Mankind since the fall has been like Alice in Wonderland who after entering the rabbit hole found herself falling uncontrolled until she hit a world of fantasy. She hit bottom but mankind has not hit bottom in his waywardness and never will. His wickedness knows no end. He constantly creates more ways to control others, to hurt them; making dangerous weapons to harm or to destroy. Mankind is untamable, his sin unrestrained. Sadly, in our present age, we have devices that can destroy everything on earth with nuclear bombs hundreds of times more powerful than those dropped on Japan. Even in our daily struggles to be good, to follow society’s rules, we often fail; such as on the highways where we disobey the speed laws. In our area, we have a camera on one stretch of the highway to the city of Tacoma. When they might get caught speeding, everyone obeys the speed limit. When the radar was first installed, hundreds of speeders were caught in a few weeks. The public complained about that fact, making the highway department put up a sign warning that this stretch of the highway is monitored by radar. People tend to speed when they think they can get away with it. A camera removes this freedom to break the law. As natural lawbreakers, we have problems following society’s rules and the internal rules we have established to govern ourselves. “I will never lie again.” “I will never gamble again.” “I will never look at pornography again.” “I will never hurt my spouse again.” “I will never abuse my children again.” The list goes on. As Paul says, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:15)
Some people postulate that we have less violence now than we have ever had. Through most of history we did not have nation states or countries as we do today. Law enforcement was scarce in most places. When traveling to Judah from Persia, Nehemiah needed a letter from King Artaxerxes, giving him authority to travel through the different territories. The governors who controlled these lands knew not to disobey the king of Persia. This letter was taken seriously for the Persian King’s armies had already devastated the land all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. They did not want his fearsome power levied on them again. We live in an era of nation states: organized governments. In the United States we have a variety of police powers to keep people from taking advantage of others: our federal military, state military, Homeland Security, State Patrol, city police, county sheriffs, and many other security officers. All of these organizations exist to keep men and women from taking advantage of others, to interfere with the free fall of sinful man. Given our propensity for destruction, where will we land? If we wipe out every specie on this island called earth, then will we land? Sin leads to death, to extermination. Sin is a cancer on God’s creation. As the verses in Romans 3 tell us: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. Man rebels at this notion that no one is righteous. He believes the right genes, conditions, upbringing, and nurturing will create a better man, a more sane, less violent person who is less likely to break the cultural norms or society’s mores. We are literally telling God: “Instruct us how to behave and then we will take it from there.” We tell him we are capable of following the laws of righteousness. To destroy that notion, God gave us the law. Obedience to God’s law would bring harmony and peace into mankind’s interactions. But what the law actually did was to reveal man’s inability to be good. The law manifested mankind’s desire to dominate, to rule, to be godlike. The law requires subservience to God, to honor parents, not to covet, not to harm others. Simple rules but impossible to follow for obedience runs against our fallen nature.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God represents the foundational understanding of the human condition. We are all under the same brush stoke in the painting of humankind: There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. What is the solution for our fallen state? We need a Savior, someone who can pay the complete price for our waywardness, our tendency to corrupt behavior. Of course, we know this price has been paid by the blood of Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:10) He was resurrected so that we too might be resurrected into eternal life. We are justified by our faith in Jesus Christ. We live IN HIM AND HE LIVES IN US. The mystery of eternal life has been solved by receiving the Creator of life by faith. Peter tells the Jews, You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. (Acts 3:15-16) Jesus is the author of life: He alone brings life to everything that exist. We who are finite can find that eternal life through the eternal one, Jesus Christ. To find that life in God we must believe in Jesus Christ’s work on the cross, and we must identify ourselves as Jesus’ followers through confession and baptism. We then will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” (Acts 2:37-39) The world rejected the holy, righteous Jesus, but we who are saved place our complete trust in him. He is the way, the truth, and the life for us. We are no longer identified as being merely lawbreakers, contaminated by Adam’s nature; now we are new creatures, born again, righteous before God’s eyes. We are a set apart people, a holy people, no longer condemned to eternal destruction.
Beloved friends around this breakfast table, rejoice for you are new creatures. You live off of every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. He has placed his blessed Spirit within you to lead you through this wilderness of life. He has placed in you the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Of course, sometimes our Adam nature fails to respond to the light of the Lord. But as Paul wrote a little later in Romans, In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11) We will not let our sinful nature bring us back into condemnation; instead, we will focus on Christ’s work, not our own. The world has no answers to eternal life; they have no answers to the sin within the human nature. Governments, organizations, alliances, even altruistic leaders have tried to find an answer to mankind’s waywardness, selfishness. Laws have been made, constitutions created, police forces marshaled to marginalize wickedness; but none of these attempts to control violence and harm have been very successful. We can look back into history and see the shame of sin, the killing and maiming of countless millions of people. Whole racial and ethnic groups have been wiped off the face of the earth. Even now, at this point of history, we boast about our strength and ability to hurt others, to dominate others as a wrestler would do in the ring. We want others to see our greatness, to raise our hand in victory. There is no end to mankind’s nature of violence, of dominance. People will continue to hurt others until Jesus Christ comes to rule. Without God in the picture, we will continue to abuse others in and outside of our families, communities, and nations. We will continue to destroy our habitat, our environment. We have a rapacious spirit about us while God has asked us to love others. We who are IN CHRIST know we should love others as we love ourselves. He has asked us to be servants to the world. Christ has asked us to be gentle and generous with others. As we read in the Word: Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:5) Christlike behavior runs contrary to our nature of self. But God wants us to portray him to the world. We are his ambassadors, so let us not try to follow him based on the rigidity of the law, for we will fail. Instead, let us follow God by loving him with all our heart, soul, mind, strength, and by loving others as ourselves. Let us fulfill all the law by first loving God through faith in his Son and then by loving others as Christ loves us.
No comments:
Post a Comment