Absolute Truth for a Relative World

Number 6 – The Human Condition & Salvation

Nobody’s Perfect!

Most people in our Nation will highlight this week by an observance of Halloween. For some it will be tonight, or some other evening when the children will go about gathering candy from their neighbors. But there is a meaning to October 31 that should get far more attention than it does. In fact, I would guess that it would not be mentioned at all in the press, or around the water cooler in your office or work place. But on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted a letter to the Catholic Church denouncing parts of its theology and questioning the direction it had taken. His 95 points of debate, or “theses” sent shockwaves across the Western world. It was the beginning of the Reformation. Luther stood virtually alone for, what he believed, was the truth of Scripture.

In 1521, Luther was called to appear before the Emperor and the Church leadership and asked to recant his teachings of salvation by faith alone, and God’s grace as the means of salvation, not our works. He had to appear before the Emperor twice; each time he was clearly told to take back his teachings. He said, "Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything; for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen”

Today Reformation Sunday is observed in many parts of the world in remembrance of Luther’s willingness to stand against the tide of heresy. In the nearly 500 years since that day in Wittenberg, I cannot think of a time when the church has needed people to do the same. We live in a world that has rejected the truth of Scripture, embraced heretical teachings, and has in large measure decided to accept “anything but Jesus” as truth.

Two weeks ago I was at a meeting of the Mayville Clergy, and we had a guest there who has just recently opened a new business in town. This business has been set up to help people (with an emphasis on women) in their “spiritual quest.” As I sat there in the room with pastors from the Catholic, Lutheran, United Methodist, and Assembly of God, I heard this person talk of “Spirit,” of “the Goddess,” “the Creatress.” She touted her shop, where books may be purchased to instruct us in “pagan” practices; worship of nature as God; and embraced “ancient Gnostic Christians” as some type of heroes. (The fact that many of the New Testament letters were written to battle Gnostic theology was apparently lost on her and many others in the group.)

I sat there stunned. Pastor Dave, from Christian Life Fellowship, and I were completely dumb-founded as we watched our colleagues fawn all over this woman, asking how they could tap into her services for women of their church. There were the leaders of the local church of Jesus Christ giving credence to a person whose teaching denies the truth of the Bible! Sure, there are a few references to the Bible, just enough to put sheep’s clothing on the wolf of deception, but make no mistake, this is pagan, anti-Christian, Universalist he racy!

Then this week Janet Regner showed me a program from her brothers wedding. It was performed at the church where Janet grew up in Milwaukee. It closed with this line: “I pronounce you husband and wife in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, Mother of us all. Amen.” Another example of how the worship of the earth, nature and the “goddess” has swept into the church.

Never have I been more certain of the importance of the journey we embarked on a few weeks ago. We have been engaged in an exploration of basic Biblical theology called, “Absolute Truth for a Relative World.” In simplest terms, relativism teaches that all roads lead to God, and that God will accept all sincere believers, regardless of what they sincerely believe. Relative thought does not believe in absolute truth - each person based on his or her experience, upbringing and choice defines truth. Mohammed is as valid a spiritual leader as Buddha, who is equally valid as Jesus, who is equally valid as Moses, and beyond that, if you don’t want to believe anything, that’s OK too.

But the Bible teaches differently. Let’s just review where we’ve been so far. We have seen that the Bible claims to be the complete Word of God, and it stands up to the test of science, archeology and skepticism. We learned that God the Father has a love for each of us that is beyond anything we can imagine. He created us, He desires fellowship with us, and He blessed us with the greatest of His gifts – a free will – that allows us to choose to love him in return, or reject Him. We have learned that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, is fully human and fully God, that He willingly laid aside all the rights He had as God, came to this earth in human form, walked among us, gave us His words as truth, and willingly gave Himself to be cruelly treated and crucified as a sacrifice for our sins. He arose from the dead in victory over the grave, and proclaimed Himself to be the only way to the Father. No one comes to the Father except by Him. Two weeks ago we learned that the Holy Spirit is the person of God who lives within us. He brings us the new life that Jesus promised. He seals us as believers in Christ, marking us as His for all eternity. The Holy Spirit baptizes every believer as we are buried with Christ, and raised with Him to a new life. And the Holy Spirit fills us - as we allow Him - and brings victory over sin and the trials we face.

We have covered a lot of territory in just a few weeks. For the most part, our focus has been upon God and His Word to this point. Today we shift our attention to us – human beings. Today we are going to look at the human condition.

First and foremost, human beings are creatures of God. We were created in His image. It was not an accident; it was a conscious, purposeful action on God’s part. He meant to do it. Much of the foundation of relative thought is based on the assumption that each of us is no more than an accident of Nature, an otherwise meaningless coincidence of evolutionary history. By believing that (which, by the way, their own science proves wrong), relativists claim that there is no higher reason for our existence, nor is there anyone we must answer to, thus, truth is simply a matter of perception.

