May 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 14:1–3

Devotional

Ultimately there are only two kinds of people on earth: those who are wise and those who are foolish. The wise people are those who live with God, while the foolish live without God. This difference between the wise and foolish does not depend on a certain level of education. The most illiterate one can be very wise because of the fear of the Lord. The most learned scientist can be foolish if he is without God.

Left to ourselves, nobody is wise. Scripture says, “There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way” (Rom. 3:11, 12). They have all become foolish. This foolishness is a sad inheritance of sin. Since man fell away from God, he has placed God outside of his life. In this way he became godless. A philosopher of a previous century verbalized what lives in the heart of every man, as he stated, “God is dead!” That is what a philosopher said. A philosopher is one who is supposed to speak wisdom, but in reality this man spoke the greatest foolishness.

God is man’s Judge. Man fools himself, therefore, when he says that there is no God. But man does not want to be held accountable for all the evil he does. His reasoning concludes that if there is no God, then there is no sin, and if there is no sin, neither will there be a punishment for sin. Man wishes away the Judge. In foolishness man thinks he can do as he wants, for he has now eradicated any idea concerning the existence of God. He now makes a god of himself and does what is right in his own eyes.

But is this not the foolishness of a thief or a murderer, who imagines that there is no judge to whom he must give an account? Man is even more foolish when he imagines that there is no God. There is no greater foolishness than to deny the existence of God, to whom ultimately all people must give an account. Man’s accountability to God is infinitely greater than that of any criminal towards an earthly judge. God knows everyone’s heart. To deny that is to deceive oneself forever.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.