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4/20 Reading Portions: Leviticus 24; Psalm 31; Ecclesiastes 7; 2 Timothy 3
Listen to the audio devotional above, and/or read the written devotional below.
Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? Ecclesiastes 7:13
REALIZED
We must ever consider that God is holy, good, just, and sovereign in all He is and all He does. He commits no sin, does not cause sin, nor does He make mistakes. Although the ownership and corruption of sin bestowed upon all mankind falls upon Adam, God did not intervene because, in His sovereign wisdom, it must happen in order to carefully and gloriously reveal all the prophecies of His wonderful Son, Jesus Christ. In His sovereignty, God’s work in creating man and planting a garden was pure, perfect, and straight; yet by his sin, Adam alone was at fault, and culpable for making all things crooked.
Although Adam was made perfect as a being in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10), he could only fail in his predicament because Christ Jesus was not yet made manifest, neither was the promise of Christ made known. Salvation is realized and received in no other but the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). Bible readings, such as the portions today, should remind us of the all the Scriptures which testify of Christ’s person and His work, as well as fallen mankind’s need for salvation and sanctification through Him. Had God Almighty simply intervened in Eve’s deception and Adam’s transgression, the glorious gospel of God’s only begotten Son would have never unfolded through history, neither told in the pages of Scripture, revealing the details of Christ and the breadth, length, depth and height of God’s love (Eph 3:17-19).
Truly, who can make straight what Adam or any other man has made crooked? Only God. Fallen man (crooked) can only be saved by God. Likewise, he can only be sanctified (made straight) by God. And both must be accomplished in, by, and through the good name and precious, anointed death of Jesus Christ (Ecc 7:1), for He is perfect Man and holy God.
Let us reflect upon our Lord
And consider His work through Christ:
He brought it to pass, fulfilling His Word,
In Jesus, whose death paid sin’s price.
