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The Total Depravity of Mankind
One particularly good thing the famous evangelist (not triple jumper) Jonathan Edwards was renowned for, was for convicting the masses of the total depravity of human nature and the incredible undeserved unmerited grace that Jesus the Messiah provided when He nailed our sins to the cross. Grown men would weep and be distraught over their sinful state and be overjoyed to receive Jesus their saviour into their lives!
I have heard it taught that as we were made in God's image (which is correct) - that we must be basically good and there is a little bit of Jesus in everyone, regardless of a person's actions. That statement is not true, it is unbiblical as I shall explain.
Because of the fall of Mankind we are born into sin which was something king David recognised in Psalm 51 after His remorse over effectively murdering Uriah and committing adultery with Bathsheba. ‘Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.' (Psalm 51:5). Basically there is death in Adam but life in Christ. 'For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.' (Rom 5v19) Adam brought death into the world and Jesus brings life! Righteous or righteousness means right standing with God, it does not equate with simply being good!! Jesus counselled the rich young ruler saying 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is God and if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.'(Matt 19:17)
I know plenty of nice people that on a 'nice scale of 1 to 10' would score higher than me, but that doesn't give them a ticket to heaven or make them righteous in God's eyes. Our concept or definition of what is good or righteous is completely different to God's holy standard, however the good news is that the blood of Jesus shed on the cross has paid the price for our sins and we can either choose or reject His free gift yet we must be willing to give up everything for Him as He did for us. Jesus means Saviour but He is also the RedeemerHe has purchased us with His blood by dying on our behalf. It is truly staggering that God should die for us in our wretched state that is an abomination to him in the first place!
God takes the issue of sinning (anything contrary to His will) extremely seriously. In Noah's day mankind was so corrupt and immoral and depraved in their imaginations, that God flooded the whole earth, sparing only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their three wives. Why was Noah saved? ‘Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.' (Gen 6:9)
In Genesis 6:5 God wasdispleased as 'the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' God made a covenant promising never to flood the earth again 'I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from His youth.' (Gen 8:21)
Don't believe the lie that there are plenty of people worse than I am, so I don't need God's help thank you very much. Isaiah 53:6 tells us 'All like sheep we have turned astray, every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all‘ The good shepherd willingly allowed Himself to be sacrificed for our sins taking on Himself the iniquity of us all. All means all - there are no exceptions, or saintly individuals that aren't in need of His saving grace!
Why all the blood? and why was Jesus crucified for our sins? Well the life is in the blood (see Lev 17: 13-14) God the Father cannot tolerate sin as Paul explains in Romans. Romans 3:23 says 'all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.' The GOSPEL or the good news is that: 'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.' (Rom 6:23)
What next? 'if you confess with your mouth the lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.' (Rom 10:9)
You can be certain that you will die, that is 100% probability and if you put Romans 10:9 into practise you can be 100% certain of where you will go when you die.
Do you want to know what love is? 'Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends' (John 15:13) and that's exactly what Jesus did when He nailed our sins to the cross -past, present and future!
'For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet per adventure for a good man some may even dare to die. But God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' (Romans 5:6-7) |
