I get an email every day giving me a Bible verse for the day, but every Monday I not only get a daily verse, I get a "Weekly Wisdom" email as well. And I really liked this weeks "wisdom." Here it is from www.christnotes.org:
You are more sinful than you can believe, but you are more loved than you can imagine.
Outside of conservative Christian circles, it's not very common for people to believe that they are inherently bad. Instead, people's logic often goes like this: Sure, I occasionally do bad things, but at heart I'm a good person.
Although it may be tempting to give yourself credit as being a good (or, in Biblical lingo, righteous) person at heart, such a view of human nature is at odds with what God reveals in his word. God makes it very clear that every one of us is "bad." We don't just do bad things; we are bad.
The Apostle Paul exclaims that because of our sin every one of us falls short of God's radiant splendor and glory (Romans 3:23). None of us are good—that is, righteous (Romans 3:10).
Our unrighteousness is not due to the fact that we break God's commands. Instead, we are unrighteous because we are "in Adam," to borrow the language of Paul in Romans 5. Even people who did not sin by breaking a command still died because they were by nature sinners (Romans 5:14).
The bad news is that you're sinful by nature. Even if you lived your whole life without breaking a single command of God you'd still reap death. The bad news is probably worse than you may care to admit.
Fortunately, that makes the good news better than you had imagined. Despite your sinful nature, God offers the life of his very son for you (Romans 5:8-10). God doesn't owe you anything, but he gives you everything. That's love.
Your sin is placed on Christ, and Christ's righteousness is placed on you. You gain what he deserved—life—and he gains what you deserved—death. How great is the love God lavishes on us! (1 John 3:1)
Have a great day!
G
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Geren, this is a topic I like a lot. For non-Christians, the big question is: If people are inherently good, then why do they do bad things? So, when hi-jackers crash planes into skyscrapers, like on 9/11, about the best they can do is: "Well, obviously someone did a crummy job raising them," and it all falls back on poor child-rearing or faulty education. But this seems really weak and like "passing the buck" to most people.
ReplyDeleteFor the Christian, our challenge is to respond to this question: If people are inherently bad, why do they do undeniably good things? And our answer is to trace back the source of the goodness. Any good thing is a reflection of the grace of God, whether in the activity of the Holy Spirit working from the outside on unbelievers, drawing them to God, or else the "inside job" of the Holy Spirit's presence in believers. In any case, it's NOT us --- it's God. Some resist God's activity, others give in to it, and eventually are saved. When saved people let God keep working, they become more like Jesus. In any case, God gets ALL the credit since He's the one behind it.
Sorry I got wordy...Can you tell I like theology? (smile)
G! buddy! this is solid :)
ReplyDelete(jam sesh soon?)