Lent Devotion | Day 6

Ezekiel 18:21 (NIV)

But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die.

We don't think of ourselves as wicked, do we? We might say that we're "just not perfect." According to scripture though, having a sin nature that makes us fall short of God's perfectly good and loving holiness makes us, well...wicked. Outside of God's grace, you and I are wicked. Not a warm and fuzzy thought, is it? Where we often make light of or minimize our sin nature, Ezekiel seeks to remind us of the gravity of it. He doesn't talk about it in terms of good or bad, or right or wrong, but in terms of something more consequential - those who turn and seek God will surely live; those that don't will die. Our wicked nature leads to death. As Romans 6:23 later claims, "the wages of sin is death."

If anyone understood that, it was Jesus as it led to his death. So before we can understand and embrace the sacrificial act of Christ's crucifixion and the hope of his resurrection, we have to soberly acknowledge the reality of our wicked ways, and our need for a Savior.