you fail again, he rolls his eyes and says, “Seriously! You did it again?” But he keeps dangling a carrot in front of you, saying, “If you just try harder and do better, you’ll be okay and make it to heaven. Keep working hard and you’ll be better than those other sinners.” People who believe in this Jesus seem miserable, but they seem to like their miserable religion, probably because it makes them feel better about themselves. But “feel-bad Jesus” is no King either. He’s a smug dictator who would rather beat you down than build you up.[1]
Glimpses of Jesus in the Garden
Who do you think Jesus is? Are your ideas about him ones that just rubbed off on you from your parents or the church you grew up in or images of him in the media? Or did you meet him on the pages of the Bible?
In Genesis 3, we meet a God who isn’t a “feel-good God” or a “feel-bad God.” Rather, we meet a good and wise King who responds to human sin with judgment and grace.
In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve broke God’s word, realize their nakedness, and hide themselves because of shame, God comes to them and draws them out of hiding with grace, rather than driving them out with fear. The main point of our text is that God comes to sinners in their shame and, instead of driving them away with threats, he draws them out with mercy. He doesn’t come to make them feel good or feel bad. He comes to save them.
Our text this morning is Genesis 3:8-10. We can outline it like this: God comes (v. 8), God calls (v. 9), and Adam responds (v. 10).
God Comes
In verse 8, God comes to the Garden seeking Adam and Eve. They wanted knowledge, now they have it. But when God comes, there’s nowhere to run. God, the Gardener, comes into his Garden because he cares deeply about the welfare of what he created. He’s not the distant God of the deists, but a close God who involves himself with his creation.
The Hebrew suggests that this was perhaps a normal, daily appointment when the Lord would come and connect with Adam and Eve personally, “in the cool of the day.” After a long day of joyful work cultivating the garden, they would end the day communing with their Maker.
This scene reminds me of one of the most formative experiences of my life. I lived across the pasture from my grandparents, and on many summer evenings we’d go over and sit with grandma and papa on lawn chairs in their driveway. In the shade of their house, with the cool evening breeze blowing, we’d sit there talking, laughing, shelling peas, eating peaches, and connecting and communing with one another. Those moments were sheer delight for me. Can you imagine doing that with God in paradise at the end of each day?
It wasn’t God’s walking in the garden that was unusual, but Adam and Eve’s reaction. Now, instead of communing with God, their plan is further concealment. “The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God.” The last time we saw the phrase “the man and his wife” was 2:25. A complete transformation has happened. Trusting innocence is replaced by fearful guilt.
Verse 7 says that the first result of sin was loss of child-like innocence. They were suddenly ashamed of their bodies and hid themselves from each other.
Verse 8 says that the second result of sin was loss of communion with God. Connection is replaced by alienation. They were suddenly afraid and hid themselves from God.
Rather than obtaining deity like the serpent promised, they’re afraid to even be with God. I wonder if this is why many people, even Christians, stay away from church? Their stated reason is often, “Christians are all hypocrites!” But, ironically, it’s their own hypocrisy, their own failure to measure up to God’s standards that drives them away from God’s presence. Sometimes we’ll skip church because we know what we’ve done and we don’t want to come before the Lord.
God’s people have been doing this for thousands of years. The Israelites did the same thing at Mount Sinai. When they heard the sound of the Lord, they were afraid and stayed at a distance (Ex. 20:18-19). Their fear kept them away from the Lord.
The picture of Genesis 3 is of fearful children hiding in shame from their father. It’s not clear why they thought the trees could hide them from God. But don’t we also try all kinds of silly ways of hiding from God. We max out our schedules and let busyness keep us from communion with him. We sit in front of our screens for hours at the beginning and end of each day, rather than sitting before God’s face. We even try to hide from God in church, assuming that faithful church attendance and ministry will conceal us before God.
How are you trying to hide from him? Remember Hebrews 4:13, “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” And David asks in Psalm 139, “Where shall I flee from your presence?” (v. 7).
If you belong to God, the knowledge that he sees you isn’t meant to scare you. If you’re his child, it should free you from the exhausting bondage of hiding from him. Our sin and shame and guilt drive us away from the Lord, but the Lord hasn’t been driven away from us.
But for those who don’t know the Lord, running from him is an understandable impulse because they stand under his judgement. In the book of Revelation, we see how people who don’t know God react when he comes looking for them. “Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’” (6:15-16).
Those who don’t know God would rather have rocks fall on them and be buried alive than face him. Friends, if you haven’t turned away from your sins and trusted in Christ, I urge you to do so today. You can’t hide from him when he comes. You aren’t even hiding from him now. He sees you, and you will see him, and when you do, you’ll have to give an account for your life. If your sins aren’t covered by Jesus’ blood, you’ll want to run, but there’ll be nowhere to hide.
