And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper (Rom. 1:28 NASB)
I have to admit, I’m pretty sad right now.
I may be a borderline hermit but I don’t live under a rock, so I’ve seen all the division that’s become so common lately.
Racism, injustice, and chaos are all over the news. But none of those alone is the main reason I’m sad.
The biggest reason I’m sad is because we are lost.
There is no leadership. There is no strategy. There are no answers. Everyone’s just doing what’s right in their own eyes.
People are hurt, angry, bitter, dejected. They see tragedy occur in their neighborhoods and all they want is for it to stop.
So in come the cries for education, legal reform, and even revolution. But while some of these actions do have merit, they ignore what’s really wrong.
All the things happening today are just symptoms. They are symptoms of a much bigger problem.
The Root Cause
Times like this are when the world always questions the church. (They stick to politics when life’s going good but come to us when it all falls apart.)
This means we see plenty of familiar statements:
- “If Christians cared, they would do [blank].”
- “Pastors should call out [blank] in church.”
- “If Jesus was here, He would say [blank].”
Regarding that last one, I’ve seen more words placed in Jesus’ mouth lately than I have in months.
For some reason, people who don’t read the Bible become Jesus experts at times like this, but the fact is, Jesus already told us the problem:
And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (Mark 7:20-23, emphasis added)
Jesus called humanity evil (Matt. 7:11), and He said that no one was good but God (Luke 18:19).
Yes, we’re all made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27)—a fact that people are all too happy to claim—but that image is marred by sin (1 John 1:8).
Sin is the root cause of all this (John 8:34 ESV). We are all corrupt people who need new hearts.
But who am I kidding? No one believes that anymore. Even if they do hear it in church, they don’t accept it.
The world holds an underlying assumption that humanity is good (or that we’re highly evolved creatures with no moral slant). That’s why we think education will change everything. People just raped, murdered, and enslaved each other throughout all of history because they weren’t smart.
The world always blames external factors because surely they’re the only things wrong. If only people weren’t ignorant, if only they had more money, if only the laws were different, then things would change.
Since we assume people are inherently good, we strive to form a system that prevents bad experiences. After all, the only reason we do wrong is because we were nurtured to do so.
Once the perfect system’s in place, we’ll all live in a utopia…
…but if history has taught us anything, it’s that humans are great at making failed utopias.
Look, I’m not against increased education, protesting, or legal reform. But we have to see those solutions for they really are: containment. It’s placing a bucket under a leaky pipe instead of fixing the leak itself.
People swear off changing the legal system as the ultimate solution for change. I even heard a man on TV this morning say that hearts and minds change when laws do. But that sentiment is extremely naive.
The Bible tells us what happened when a nation had perfect laws. Read Judges and First and Second Kings to see how that turned out.
Good laws make people aware of sin (Rom. 7:7). Good law enforcement helps contain that sin (Rom. 13:3-4). But both are powerless to bring the internal change people need (Rom. 8:3 NLT).
We have to understand that every moral problem is a spiritual one. And if we don’t involve God or act according to His truth, our efforts will fail. I guarantee it.
Ripe for Revival
Oh man, I used the r-word.
I try to avoid the word “revival” because it’s been abused so much in recent years.
People equate revival to emotionalism now, but true revival is just a renewed love for God. It involves a large-scale awareness of our condition without Him, and acknowledging that He was right all along.
The silver lining in all this madness is that it’s put sin front and center. No one can watch the news today and think everything is fine.
So now we’re left with a decision. We can either stay on this road thinking our human solutions will solve it, or we can acknowledge humanity’s corruption and seek the only One who changes hearts.
If we want real change, we have to commit to biblical truth. We can’t rely on feelings, education, and legal reform. We need more teachers and pastors to point us all to Jesus.
No, not the moral teacher Jesus, and no, not the social reformer Jesus, but the God-in-the-flesh-who-died-to-free-you-from-sin Jesus (Rom. 6:6). Yeah, that’s the One.
The Bible is not a rulebook that shows us how to be good people. It’s a map that points us to the Person who makes people new (John 5:39 NASB, 2 Cor. 5:17).
That’s why we need people who aren’t ashamed of what Christ has done for them. We need people who not only believe the gospel, but who live lives that reflect it no matter how counter-cultural their actions are.
The truth is, without the gospel, there is no basis for equality. Why should you care about people who don’t look like you? Why should you care about descendants of people who made your ancestors’ lives a living hell?
It doesn’t make sense from a human perspective. Anyone who tells you otherwise just wants to prove how much we’ve “evolved”.
It takes a supernatural change for that real love to form. And if you don’t realize that, then the church has failed you.
This is why I’m so obsessive about sound doctrine. Much of the world’s confusion is due to false teachers inside church walls (2 Cor. 11:13, 2 Pet. 2:1-2).
People see the numbers these glorified success coaches pull and think the church is thriving, but this couldn’t be further from the truth (2 Tim. 4:3 NIV, Luke 6:26).
The church is desperate for people who value the Bible’s real message over personal gain (see 1 Tim. 6:5 NIV). We have to get back to obeying God instead of trying to make Him obey us.
Now when I say that, I don’t mean we should Christianize the culture. That’s been done already and it doesn’t work:
- Christianization used the Bible to support crusades that killed innocent people.
- Christianization twisted Scripture to affirm evils like slavery.
- Christianization calls people Christians because they were born in the USA.
I have no interest in seeing Christ’s name attached to man-made agendas. Stuff like that just makes people hate the real thing.
“So what is the real thing?”, you ask.
- The real thing is watching God save you when your own actions should have left you abandoned.
- The real thing is professional fornicators renouncing their old way of life.
- The real thing is self-made millionaires humbling themselves and trusting Christ.
It’s acknowledging your sinful condition and letting God change you from within (see Gal. 5:22-23 ESV).
That is the result of true revival. And it’s what we need now more than ever.
Let’s Make a Real Change
Our politics, our education, and our philosophies are powerless to bring the change we crave…
We need God to reconcile us to Himself and to each other.
When we acknowledge that truth, we’ll be on track for real change. But if we trust in our own ability, we will fail like everyone else who did the same.
So can we please make the right choice this time around?
‘Cause I’m getting real tired of being sad.
-Drew
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