July 7 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

By God’s Word and Spirit the world was made, and he uses the same tools to rebuild the creaking cosmos. God does not save some souls from the wreckage of the planet; instead, the whole groaning creation must be delivered from bondage by the love and power of God.

Bible Reading:

Genesis 2:15–17

Bible Text:

"You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Gen. 2:17).

Devotional:

Why did God tell our parents in the Garden of Eden that they should not eat from the tree that would give them the knowledge of good and evil? Why did God test them? Because they had to prove their love for God by voluntary obedience.

No other creature had that choice. The bird and the fish, the fox and the chicken are compelled to obey the laws of God. Their Maker has determined the rules for their lives, and they obey willy-nilly. But human beings can choose whether or not to obey.

Adam and Eve were without sin in the beginning, so they were able to choose between obedience and disobedience, life and death. Every human being still has the ability to make moral choices. Without that ability we would be less than human.

But when we came into the world, we had no choice as to whether we wanted to be sinners. That was already decided. All children of Adam and Eve are born under the power of sin. Yet in Christ we are set free from the guilt and the power of sin.

Even now that we have been delivered from slavery by the blood of Jesus Christ, God does not force us to obey. God wants no slaves. He wants children who love him. In Christ and by his Spirit, we learn to respond to God in love. The Spirit lives in us not as a tyrant but as a teacher. We obey voluntarily. It's the only kind of obedience God wants.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.