God made man upright.
Ecclesiastes 7:29
The word that is translated “man” here is the word “adam,” like the name—Adam. “God made adam upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (7:29). So, there is a contrast here between Adam and men and women today.
What does it mean to be upright? Adam was good and right in himself. That is how God made him. Doing what is good and right came naturally to him. He had a bent toward what is good and right. It was what he wanted to do.
Adam loved God. He did not have to work at it. We often feel that we ought to pray and that we ought to worship, but there was no “ought” about it for Adam. Love for God was in him by nature. God made Adam upright.
Can you imagine how good this was? God gave this man a wife and she was made upright too. Eve never had to correct her husband. He was upright. Adam did not have to work at understanding his wife. The word “upright” indicates that, from the beginning of time, there was something called “right” against which Adam could be measured. The Ten Commandments were given much later in human history. So, how did Adam know what was right?
The Scottish preacher, Thomas Boston, in his book Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, says, “Adam did not have the law written on tablets of stone, but it was written upon his mind, the knowledge [of the law was] created within him. God impressed it upon his soul and made him a law to himself.”
Adam didn’t need the law. The knowledge of good and right was in him. Loving God and loving his neighbour was completely natural to him. He lived in glorious freedom. If you said to Adam, “Just do what you feel. Act on impulse,” you could be sure that what he did would be good and it would be right. God made him upright.
What do you think would happen if you simply acted on whatever you were feeling?
