Bringing Clarity to the Term Christian
“Christians Could Never Desire to Know God on Their Own”
Welcome again and thank you for returning to Powerful God – Practical Faith, and our blog series entitled, Bringing Clarity to the Term Christian.
In our last post we learned about how our sin brought us under God’s judgment and that we “all”, have fallen under this judgment. We learned that this judgment is severe, the worst of which is the reality of total separation from our Creator, which the Apostle John calls, the “second death”. I am so very thankful that God has provided a means of escape from His judgment… a means of escape we hope to explain more fully in our proceeding posts.
As always stated, if you have not been able to follow along earlier in this series, please take the time to read our earlier posts, especially our last post, Part 7, which will give you more detail regarding this subject of God’s judgment.
In light of this understanding of God’s judgment, we come to our 4th Statement that seems to be rather irrational …..
Statement 4:
A Christian is a person who would never of himself have a desire to know God.
Now I know this statement will generate a number of reactions, primarily, because on the surface, it seems illogical or just simply untrue. Two questions perhaps automatically come up when you hear this statement. The first question would be in regard to our discussion about God’s judgment, and would go something like….
“If I know I will be eternally punished for my sin wouldn’t I “want” to get to know and understand God and escape his judgment?”
The second question would perhaps be for those who are already Christian. This question would be…
“Isn’t the fact that I am a Christian at all proves that I alone made the conscious choice to follow Christ?” isn’t this how a Christian….. becomes a Christian?
Well, the answers to these questions seem rather obvious. Most of us would probably answer yes to both questions. However, in reality, from a biblical standpoint, the answers are much deeper than you may have understood them to be. From God’s vantage point in eternity, looking at man in his sinful and rebellious state, the answers to these questions are “absolutely no”. But because God does something beautiful and simply miraculous in the heart of those he calls to himself, the answers change to “yes”. Not because of us, but because of Him.
Confused? Well let me explain……
There is a very strong passage of scripture that was originally recorded in Psalm 14 as well as in Psalms 53 of the Old Testament that the Apostle Paul repeats in his letter to the Romans. This passage gives a very clear summary of fallen man’s activity toward God…. or lack thereof…
Paul writes……
…….for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
Romans 3:9-12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The message that Paul gives here is very straight forward and matter-of-fact. Listen to the repetitive emphasis Paul places on the word “none”.
There is “none” righteous.
There is “none” who understands.
There is “none” who seeks for God.
There is “none” who does good.
Then, to further define what he means by the word “none“, Paul says, “not even one“. God, in this passage is making very clear to us that there is no one who is righteous and there is no one who, in their own human sinful nature, desires to be. When left to ourselves, we “all” run toward our sinfulness and away from God.
Now most people don’t ever see themselves fitting in these rather absolute categories. I would venture to say that some would even vehemently oppose the notion of them never seeking after God, never doing good, or never living a “righteous” life. So why does Paul make such dogmatic statements in Romans 3? Well I believe that the Holy Spirit is telling us something about ourselves and about God that is much deeper than our often surface level understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
The reasons why Paul can make such firm statements is first of all, because the Word of God is true, and secondly, because God recognizes and wants us to recognize that the true fallen nature of the human heart can never truly change. Ever since man sinned in Adam, the corrupt nature of man has been fixed. Any acts of human virtue apart from a changed heart are trivial and flawed when tested against the nature of an all Holy God. Any, so called “goodness” we demonstrate is just the residue of a suppressed knowledge of God within us and His restraining power that keeps many of us from the evil that we all are capable of.
Jeremiah 17:9 says…..
“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
In this passage, Jeremiah is telling us that despite all of the temporary and often frequent acts of kindness, generosity, love and benevolence we exercise, none of us has any idea what kind of diabolical evil we are capable of doing. Sometimes not even the person engaged in a heinous act knows they are capable of it until he or she does it. Sadly, this capacity for egregious evil is in all of us apart from a change of being… a change of heart.
Paul, in Romans 3 continues to demonstrate this heart that continuously rebels against God by giving us descriptions and metaphorical pictures of it. Paul continues in Romans 3. verses 13-18 by saying this about the sinner….
“Their throat
is an open grave,
With
their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The
poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is
full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their
feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction
and misery are in their paths,
And
the path of peace they have not known.”
“There
is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Again, Paul uses strong language here. He first emphasizes the “speech” of those who are not seeking after him. The individuals of whom Paul is speaking of were at one point in time all of us. Consider what Paul says here:
“Their throat is an open grave”
Our mouths are venues for corrupt speech. We house and embrace ungodly, irreverent, and foul words. Our communication is abhorrent.
“With their tongues they keep deceiving”
We are in the habit of continuously telling lies. We never desire to come to terms with the real truth.
“The poison of asps is under their lips”
Like a snake stores venom in sacs in its mouth, ready to unleash it on its unwitting prey, we have stored up words of contempt, slander and evil, ready to be dispensed at any time.
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”
We are consumed with resentment and disgust that pours out in our speech.
It is important to note a very appropriate scripture at this time to help us understand why Paul initially placed such emphasis on what we speak.
In the book of Luke, chapter 6, Jesus makes this statement. ….
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.”
Then he says this…..
“For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks“
How fitting it is for Paul to demonstrate to us the condition of the human heart by describing its most proven test for spiritual health… which is…. what the heart speaks.
Paul then switches from what we speak to what we do. Verses 15-18 continue…..
“There feet are swift to shed blood”
We are eager to cause physical harm to others, even to the point of murder.
“Destruction and misery are in there paths”
Wherever we reside and wherever we go, ruin follows. We are the recipients and givers of despair and heartbreak.
” The path of peace they have not known”
We are the administrators of chaos, confusion, and strife with no understanding of how to make peace.
“There is no fear of God before their eyes”
We, simply and regretfully, have no reverence or respect for our Creator. We shake our fists at and curse the very God who made us and pretend as though he has no power and does not exist.
Now does this sound anything like a person who wants anything to do with God, Christ, or salvation? Well obviously not. However, Paul is providing to us a profile of who we all are apart from divine intervention from a Holy God. Now I know that this rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Some if not most of us have never perceived ourselves this way. We may know of individuals, personally or otherwise who exhibit these horrible behaviors, but have never thought of being that wicked and ungodly ourselves. But I sincerely believe the reason why this seems to some of us so beyond our capacity to become is because God’s restraining grace, which by His sovereign choice is different for everyone, has been applied to many of us to a much different degree than others whom we may view as evil and deviant.
The fact of the matter is that for all of us sinners, our capacity for deviance and the aforementioned evil behaviors are very much possible and ultimately inevitable. Such is the decaying nature of sin in each of us. The only thing that is holding off what sin can and will become in time is God’s restraining power among men. The purposes of God in time make it necessary for Him to constrain the evil that could be so that His’ plan for man “will be”.
So what do we do with this very deep and awesome truth given to us by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul? How are we to consider these realities so vividly shown to us?
For me, I cannot help but be thankful for the grace and restraint of God applied to me, even while being a slave to my own sin. This passage forever reminds me of the necessity of God’s mercy and favor toward us, knowing there is nothing in us that warrants the presence of a Holy God in our lives. The love and grace of God is simply incredible !
Well, having said all of this, there leaves yet another question in our minds yet unanswered doesn’t it? If there is nothing in the Christian himself that desired God, How did he then…..desire God?
Let’s find out in our next post.
Please come back to Powerful God- Practical Faith, we look forward to continuing this theme of God’s great grace.
God Bless.
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