April 10, 2001
If you get email, you probably get junk mail, virus hoaxes and assorted electronic chain letters. Some of them are humorous, others not worth the electricity it took to send them.
Occasionally some of this flotsam looks like hate-mail circulated by disgruntled employees. One arrived last week. It seemed to be copies of an exchange between the sender and a person who worked for a well-known television network. The sender had complained about a particular episode in a show that network carried. He took a biblical perspective on a certain issue and his letters were polite. The person who supposedly answered his complaint did so in a crude manner. He used lines like: “Get your nose out of the Bible . . . . treat people as equals . . . . try thinking for yourself and stop using an archaic book of stories as a lame crutch for your existence.”
Keep in mind that these ‘letters’ may been fabrications. Junk email is often like that; however, it did touch on a topic worthy of consideration. When some Christians speak about their faith as it applies to current controversial issues, we often are told that our religion is a crutch. The implication is that Christians are weak and their faith helps them limp through life.
It is true that crutches support people who are injured or disabled but there seems also to be a suggestion by these accusers that no one needs crutches. They seems to believe that all human beings can think for themselves and that our own ideas are all we need to live and solve every problem. In other words, we can do it without religion, faith or God.
Maybe that is true in limited situations. I get up every morning and brush my own teeth without help — but a quadriplegic cannot. Not everyone is self-sufficient in everything. Besides, the Bible says it is because of God that we “live and move and have our being” so without common grace from God, I could not get up in the morning and brush my teeth.
As I watch the nightly news, I cannot help but conclude that even if we human beings have the capacity to think through our problems, many of us do not. A certain percentage of the population is doing the opposite: thinking up problems.
Add to this the mistake factor. A corporate executive can make incredible and sincere decisions but are all his decisions beneficial? What about leaders of universities? Is every idea sound and positive? If the best leaders and thinkers can make mistakes, what about you or me?
Since lameness is the inability to function correctly, then everyone is lame, at least part of the time. We mess up, no matter how good we are at “thinking for ourselves.” This includes presidents, professors and thinkers as well as you and me. Even by our own standards of measurement, there is no perfect person who is limp-free all of the time.
So how about the standards of a perfect God? How does He measure our lameness? Solomon, a man noted for his wisdom, wrote this: “There is not one person that does good and never sins,” a theme that is repeated throughout Scripture. God can say that because He measures us by the standard of His Son. Jesus was a perfect man. He never did anything that violated the standards of His Father. Oh, on a human level some might find fault. If perfection is monetary, then Jesus failed. If perfection is popularity, then Jesus limped. Yet God says His Son passed all the tests.
People who tell Christians to stop using the Bible as a crutch do not realize that they themselves have crutches. Why else does society gobble up Valium, booze and excess food? What are those cravings but an attempt to hide a limp?
God knows our lameness but rather than ridicule us for it, He offers us His crutches. Anyone who tries them learns that with God, it is far better to be lame than blind.
Showing posts with label God's lofty standard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's lofty standard. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2018
Monday, May 30, 2016
The true nature of humanity .................. Parables 438
September 13, 1994
A Canadian doctor, after 12 years of doing surgery in war-torn places, has come to this conclusion: “There are only bad people and worse people.” He hopes he is “only one of the bad.”
Many people say war brings out fine attributes in people such as courage and national pride, but this doctor seems totally disillusioned. For him, there is no human goodness and war makes it obvious.
According to the Bible, the doctor is correct. It is those who see a positive side of human nature, wars or not, that are disillusioned. Consider this verse from the Old Testament: “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). That means everyone, even those who seem the most saintly, have sinned.
A second passage from the New Testament adds more: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Certainly by human standards, people often do good (the doctor did some good during his 12 years of service), but the Bible teaches that by God’s standard, sin pollutes every person and every deed. God even says the good we do is polluted. One of His prophets explains: “All our righteousness is as filthy rags.”
For God to condemn what we esteem, must mean He sees something behind our supposed good deeds that we cannot see. Consider our motivations. I honestly must admit I am often influenced by selfish desires for personal gain or recognition. I know God sees that and does not approve.
If sinful motives were not enough to condemn even the good we do, God expects even more. He says “whatever is not of faith is sin.” Not only do selfish motives fail His test, deeds done in unbelief fall short. He wants us to be motivated by faith.
According to God’s Word, all sin, even sin not apparent to us, needs to be exposed by God and acknowledged to God. His purpose is not so He can condemn us (sin already does that) but so He can forgive and cleanse our sin from us. Accepting and believing His evaluation of our condition is the first step towards good deeds that are not motivated by selfishness and unbelief.
God, through grace and the power of His Spirit, provides a way to be rightly motivated in godly activities. Our hope is in the righteousness of Christ, given freely to all who admit their need. Romans 3 says “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
The goodness of God is a genuine gift. No one can earn or deserve it; we do not have the capacity. We cannot even claim the smallest measure of goodness. Nothing we do without Jesus can satisfy God’s high and holy standard. Without His offer of salvation by grace through faith, none of us would even seek that degree of goodness.
Even with faith in Christ, the good we do is clearly from Him. Any believing Christian who thinks otherwise simply proves our sinful tendency toward pride.
As the doctor said, war does amplify the extremes of our sinful nature. While we respect those who courageously risk their lives to defend homeland and families, we should never forget it is because we are sinners that we go to war in the first place.
A Canadian doctor, after 12 years of doing surgery in war-torn places, has come to this conclusion: “There are only bad people and worse people.” He hopes he is “only one of the bad.”
Many people say war brings out fine attributes in people such as courage and national pride, but this doctor seems totally disillusioned. For him, there is no human goodness and war makes it obvious.
According to the Bible, the doctor is correct. It is those who see a positive side of human nature, wars or not, that are disillusioned. Consider this verse from the Old Testament: “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). That means everyone, even those who seem the most saintly, have sinned.
A second passage from the New Testament adds more: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Certainly by human standards, people often do good (the doctor did some good during his 12 years of service), but the Bible teaches that by God’s standard, sin pollutes every person and every deed. God even says the good we do is polluted. One of His prophets explains: “All our righteousness is as filthy rags.”
For God to condemn what we esteem, must mean He sees something behind our supposed good deeds that we cannot see. Consider our motivations. I honestly must admit I am often influenced by selfish desires for personal gain or recognition. I know God sees that and does not approve.
If sinful motives were not enough to condemn even the good we do, God expects even more. He says “whatever is not of faith is sin.” Not only do selfish motives fail His test, deeds done in unbelief fall short. He wants us to be motivated by faith.
According to God’s Word, all sin, even sin not apparent to us, needs to be exposed by God and acknowledged to God. His purpose is not so He can condemn us (sin already does that) but so He can forgive and cleanse our sin from us. Accepting and believing His evaluation of our condition is the first step towards good deeds that are not motivated by selfishness and unbelief.
God, through grace and the power of His Spirit, provides a way to be rightly motivated in godly activities. Our hope is in the righteousness of Christ, given freely to all who admit their need. Romans 3 says “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
The goodness of God is a genuine gift. No one can earn or deserve it; we do not have the capacity. We cannot even claim the smallest measure of goodness. Nothing we do without Jesus can satisfy God’s high and holy standard. Without His offer of salvation by grace through faith, none of us would even seek that degree of goodness.
Even with faith in Christ, the good we do is clearly from Him. Any believing Christian who thinks otherwise simply proves our sinful tendency toward pride.
As the doctor said, war does amplify the extremes of our sinful nature. While we respect those who courageously risk their lives to defend homeland and families, we should never forget it is because we are sinners that we go to war in the first place.
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