Some words of encouragement as 2020 ends

The year we all want to forget is drawing to a close. Many of us are crawling to the finish line with deep regrets. We’re discouraged by a lack of progress in our lives. We’re disappointed with struggles we’ve not left behind. “You haven’t done well enough.” “You’re an awful person.” Those voices seem louder at the close of 2020. The shouting is accompanied by pointing - not just a finger in our faces but a hand waving at all the evidence, the wreckage, that surrounds us. The trials of this difficult year have brought out the worst from inside us. If we picture our lives as trees, as Jesus did, the storms have slammed against our trunks, and our “root” has produced “fruit.” And it hasn’t been pretty.   

Now hear me: If you’re wrestling with these questions, it’s a good thing. Far better to reckon with the unvarnished truth than cover it over with a thin, cheap veneer. There is hope for us as we wrestle with those regrets. But it doesn’t come by turning off the lights or shoving them under the bed.

I’ve greatly enjoyed Robert Smith Jr.’s book, Doctrine that Dances. In it he reminds us of two things Christ provides that take us back to the very beginning and meet us at the point of our deepest need. Adam and Eve shirk God’s reign over their lives. Surrounded by blessing, they do the one thing God forbids, and cursing results. Immediately, they’re exposed for who they really are. They notice their nakedness. They hide from their Creator and King and attempt to cower behind thrown-together garments of greenery. 

Yet while Adam and Eve string together excuses, the Lord hands them a solution. He does something He didn’t have to do, and that is precisely what grace is. He shows them kindness. Kindness that they didn’t deserve. In fact, they earned the opposite. God does two things out of grace that point toward what we receive in Christ. He sheds blood. He sews clothes.

Genesis 3:21 says that “the LORD God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” An animal dies. Garments are made. The shed blood points ahead to Christ’s poured out from the cross. The clothing produced reaches ahead to Christ’s perfect life given to us. Cleansing. Covering. The Father gives that to the first man and woman. And He provides it to us in Christ. 

Christ’s sacrificial death cleanses us. Through faith in Him, we can be completely forgiven - for all our wrongdoings, past, present, and future. He remembers our sins no more. 

Christ’s righteous life covers us. Through faith in Him, our nakedness can be cloaked by His perfect record. God looks at us and sees Jesus. In His eyes, we’re radiant and white, wrapped in His righteous robes. 

So here’s my encouragement to you as 2020 ends. The coming year will have its challenges, no doubt. Our lack of success and our excess of struggle will still smack us between the eyes. Don’t doubt it won’t. But join with me in fighting against sorrow. Resolve with me not to stay there. Look to Jesus. Trust in His cleansing. Trust in His covering. Anything less will leave us hiding in shame or clinging to a delusion. He didn’t sin, but died for ours. He accomplished everything, and hands it to us.