Run to him today and you’ll receive pardon and forgiveness and new life. Those who run to Christ will no longer be afraid of seeing him but will rather long to see him. When Jesus returns, as Paul says, he’ll be “marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thess. 1:10). With new bodies in a new earth, “we will see his face” (Rev. 22:4). Looking into Jesus’ eyes on that day, stunned by his beauty, we’ll marvel at the relief and rest that he’s brought to us.
Only those who understand their nakedness and shame will get to look into those eyes. Back in Genesis 3, the fact that Adam and Eve felt shame over what they’d done was a positive sign, indicating that there was hope for their salvation. Where there’s no guilt or shame, the only remedy is judgment. But where there’s conviction of sin, the grace of God is stirring.
God Calls
In verse 9, God calls out to the man. Don’t miss how amazing this verse is! It’s amazing because God comes to sinful man with a question, not with threats. He wants to draw him out of hiding by grace, not drive him out by fear. Adam is already afraid of God (v. 10). His sin made him guilty and he knows it, so he fears God. But amazingly, God doesn’t capitalize on his fear. His approach is to shock him with grace. Yes, judgment and consequences will come (vv. 14-19). And yes, Adam will die physically just as he’s died spiritually. But the first thing God does when he approaches sinful man is to draw him out of hiding.
Adam and Eve started a game of hide and seek with God, but they were the only ones playing. God’s question, “Where are you?” is rhetorical. God knew where they were because he knows everything. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has never occurred to God? God never learns anything. He always knows everything.
He comes into his Garden, not like an angry father yelling and screaming, but like a gentle father seeking his children. He approaches Adam and Eve with tenderness, not toughness. When we play hide and seek with our kids, we’ll often call out, “Where are you?,” not because we don’t know where they are, but because we want to draw our kids out.
Adam’s reply in the next verse shows us that he understood God’s question as an invitation to come out and talk to him. God’s question invites confession because he wants to reconcile, not retaliate. He knows that reconciliation is never possible if the guilty don’t own their guilt.
God comes to them with questions, here and in verses 11-13, which allows them to witness against themselves by their own admissions. He comes with questions, not statements. This is instructive for us as we seek to share the gospel with unbelievers. Blanket statements are easily dismissed and shut down conversation quickly. But good questions draw out information, point out contradiction, and reveal what’s true. For example, instead of telling someone, “There’s only one true religion,” ask instead, “Is it possible for everyone’s ideas about God to be true?”
In evangelism, we can be quick to make people feel guilty because of sin, but slow to show people the glory of grace. This may especially be true in newer believers, who’re anxious to see people come to faith but struggle with a desire to prevail in every conversation, rather than desire to help people see what’s true. This can come across in a sharpness and pointedness in tone, in desiring to preach rather than persuade. Both may be necessary at some point, but it’s instructive for us that God came to the first sinners with questions, not statements, and with a gentleness to his questions that drew them out of hiding rather than driving them away in fear.
Notice in verses 8 and 9 that the narrator Moses has reverted back to calling God, the “Lord God.” He wants us to see that the God who created the universe is also the God who goes after sinners. God the Creator is also God the Redeemer. Even after sin, God still wants to be in covenant with his people.
As Redeemer, he goes after the lost, reminding us what Jesus said he was about time and time again. He said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk. 19:10), “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt. 9:13), and “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?” (Mt. 18:12).
In the garden, God is doing what Jesus came to do, namely, to seek and save the lost. God hasn’t changed. He’s always been the Good Shepherd who goes out into the night to find his lost sheep and bring them home. And when he goes after them, he goes with tenderness, not toughness.
It’s noteworthy that he doesn’t ask Adam, “Why are you hiding?,” but rather, “Where are you?” “Why are you hiding?” would only heap on more shame by pointing out the silliness and stupidity of their actions. He doesn’t come with a tone of frustration or accusation. When he goes to Cain in chapter 4 and Hagar in chapter 16, he does the same thing. He doesn’t need information from them. He’s inviting them to come to him and say what’s true. He’s inviting confession. The only thing Adam needed to qualify for God’s mercy was an honest assessment of his need.
God also invites us to come to him and confess what’s true. His heart for his people, for all who’ll come to him, is to give them beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and praise for despair (Isa. 61:3). As Jay Stringer says, “There is no depth of shame that the love of God cannot reach. There is no story he cannot redeem.”[2] The paradox of the gospel is that our sin and shame condemn us and then connect us to grace. We’d never taste the sweetness of grace if we never tasted the bitterness of shame.
God approaches Adam and Eve for their redemption and joy, not out of retaliation and judgment. The first thing God says to fallen man has all the marks of grace. To help them, God must draw them, not drive them, out of hiding.
