It was good. Not perfect.

Just good.

So why do we live like the world is broken beyond repair?

The fall?

Sin?

Paradise Lost?

Maybe that story isn't exactly what we think. Maybe it wasn't a single catastrophic moment. Maybe sin isn't some outside force. It's our choices piling up across generations, shaping the world every day. 

And maybe just maybe God's love has been quietly, relentlessly present the entire time.

In this episode, we'll explore the surprising truth. Creation was never perfect, yet it and we have always been loved.

Curious, stay with me.

I'm your host, Jeremy Johnson, and welcome to the podcast, Slutty Grace.

All right, let's jump in.

It was good. Never perfect.

When God created everything, he looked around and saw that it was good. Never said it was perfect, just good. It wasn't some flawless, pure divine paradise.

The sun and stars were good. The oceans and the land were good. The trees, plants, and shrubs were good. The animals were good, and yes, us humans were good as well.

Creation wasn't perfect. It was simply good.

So why do we seem to think otherwise? I think part of it stems from what we call the fall.

Traditionally, the story goes like this.

Humanity lived in a perfect state of eternal bliss until Adam and Eve came along and disobeyed God. So then sin entered the world and everything fell from God's grace.

The diagram would look something like this. There's a high plateau on one side. That's creation. And then suddenly there is a cliff drop, the fall. Then a valley, which is our current world. And one day, Jesus will lift us back up to another high plateau.

That's the gospel, right?

That's one way to see it.

I want to offer another picture.

So God creates, and it is good, not perfect, including humans, right? We already went over that. 

In us, he placed his likeness, the power to choose and to create. Sin is simply us choosing for ourselves, not for God or others. So in a sense, sin was always present, not as a thing, but as a possibility.

Adam and Eve were just the 1st to choose their own way. Are we surprised?

And so what were the consequences?

Well, there were very specific ones. There was a break in relationships. They had to work harder for food, painted childbirth entered, and they were banished from the garden, and eventually their physical bodies died.

It was not God saying, ah, you've ruined everything. Creation is cursed and damned forever. Because of you, I cannot have a relationship with you or your offspring. Good going, guys.

No, they simply reaped their consequences. They were the 1st, but no worse than you or me.

And then their kids showed up. Cain kills Abel, more consequences.

Another human chooses their own way, and another and another, and each choice piles up. Generation after generation, the weight builds.

Slowly, the good creation becomes, well, less good, until we reach what we see today, a hurting world, hurting people. Pain everywhere. Not because of one catastrophic great fall, but because of the multiplying effects of countless human choices, yours, mine, all of ours.

This isn't Adam and Eve's mess.

This is ours.

So the diagram I see looks like this. There was a good beginning, creation. And then a slow decline, a gradual descending diagonal line. Not a cliff, not a drop off, not a great fall. And this line continued generation by generation until now.

And one day, God will restore all things back. If not beyond, to the original good beginning.

Because sin never entered creation as some outside force, as if it was a boulder dropped into a lake. No, sin is simply choice and the consequences that ripple out.

Now, what I'm about to say is important: This did not and never has surprised God.

After all, he created the choice within us. God knew our limits as created beings. It was not God who turned away from us. It was us who turned away from God.

We felt shame.

We felt unloved.

We convinced ourselves that we had to appease God, to tame his wrath, earn our way back into God's good graces.

We believed God was against us.

But then, Jesus.

Jesus came to show us God's true heart, that we are and always were loved, that God is not against us, that the rift was never on his side.

It was always in our minds.

Jesus came to restore us, heal the wounds of shame, to pray, Father, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, to love even the worst of us, the sinners, the wanderers, the ones who chose their own way. He came to cover our shame, to clothe us once more, and to say, it is finished.

"You have been running since the garden. Stop running. Yes, your rebellion bore bitter fruit, and it always will, but you are still my child. You have always been, you are loved, and you are forgiven. Do you believe this?"

Because your belief doesn't make it true.

It simply aligns you with God's reality.

And once you see it, you can finally taste the freedom, the grace, the homecoming, that has always been yours.

"Welcome home, child."

So if today you're feeling just good, but not perfect, take heart.

You're in good company.

It was never perfect.

It was simply good. And so is God, and so was God's grace.

So thanks for listening. 

Until next time, live in grace. And if you can, share that grace.