The Devotional - R014

The Devotional

Comment:

Were you ever in the military and placed on report for breaching the “Code of Conduct”? Some years ago, before I went aboard submarines, I was stationed on a Navy Destroyer. In port these ships are moored side by side three or four deep. We were tied up with our sister ship (a destroyer of the same class) and during the midnight watch a few sailors from our ship slipped over the other ship and stole the ships helm (steering wheel) and replaced it with our less attractive one. It was a dumb thing to do, since the very next morning the leading Quartermaster of that destroyer, contacted our Quartermaster and together they switched the helms back to the rightful ship. Our Captain was beet red mad, and he placed the entire crew on suspended liberty. In other words, all people; including his officers were restricted on board until the culprits were identified. The only person that could go ashore was the Captain himself. We spent three full days under this restriction until four men confessed that they had done this dastardly deed. I was not saved in those days, but I did thank God that I was not a partner to this prank.

Challenge: Romans 3:0-20

God in His glorious Righteousness has placed the entire world under the penalty of death, He is the only one who lives eternally; all else dies. (God’s initial code of conduct) Genesis 2:16-17 – And the LORD God commanded the man, saying. “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”. You know the events that followed; Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that tree and the judgment “YOU SHALL SURELY DIE” fell not only on Adam, but on the entire human race to follow, even including all animal, vegetable and mineral life. Because of Adam’s unrighteous act of disobedience to God’s command, everything created fell to death.

Kosmos in the Greek, meaning all of the orderly arrangement of the world including mankind was disrupted with the inclusion of death, a judgment of God that would not be repealed. God said; “There is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seek after God; they have all turn away; they have together become unprofitable (spoiled). There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps in under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear (reverence) of God before their eyes – Romans 3:10-18.

Creation itself groans as well because of death, death is futile or empty and a waste. Romans 8:18-22. Every plant, animal and all of the universe eagerly waits for the adoption, the redemption of mankind back to God. The apostle Paul speaks of this redemption again in Ephesians 1: 3-14 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Jesus).

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. 

Without the FAITH that God offers to us through His Son (Hebrews 11:6) it is impossible to please God in any other way; knowledge is not faith and ignorance is no excuse. The law says that every mouth will be stopped, those in the know and those who say no to knowing, all are guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the flesh (human good) none will be justified in His sight, for by the same law is the knowledge of sin – Romans 2:12.