A Day-by-day devotional

February 11, 2023

Back in the garden

Chronological One Year Bible Reading Plan: Leviticus 1-5

Scripture of the Day: Genesis 3

God created everything in perfection. A perfect heaven and earth. An earth where vegetation and animals thrive, providing every single thing that Adam and Eve would need (Genesis 1:29). The first couple lived a blissful life, conversing and even walking with their Father. They were naked but they felt no shame (Genesis 2:25). With all that God blessed them with, they were given freedom to eat of the earth‘s fruits, except of one. He forbade them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16–17). And it was so.

But they failed. A cunning serpent tricked them to partake of the forbidden fruit. So, sin entered the world. The perfect world, now marred by sin, became imperfect. They were once naked and felt no shame. Then their eyes were suddenly opened and they realized they were naked. Before they sinned, it was God’s glory that clothed them and so they didn’t feel shame. But upon sinning, their clothing, God’s glory, departed from them.

They were banished from the garden, and their relationship with their Father became marred. They could no longer witness Him walking by at the cool of the day. They had been physically separated from Him due to sin.

When we miss the mark, we sin. When we fail to obey God – either by doing something, or not doing something that He has called us to do, we sin. Sin is what gets in the way between us and God.

Imagine, had sin not entered the world, we would have still been in the Garden of Eden, able to witness the Father as He walks. But sin entered. And God knew that it would. So even long before, He already had a plan. This plan was expressed as the first biblical prophecy, that someone born of the woman Eve, a human being, would be the deceiver’s greatest enemy (Genesis 3:15). This someone would be the one to save the world of its plight due to sin. And He did! Whoever has believed and put their trust in Him are saved. He was the one given by the Father to die on our stead, as atonement for our sins. This someone was both human, born of a woman, and divine, being the Father’s only begotten Son. Through Him, we are now again given the privilege to go before the Father in our complete nakedness, i.e. our redeemed selves, now clothed by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.

The glorious clothing of God’s presence departed when man sinned. But this was restored as man was redeemed by being clothed in the glorious victory of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Reflection: How do you see sin getting in the way between you and God? Have you acknowledged your need of a redeemer in the person of His Son?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins. Thank you for saving me. Cover me with your precious blood and clothe me with your glory. Amen.