Good Morning Friends,
“This only have I found: God made mankind
upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29)
Man had the opportunity to live in
righteousness on the earth. God started mankind that way. Adam wasn’t sinful
from the beginning and there was no inherent necessity that he become sinful. Adam
chose to scheme with Eve. They wanted more than God had given them. They wanted
to be like God. In that scheming, they chose to disobey God and in that choice
they lost their righteousness.
We could blame all of our problems on Adam
and Eve. They started the downward spiral away from righteousness. They
surrendered the opportunity to walk upright before God all their lives and
leave mankind a legacy of righteousness. They chose instead to leave us a
legacy of rebellion and scheming. All of our problems are their fault!
But not really! Yes, they made the first
choice to scheme and plot rebellion and we do suffer consequences from their
choice. But none of us has made better choices and none of us would have made a
better choice than they did in the Garden of Eden. We have ratified their
choice to rebel with our own scheming and plotting of rebellion against God. Freely,
without coercion, we have made the same choice that Adam and Eve made and we’ve
made it over and over again. We want something more than God has given, so we
scheme and plot to get it, we rebel and choose sin -- and suffer the
consequences.
That’s the fate of man -- all mankind --
given the opportunity to live upright before God, we’ve chosen sin.
Thank God that He didn’t leave us alone in
our rebellion and sin. In Jesus, He has restored rebels to righteousness. Not
because we’ve become righteous, but because Jesus was righteous!
We don’t deserve what He’s done for us –
haven’t earned it in any way -- He is God's gift!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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