Daily Devotional – July 2, 2020

Well, a good Thursday to you. This is July 2nd. Maybe for you, it's your last day of work before a long holiday weekend. Maybe you get tomorrow off and can celebrate the 4th of July on the 3rd of July or something like that.

Nevertheless, I hope whatever the weekend holds in store for you that you will get to do some celebration of our nation's independence. But today, we're very mindful of the crisis that's going on in our nation.

The Root of National Crisis in Original Sin

And I could use it in the plural, right? The crises. And there's all kinds of discussions about the crisis and what's the problem with it and different theories and so forth. But one of the big misses in the current American crisis is the real root of it all.

You know, why does racism exist on any level? I mean, there's racism of white people who disparage people who are black just because of the color of their skin. No question about that. There's also black people who disparage and despise white people just because they're white and there's the assumption that they are therefore, because they're white, they're racist.

Why are there white people who hate white people and do bad things to them? Why are there black people who do bad things and evil things and harmful things to other black people? Why is there violence and so much of it anyway?

Why is there so much strife in Washington, both the state as well as the nation's capital? Why all the false information in mainstream media and social media and every form of media for that matter? Why?

Well, the answer is original sin and man's fallen sinful nature. Now, to be sure, there are plenty of reasons why that's not even considered in all the discussions about the crises of the American culture, but not the least of which, not the least reason, is simply because it's not believed.

There is this basic notion on the part of most people that people are born inherently good, or at least a blank slate. They're neither good nor evil, and then we have to come up with all kinds of theories as to why inherently good people or blank slate people end up doing such terrible evil things.

Well, again, the Bible gives us a clear, concise, simple explanation that secular sociologists won't even consider. Jeremiah writes it like this, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

The King James translates it, it is desperately wicked. But the word, the Hebrew word, it's translated that way, desperately sick or desperately wicked. The Hebrew word for both desperately and sick or wicked is a single word that means incurable.

The heart is deceitful above all things and it is incurable. Now, Paul in the New Testament explains to us how it got that way. He said sin came into the world through one man, speaking of Adam. He said one trespass led to condemnation for all men, and by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners.

In short, Paul says that the reason for all of the crisis and the moral decay and the violence and hatred and all of that kind of stuff is rooted in the one man's sin in the garden millennia ago. So there's the how it is that people can be so heartless and cruel and hateful and deceitful, with animosity and strife and so on and so forth.

How Christ Brings Righteousness and Freedom from Sin

But a writer from long ago, Thomas Fuller, he wisely said this. He says, let us not busy our brains so much to know how original sin came into us as labor with our heart to know how it should get out of us.

How do we get it out of us? Good question. How? The short answer is Jesus. Well, in the same context that Paul wrote all those statements about the one sin resulting in the sinfulness and unrighteousness and condemnation of the many, he also wrote this.

He says, for as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, speaking of Christ, the many will be made righteous. And then from that passage in Romans chapter 5, Paul follows up with a whole discourse on overcoming the propensity of our sinful human heart to follow the dictates of our fallen nature, of the sin that we're born with.

Listen to what he writes in Romans chapter 6. He says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will not have dominion over you. End quote. Well, to be sure there's a great deal more that could be said about laboring with our heart to know how to get that original sin out of us. Tomorrow I'll share some very practical ideas from another gifted writer from yesteryear as he gives us some suggestions on curing sinful thoughts.

I hope you'll come back for that. Today I just wanted to lay the groundwork and to establish the fact that the root of our problem is sin. The starting point for answering that problem is Jesus and his work, his obedience, his righteousness, having that righteousness that puted to us and then the working out of that righteousness from our hearts and our transformed hearts into transformed lives.

So come back tomorrow and we'll talk about curing sinful thoughts and getting those out of our brains. So for the rest of the day let's pray and ask God to encourage us in looking at all the evil around us to be concerned with driving it out of our own hearts and being sure that we're not falling prey to that which we see all around us.

Prayer for Heart Transformation and Closing Blessing

Our Father and our God, we thank you for the truth that is in Christ Jesus, that he is the answer to the incurable heart with which we're born. We're thankful for his work on the cross, for his obedience that is then imputed to those who trust in him.

I pray as those listening today would examine their own hearts and know that they are trusting him for their soul's salvation, for the cure for their heart's sin. I pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

All right, well have a good rest of your day today and may God richly bless you. I trust you'll be able to join with us tomorrow on July 3rd, the day we celebrate our nation's independence. Have a good day.

God bless.