This is what Jesus did with the Samaritan woman, with the woman at the well, with Matthew the tax collector, and he wants to do it with you too. He’s moving toward you in your sin. Come out from behind the trees and move toward him and taste the sweetness of his mercy.
Adam Responds
In verse 10, Adam responds to God’s call. Because God made man first and because he gave him his word first, he comes to the man first (vv. 9-12), then the woman (v. 13), then the serpent (vv. 14-15), inverting the order of the Fall. Man was most liable and most responsible because God created him to protect the garden and promote his word. So when that didn’t happen, it didn’t matter who’s fault it was, Adam was responsible.
In his response to God, Adam isn’t necessarily lying, but he’s not admitting his sin. He’s trying to turn the conversation to what happened after he sinned. But his excuse is evidence of his sin. The reason he realized he was naked was because of his sin. The shame of nakedness was the result of the guilt of sin. His sense of shame, which he admits to God, was created by his guilt.
He struggled to tell God everything that happened, as if God didn’t know. So he just tells him about what happened after he sinned. He wanted his sin to escape the notice of One whom nothing escapes, or, as Augustine says, “to conceal his flesh from one who is the inspector of the heart.”[3] Adam was trying to hide the unhideable. God came to talk about what happened in his heart, not why he was wearing a sweater made out of fig leaves. God wants to talk about what’s less obvious but more important, namely, his guilt. Adam wants to talk about what’s more obvious but less important, namely, his shame.
Adam mentions the symptoms of his sin, fear and shame, but not the cause. He answers the question God didn’t ask. He answers the “Why are you hiding” question, not the “Where are you” question. But he partially avoids the real answer. It wasn’t his nakedness that made him hide. He was clothed with fig leaves before he hid. He was naked, but now he’s clothed. It was the fear of the Lord that led him to hide. A new emotion came over him, fear, and he didn’t know what to do except hide.
Notice that he and Eve hide before God speaks to them (v. 8). The presence of the Lord was enough to make them panic. Why? Because they knew that they were guilty. Felons who know they’re guilty will do everything possible to avoid going to trial.
Why do you think that people who’ve never heard the gospel or read the Bible are afraid to die? Because they know that they’re not ready to meet God. This is why perpetual anxiety plagues mankind.
Ever since Genesis 3, shrinking away from God in fear, rather than running to him in faith, is part of the human condition. The Bible says, “No one seeks for God” (Rom. 3:11). It could just as well say, “Everyone hides from God.” But the Bible also says that we all know he’s there (Rom. 1:18-21), that we all know that we’ve broken his rules (Rom. 2:14-15), and yet, instead of running to him for help, we run away from him and suppress our knowledge of him with anything we can get our hands on.
Why do we do this? Because we, just like Adam and Eve, have believed the lies of the serpent. We assume that God isn’t good and that he only wants to control us rather than set us free.
So we have to come to the Bible and learn how God relates to people like us. And in Genesis 3, we learn that God came to sinners with gentleness and grace, that he wanted to help them by drawing them, not driving them, out of hiding. That despite their massive failure, he didn’t kill them on the spot, but rather engaged them with his mercy.
This is the God of the Bible. This is the nature and character of God toward sinners.
Jesus, Friend of Sinners
Have you ever wondered why people felt so comfortable around Jesus? Why were immoral people drawn to a moral man?
Because he drew them in with tenderness and acceptance. He blessed them with grace and kindness. He saw them when most ignored them. He touched them when most stayed away. He knew what he would do on the cross to set them free, so he was joyfully drawn to them. To the religious people, Jesus’ crime was that he was a “friend of sinners,” an accusation he never denied.
The “feel-good Jesus” isn’t honest with you, and the “feel-bad Jesus” isn’t kind to you. Both are fake Jesuses. The real Jesus, like God in the garden, moves toward his people with gentle words meant to draw them out of darkness and despair, out of hiding and fear and shame, and bring them to himself so that he might redeem them and start fixing what they broke.
Jesus, by his Spirit and through his Word, is running through the world right now gathering up people just like Adam and Eve, people who’ve done unimaginably stupid things, people suffocating with shame, people struggling to own their guilt, people hiding from him because they’ve never been told what he’s really like, people like you and me.
Because of Jesus, we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
In Jesus, God has come to you and is calling you. Have you received and embraced him with childlike faith?
[1]Ray Ortlund, The Death of Porn: Men of Integrity Building a World of Nobility (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 55-6.
[2]Jay Stringer, Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2018), xx.
[3]Augustine, On Genesis, The Works of Saint Augustine, I/13, trans. Edmund Hill, ed. John E. Rotelle (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002), 456