I can already hear the mouse buttons that will click off this blog post after I write what I’m about to write. But if you’ll stay with me, I hope to show you why you and I need a savior.
Paul writes in Romans 1:28-32 how truly sinful and vile mankind, you and me, are. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”
That’s us. We are sinful. You say, ‘wait a minute, I’ve never murdered anyone and I’m not evil. I’m a good person.’
Let me ask you then, by whose standards? Your own, your roommate, your mom? Here’s the problem with that. And I’ll give you the C.S. Lewis explanation he makes in “Mere Christianity.”
“…We have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people.”
If we live by our own moral standard, as the world seems to say you can, then you can say to yourself, it’s OK to cheat on my income taxes because it’s my money anyways. But when someone cheats you out of money, you want revenge.
That’s what C.S. Lewis is talking about. He goes on to say that we “believe in decency so much, we feel the rule of law pressing on us so, that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently, we try to shift the responsibility.”
So we cheat the IRS and say it’s OK because the government’s corrupt. We get cheated at the flea market and pay too much (when we should have known better anyways) and we blame them for not being honest.
To really get at the heart of this argument – please stay with me – I have to paraphrase Lewis once again. Early in the first chapter, he makes the strong argument that if mankind evolved from apes, then we, in our inner core, would still be in the survival of the fittest mode.
Yet, somewhere inside – not taught to us at school or by mom and dad – is an instinct of right and wrong. Male lions will fight to the death to become the new leader of the pack. They don’t see that as wrong.
When a job in management opens at your work, you and your coworkers don’t fight to the death to see who gets promoted. Just not right.
Yes, there were and maybe still are cultures that practice such barbaric rights of passage or rituals.
But the main point is, somewhere in our heart is a moral compass for which we cannot explain. Even those who commit crimes know it is wrong. As Paul states three times in chapter 1 of Romans, when we keep exchanging God for the world, he will give us over to the world.
The only explanation is that there is a God who created us with some sort of knowledge of right and wrong.
“We know that men find themselves under a moral law which they did not make and cannot quite forget even when they try and which they know they ought to obey,” Lewis writes in chapter 4 of “Mere Christianity.”
So, we know two things: First, there is some sort of moral law within us. And second, as much as we try, we can’t keep even the basics of the right and wrong that is somehow placed in our heart.
Some of you who are still reading might look back at list of sinfulness that makes a pretty wretched rap sheet and think to yourself, ‘I haven’t done that.’
If you’ve watched pornography or had sex out of marriage, there’s sexual immorality; if you’ve ever been jealous of someone else’s success or possessions, there’s greed and envy; are you gossiper, because that’s on the list; has pride made you think yourself great; would your friends and relatives say you’ve ever been untrustworthy or unloving; have you forgiven those who have wronged you?
There are some things listed in that early section of Romans 1 that sound like big words, but when you look them up, you realize it’s the very attitude and actions we profess each day.
Soak this in. Pray about. Ask God to open your heart and reveal if this is really who you are.
If God reveals your sinfulness to you, don’t wait for the next blog. Open a Bible or go to www.biblegateway.com and read through Romans or simply turn to John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, He gave his only begotten son (Jesus, to die on the cross), that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”
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