Called Into Questions Sample

Called Into Questions

God calls sinners home through questions. The seeds of our rebellion are also the means of His grace. After their betrayal, God’s first word to Adam and Eve is a question: “Where are you?” God’s inquiry is simple and direct. We might even call it an “obvious question.” It displays none of the great learning and careful erudition of the serpent’s question; it requires no familiarity with old texts. It is a profound display of God’s humility. God does not allow the fact that He knows everything to keep Him from asking a question.

What does God’s question mean? First, it expresses God’s interest in us. God is not acting. He could find Adam and Eve, but He would rather see Adam and Eve freely come to Him. God honors humanity by inviting us to converse with Him. He does not want only to be Lord over us, but God with us. Even in our rebellion, He is still the Lord God, the One who wants to be near His people. He knows how we will answer, and yet He wishes us to speak with Him. God’s question reveals His love for us and invites us to reveal ourselves to Him. There is no more basic form of love than the self-disclosure and affirmation that happens when speaking and listening. Though Adam and Eve’s sin had alienated them from God, God’s question is a sign that the rupture is not final. Unrelenting in His grace, God still seeks those who are lost.

More specifically, God’s question is an invitation to confession. God’s voice breaks into Adam and Eve’s lostness, enabling them to come home to Him. In turning away from God, we lose the one landmark that can successfully direct our paths. We can only begin to find our way home by confessing where we are and how we arrived there. “Where are you?” invites us to name how we wandered from the path of truth and righteousness and to make our way home to Him.

God’s questions liberate us, and so liberate questions for us. We can begin exploring (with) God only after He has searched and tried us and after we have confessed the sins that leave us lost and alone. Questioning well begins when we surrender ourselves to the questions of God. Our inquiry stands under judgment: it is not self-evident that our questions are good. Yet God’s grace frees us from the shame that keeps us from confession. His kindness transforms us so that we welcome His questions, rather than run from them. “Search me, O God, and know my heart!” the psalmist cries. “Try me and know my thoughts!” (Psalm 139:23-24) We have nothing to fear from the questions of God, who calls us into questions through questions.