Thursday after Exaudi Sunday
Posted on May 25, 2023 by under
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (NKJV)
5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Devotion
After Adam and Eve had sinned, they saw they were naked. They made coverings for themselves out of fig leaves. But the clothing they had made could not hide the fact they had sinned; neither can the works of our hands. Adam and Eve could not change their predicament. Th rough their sin, death had entered creation. Now, only God could clothe the nakedness of their sin.
What may get lost in the account of God clothing Adam and Eve was that an animal died in order to clothe Adam and Eve. What makes this all the more interesting is that the animal hadn’t done anything wrong, and yet it had to die in order to clothe Adam and Eve. What God had demonstrated in the act of clothing Adam and Eve was that innocent blood had to be shed in order to cover their sins.
For numerous centuries, the blood of countless innocent animals would be shed as they were offered up in sacrifice for the sins of people. Those who trusted in God’s promise of salvation looked forward to the day when the Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world. The innocent blood of Christ would atone for the sins of the whole world. Those to whom God has given faith in Christ would have the forgiveness of their sins. Like Paul, we long to be “further clothed.” That is, we long for the day when we will be with Christ and will be free from the burden of our sinful world.
Prayer: Almighty, everlasting God, make us to have always a devout will toward Thee, and to serve Thy Majesty with a pure heart; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
