Day 1 – The Need For a Rescuer

Over the next 26 days we will be taking a few minutes out of our crammed Christmas schedules to look into the coming of Christ as we see revealed in Scripture. Over these first 8 days we will focus on the need for a Savior and God’s promise of His arrival. In all of these devotions, my heart is that we can all see God’s Son and God’s gospel in a more beautiful way.

So without any further intro, let’s jump into Day 1 of The King Is Coming.

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“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

~ Genesis 6:5-8

There aren’t many other more brutal pictures of God’s sorrow over the sin and wicked actions of man. The post-Fall world was one that was almost completely set against God, His holiness and His design for man. Verse 6 tells us that “the Lord regretted He had made man.” The Creator who had, just a few chapters before, pronounced His pleasure with what He had made in man was now deeply saddened by his blatant idolatry.

From the Garden to here in Genesis 6 to 21st century life – man has strayed from the design of our Creator. It is design that was intended to reflect the character of a holy and loving God:

“So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.”

~ Genesis 1:27

Man was made to reflect the image of God to the entire created order, but in the span of 2 chapters of Genesis man goes from a beautiful image bearer to a son and daughter of disobedience. Children who were cast out of the Garden and God’s presence for their disobedience. Though they were created to love God, man had chosen to love himself.

In just a few generations, man was desperately in love with himself. He has become infatuated with setting his own rules, chasing his own lust and determining his own purpose. The Lord was grieved because the creation that he loved had betrayed him. It was a betrayal that God did not take lightly in the Garden and it is something that he was set to deal with swiftly here in Genesis 6.

Yet in an act of loving justice, God chooses to wipe the planet clean with a global flood and purge the land of man’s wickedness. He had every right to hit the reset button on humanity, but He didn’t. God, in an act of sovereign grace, chose to spare Noah, his family and ultimately the human race by allowing them to escape the flood waters. Salvation had come to those who didn’t deserve it.

That’s what Advent is all about. It is about the horrible wickedness and betrayal of man that is met with an overpowering act of grace and love. It is about a race of people who deserve to be blotted out but who instead receive an unearned salvation. Instead of a flood to wipe out the earth, God was sending His Son to blot out the sins of humanity.

As much as you and I want to think we are nothing like the picture of humanity in Genesis 6…but we are. There are times when we try to love and obey God, but we still choose to love ourselves. There are times when we act from a pure heart, but there are still the times when we are motivated by a sin charred heart. We are all hopelessly wicked and bound by the love of ourselves.

A wicked man needs rescuing, but the great news is that the Rescuer was already promised before Noah walked the Earth. While wickedness reigned, hope was hanging in the sky.

Prayer

Take a few minutes to ask God to help you see the acts of betrayal and love of self that you need to deal with. Ask for the help of the Spirit to put this disobedience to death that you may love God with a heart of obedience in this Advent season.