(This is the second article in a series about being
gospel-minded. If you missed the
first article, you can read it here.)
In our study of Philippians, I have characterized a main
theme of the letter as a call to be gospel-minded. This series of articles is intended to explain what that
means and how we can do it. As a
reminder, being gospel-minded means looking at the various areas of our lives
or the various circumstances of our lives in light of the truths of the
gospel. So we are taking one
component of the gospel per article to look at how that particular truth can be
used to shape our thinking on a daily basis.
Last time we considered the starting point of the gospel,
that is, that God is holy. Now we
come to the second truth: man is sinful.
This means more than that man is morally challenged or that he makes bad
decisions sometimes. Rather, that
man is sinful means that Adam’s sin affected man in every aspect of his being
so that we can say that man is depraved.
Man’s is fallen in his physical body, his mind, his will, his emotions –
everything.
His fallenness is so profound that Paul characterizes sinful
man as “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). Man is born spiritually dead, which means that he is
unwilling and unable to submit to the law of God (Rom 8:7). He cannot will himself to take a single
step toward God.
There is a popular illustration used by some to convey the
gospel call to sinners. Lost
humanity is like a sea of drowning people. To each of these people, God throws a life preserver, the
gospel invitation. Everyone who
reaches out and takes the life preserver is saved.
But many have noted a biblical problem with this
analogy. It does not go far enough
in depicting man’s spiritual incapacity.
A more apt illustration would be lost sinners lying dead on the sea
floor. The dead sinner can no more
reach for a life preserver than he can will himself back to life. The Savior must dive to the bottom of
the sea, take the sinner to the surface, and breathe life into his dead body.
The sinner is helpless in himself. He is enslaved to sin.
But we should not take this to mean that the sinner sins against his own
will. Rather, we should conceive
of his depravity as a delightful slavery.
He is not only unable to submit to God, but he is wholly unwilling to
submit to God. Had he the ability
to turn to God, he would never want to.
Such is the depth of his depravity.
So how might this component of the gospel be used to shape
our thinking? Let’s consider a few
examples.
A woman has a loved one who is lost. Although this loved one has heard the
gospel, he has absolutely no interest in God or the things of God. Understandably, the woman grieves for
her friend and wants to do everything possible to ensure that he repents and
believes. She is driven to make him believe. The truth of man’s depravity could
shape her thinking about her friend in this way: “My friend is as incapable of
changing his own heart as he is of changing the direction of the wind. God alone can bring him to spiritual life. My responsibility is two-fold: to
continue sharing the gospel with him and to continue praying that God would do
what only God can do.”
A man is watching the unfolding of the current election
cycle and teeters on the edge of despair regarding the future of the country he loves. He fears that if
society does not return to “the old days,” the future will be bleak
indeed. The doctrine of depravity
can help him to keep a biblical, eternal perspective on these things: “The real
problem with this country and with the world at large is the problem of man’s
sinfulness. As long as man is
depraved, I should not expect politicians to deliver heaven on earth. The decline of the country is evidence
of a spiritual problem that can only be addressed by the saving grace of
God. The answer is not to get the
‘right’ dead sinners in office, but to pray for revival so that many, many
sinners will be regenerated for God’s glory.”
A teen is dealing with a serious illness that limits her
ability to live a normal teen life.
She fights against depression and finds that most of the time it is a
losing battle. She tries to “look
on the bright side,” but there doesn’t seem to be one. The truth of the depravity of man can
help her direct her thoughts to the Lord:
“My illness and every illness on earth is ultimately a result of the
entrance of sin into the world. All
things decay because of sin. To
long for the kind of healing that this life affords is to long for a decaying
kind of healing. I should long for
the healing that will only take place with the coming of Christ, the day of
redemption when I will put on the imperishable body purchased for me by His
blood.”
Again, your challenge is to take stock of the circumstances
facing you and to try to look at them from the perspective of gospel
truth. Thus far, we have two
truths in our bag – God is holy and man is sinful. Looking at our lives in light of these will help us to
orient our thinking toward God and help us to walk in faithfulness. Next time we’ll consider a third – God is
wrathful.
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