Thought for the Day

Those who are rebellious will applaud the wicked, but law-abiding citizens will contend with them. Evil men cannot understand justice, but whoever seeks the Lord has good understanding. We saw in Day 315 that God's judgment is directly connected to the principle of sowing and reaping and comes upon the wicked because of sin. The Bible reveals that all the troubles in the world are due to either my own sin or someone else's. "...For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "For the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 5:23). What exactly is sin? It is a heart condition, stemming from pride. Pride is referred to as "original sin." The Hebrew and Greek words for sin both convey the meaning "to miss the mark." God created us to be like Him, but our pride and rebellion make us fall far short of that glorious purpose.

We cannot deal with our sin by "cleaning ourselves up" on the outside, when our problem is a heart condition. We need to be cleansed from sin; freed from its penalty, which is death; and restored to fellowship with God. We need a new heart and nature. This is what Jesus Christ meant when He said that we "must be born again" (John 3:7), and that "...except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). When we were physically born the first time, we were made a partaker of the nature of natural man. When we are born again spiritually, we become a partaker of the divine nature according to 2 Peter 1:4 which says, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." God becomes our spiritual Father. Without the experience of the new birth, we have no hope of enjoying the glories of heaven or escaping the terrors of hell.

Have you been born again? The "new birth" is not a religion, a creed, a set of rituals, or joining a church. It is a transformation, the receiving of a new nature. Old things pass away and all things become new in Christ. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Whoever receives and obeys Jesus will understand God's judgments. They will understand that all He allows (even punishment for sin) is meant for good. Those who rebelliously reject Christ will not understand. They will praise wicked men for their deeds and resist the righteous.