I sometimes shudder at how lonely those folks must feel sometimes. To stare out into the starry sky at night, and realize how miniscule our planet is, and how small a role I play in it, without any sense of a higher source of meaning or purpose – it must be terribly sad.

But the Bible teaches that we are created by God, in His image, with a purpose, a reason for existing. Part of that image of God in which we were created is the capacity for us to exercise a free will to love, worship, obey our Maker - or reject Him. God could have created a race of beings that had to love Him, but they would not have been free agents, and thus would not have been truly created in His image. And He loves us! He cares about each one of us individually so much. Jesus told a story of a shepherd who, even thought he had 99 of his sheep in the fold, left the others there and went out searching for the one that was missing. That is how God feels about each of us – each human has that great a value to the God who placed those stars in the night sky! He would leave all behind and come searching for you – the lost one. In fact, He did, in the person of Jesus Christ, giving His own life for you.

But along with that free will comes the capacity for rebellion, selfishness and sin. You would think it would be pretty obvious to people that human beings are sinful, but you might be surprised at how many deny that sin exists at all. “People aren’t really sinful,” some say, “they simply miss their potential.” Any number of the books in the shop I spoke of earlier will tell you this.

But the Bible, and common sense, will tell you otherwise. When your two-year-old throws a fit in the store for a Bob the Mechanic, or when a terrorist flies an aircraft full of innocent people into a building, you know that we are all sinners.

This week my son Andrew asked, “Dad, which book of the Bible would you recommend I read next?” I thought for a moment and I said, “Romans.” After I suggested it, I thought, “Man, I’d like to get into Romans again, too.” Wow, what a book! I don’t believe there is a better place to go for good theology than this book. Turn with me to Romans in your Bibles. Yes, pick up a Bible and turn there. Get a feel for it - Romans begins on page 757 in the Bibles we have on the seats around you. And feel free to take that Bible home with you if you don’t have one – that’s why they are there.

The first four chapters of this book are a compelling case for the truth that we are all sinners. Beginning with the fact that God’s laws are evident to all people, even those without written revelation, through nature. And for those of us who have the Law of God, it is evident that we all fall short of His standard. We bend the truth, we want what others own, we want our own way, and we place other gods before the Lord. In fact, Paul sums it up this way in chapter 3, verses 10 and following; quoting from the Old Testament, he says:

There is none righteous, no not one:

There is none who understands,

There is none that seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;

The have become unprofitable

There is none that does good, no not one.”

His statement of the human condition culminates with this statement from verse 23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Each of us as humans is a sinner. I am, the people around me each day are, and you are. Only the most naïve among us would claim to be sin-less. And it’s not because we don’t meet our potential, it’s because we miss God’s standard – we come up short on His scale. That sense of our insufficiency is what leads us to seek a way of reaching, pleasing or attaining God. It is what drives guilty people to incredible acts of penance, seekers to the arms of cults, and zealots to self-destruction – ANYTHING to somehow win God’s favor. But there is nothing any of us can do to settle the score. Each effort, each act of penance, runs headlong into the second half or verse 23, and “falls short of the glory of God.”

Deep in the soul of every person is the knowledge of this fact. You don’t have to dig deep to find it. And it leads people on a wide variety of quests to try to bridge the gap between them and God – but everything we do falls short of His glory.

So that’s the human condition – pretty bleak, huh? But remember what we said about God’s love for us – how he would leave everything behind to seek out one lost sheep? He does. Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death,” – that’s the human condition – our sinfulness earns us death – separation from this life and separation from God. Left to our own devices, that is the just payment due for our lives. But the verse goes on: “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The result of our sinfulness is a debt of death and judgment, but God has given us, through Jesus Christ, a gift – nothing we deserve, nothing we earned – a gift, eternal life.

I have a friend who works in radio. He is on the station here in Mayville occasionally and also works in Madison. He used to close his program every day by saying, “Remember, your debt’s been paid in full…”

This, then, is the human condition – we are sinners, and that sin places a debt of death on each of us. But for each one of us, God has shown His amazing love for us by offering the gift or life eternal through Jesus Christ. We are either a sinner who still lives under that debt, or we are a sinner whose debt has been paid in full by the blood of Jesus.

If you want to have that debt erased, to know for certain that you have eternal life, you can ask God to settle the account right now. Let’s pray.

Father, in these quiet moments, do two things, we pray. First, convict us of our sin. Don’t let us leave this place with a debt of death hanging over us. Help each of us to by faith settle that account right now. And second, remind us of Your great gift of life, bought at such a great price on Calvary – and help us to worship you, and serve you, and be witnesses of your grace and mercy as we go from this place. In Jesus’ name, Amen