The Difference

July 23

Enoch was the precursor to our salvation from spiritual death. We read in Hebrews 11:5, “Enoch was taken away so that he did not experience death…he was approved, having pleased God.”

Prior to Jesus, a man could only look forward to the promise of a Messiah. Before Jesus came, there was no assurance of salvation because the requirement of pleasing a holy God has never been easily actualized by fallen man.

There is nothing new under the sun. The sins that beset us today are the same ones that our ancestors fell into. The temptations that snare us away from God’s truth are the same pitfalls that caused early man to tumble headlong into sin.

The difference between our being received into the fold of God’s grace and Enoch being taken away without tasting death is Christ who has paid the penalty for our sin in full. Enoch pleased God by looking beyond the veil that hid the plan of salvation and pleasing God by seeing His provision for man’s escape from sin.