With this post, and the next several, I’d like to share
“five transforming truths” about salvation. God has used them in my own life to
increase my love for Him, to deepen my humility and gratitude, and to heighten my
desire to live for Him. I wish the same for you.
Do you remember that commercial for a medical alert company?
It showed an elderly person lying on the floor, moaning, “I've fallen and I
cannot get up.”
Today's understanding of sin is that we have
fallen, but it’s not that bad. It’s really more of a slip than a fall, a
temporary loss of balance. You could say we’ve fallen, but we can certainly get
up. We can choose to change our lives.
But the Bible teaches something radically different, and
infinitely worse. It says we have fallen and we cannot get up.
Or to change the analogy, suppose you go to the doctor and she says, “You have a heart problem. You’ll need to adjust your diet, do a little more exercise, and take a pill every day. Then you’ll be fine.” You’d be grateful for the diagnosis and for the remedy. You would feel that your health is under your control, and with a few life-style changes, all will be well.
But imagine if the doctor said, “Your heart is failing, and
apart from a heart transplant, you’ll be dead within a few weeks.” No amount of
self-discipline or personal change can help you. Your life is completely in the
hands of someone else. The truth is, someone else has to die for
you to live.
Many churches today make sin a minor illness, under our control. But the Bible says our sin condition is grave.
Scripture teaches that sin isn’t primarily a list of do’s
and don’ts. If it were, it's hard to make sense of a verse like
this one: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become
accountable for all of it (James 2:10). One sin, and you're guilty of everything? Why would this be true?
Or how about this one: But whoever has doubts is condemned
if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed
from faith is sin (Romans 14:23, emphasis added). So anything I
do – texting a friend, jogging, watching TV with my wife, studying the Bible –
would be sin if it does not proceed from faith. None of this makes sense if we think of sin only as a list of “do’s and don’ts.”
But the Bible says sin is an offence against the glory of God. That is why Paul's statement in Romans 3:23 is so damning: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The first commandment is that you shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). We've all broken that commandment multiple times, even if we were outwardly compliant to the rules of society.We have fallen short of His glory, and replaced His glory with gods of our own making.
But the Bible says sin is an offence against the glory of God. That is why Paul's statement in Romans 3:23 is so damning: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The first commandment is that you shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). We've all broken that commandment multiple times, even if we were outwardly compliant to the rules of society.We have fallen short of His glory, and replaced His glory with gods of our own making.
We are created to bring Him glory, to love and serve Him first. In the Garden of Eden, we suffered a moral fall, what may be called “total depravity.”
Total depravity doesn't mean any of us is as bad as we can be. But it does mean the totality of mankind if affected, leaving all of us under condemnation. Notice the highlighted words in Romans 3:9-12: What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
Total depravity doesn't mean any of us is as bad as we can be. But it does mean the totality of mankind if affected, leaving all of us under condemnation. Notice the highlighted words in Romans 3:9-12: What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
Total depravity also means that sin taints the totality of
our being – mind, body, spirit. The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9, NET Bible).
So that’s the we have fallen part of this truth. But there’s another grim consequence of our fall: we cannot get up. This is sometimes called “total inability.”
So that’s the we have fallen part of this truth. But there’s another grim consequence of our fall: we cannot get up. This is sometimes called “total inability.”
Total inability means that we do have neither the desire nor the ability to choose a different
path. Apart from God’s grace, we will not
seek Him or believe in His Son as our Sin-Substitute.
The Bible describes us as spiritually dead (see Ephesians 2:1,5). The natural (spiritually dead) person does not and cannot understand or submit to spiritual truth. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14, emphasis added).
So said our Lord Jesus: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
him. And I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:44, emphasis added). This is a statement of inability, not just unwillingness. He repeated the same warning in John 6:65 And he said, "This is why I told you
that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
The Bible is clear: the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) – and that eternal sentence is imposed upon all people everywhere. Our sinful condition is so grave and grim that we will not and cannot reach out for help.
The Bible is clear: the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) – and that eternal sentence is imposed upon all people everywhere. Our sinful condition is so grave and grim that we will not and cannot reach out for help.
We have fallen and we cannot get up.
For next time: 2. God Chooses First.
