However, maybe failure is mostly feared in matters of the soul. Man fears condemnation of his own soul and the influence he may have on another soul that is condemned. And one would think that this excruciating fear would be enough to bring about change and renewal, but often that is not the case. But thankfully the God of heaven is not One who expects perfection, but knows there will be failures in our lives. Though what He does expect is that if at first you don’t succeed, to use the old phrase, you dust yourself off and try again.
God’s longsuffering toward man is as old as is mankind. All the way back in Genesis 3, the command was to not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or else they would surely die. And as sure as they had received the command, Adam and Eve broke it. The consequence then, as prescribed by God, was death (Genesis 2:17). However, following the sin Adam and Eve continued living. Yes they spiritually died, and yes they began to physically die, but the point is that they continued living though they deserved to die immediately. They failed, and yet God in His longsuffering looked forward to the time when one would die on their behalf, to the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) and had mercy upon Adam and Eve, allowing them the opportunity to dust themselves off and try again.
Then one might turn his attention to the Israelite nation and realize that she lived in constant failure throughout her history. Whether it be during the exodus, the wilderness wanderings, the period of the judges, or in the events that resulted in the major captivities in Assyria and Babylon, Israel constantly failed the expectations of God. It even was thought of by God at one time to extinguish the nation and save Himself the grief of having to deal with them (Numbers 14:11-12). However, God in His mercy and longsuffering merely punished them to try to bring about repentance and renewal so that His promise to Abraham would continue to unfold unharmed. Even in the midst of failure they were given opportunity to dust themselves off and try again.
Finally, in turning to the pages of the New Testament a final example of failure is within the elect and redeemed of God themselves, the Corinthian churches of Christ. There were factions, adultery, brethren taking each other to court over spiritual matters, fornication, misunderstandings over meat offered to idols, doubts about Paul’s apostleship, women usurping authority, misuses of the miraculous gifts, and false teachings over the resurrection, just to name a few. Spiritually they had failed and were currently suffering some temporary consequences of that failure, but God in His mercy suffered long, giving them opportunity to change, which they did. They dusted themselves off and tried again for the sake of success.
Today man lives in an age of spiritual failure. Society is more heathenistic, atheistic, skeptic, and hateful than ever before in the history of the world. All of this negativity is having an effect on all facets of humanity and will bring about a new generation after this one that will probably escalate in apostasy if nothing is done to change it. However, amidst all of this failure God has continued to give opportunity to repent. That is because He “is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). Continually man at first has not and does not succeed, but still there is opportunity to dust himself off and try again. That, in essence, is the theme of this life: trial, error, and repentance. God now commands all men to repent so that we might benefit from His eternal blessings promised, made possible, and confirmed by the blood of His Son. Won’t you accept it today?