What God Thinks When We Fail by Roy Steven C.;

Author:Roy, Steven C.; [Roy, Steven C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830869367
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2011-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

Truth of Grace 5: No Failure Will Have the Last Word in Our Lives

Without doubt, our experiences of failure are painful. At times, they are shattering, and we are tempted to define our lives and ourselves by them. We can so identify with a failed marriage, the bankruptcy of the family business or the ways our children have turned out that don’t fit our expectations that we begin to wonder if this is the final word.

But Scripture triumphantly proclaims a different outcome. No failure—no matter how serious, no matter how devastating to us and to our loved ones, no matter how open and public—will have the last word. The Bible is insistent: God will triumph in the end. And that means his grace will always have the last word in our lives.

Our ultimate hope. The final scene of the last book of the Bible paints the picture of a “new heaven and new earth” that God is creating as the eternal home for all his children. The portrait is breathtaking. As he saw this new heaven and new earth, John, the writer of the book of Revelation, heard a loud voice coming from the throne of God:

Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Rev 21:3-4)

Here is the fullness of all of God’s saving mercy: no more death or mourning or crying or pain. At this point, failure will be a thing of the past, and its sting will be wiped from our consciousness forever. God will fully and forever redeem all our failures—sinful and nonsinful. He will heal our hurts and dry our tears. God himself will be with us and will fill us completely with joy and peace and love forever.

Redeeming our failures. The amazing thing is that God will actually use all our failures to help bring this about. Scripture proclaims that all the pain and hardship in our lives (including all that comes from the failures we have experienced) is used redemptively by God in his creation of the new heaven and new earth. This is perhaps stated most clearly in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all.”

Paul’s words are shocking. He described his own troubles and sufferings and those of his readers as being “light and momentary.” If he were not one who knew the reality and depth of suffering in his own life, we might well think of him as being insensitive and naïve about the realities of life (see 2 Cor 11:23-29 for Paul’s description of his sufferings). But he was not. Rather, Paul was intentionally taking the long view, the eternal perspective. He affirmed that all human

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