A provocative enough title for a blog post, no? Especially considering it's my first one here at the Abiding Grace Church blog. (BTW, thanks for stopping by!)
I mean, when you read the title...what was your first thought? Maybe I don't want to know...
I have digressed, and I'm not even five sentences in. :-(
Look around. Let's all agree on one thing: the world is pretty much a mess. I will restrain myself by not listing for you the top headlines from any major news source over the past 48 hours...or 48 days. You can check them out for yourself...or you can continue to play the ostrich and pretend the effects of the Fall of Man are not coming to your neighborhood anytime soon. (Pssst. They're already there.)
And let's not convince ourselves that there is anything new under the Sun, either. I mean, it's not like the 24/7 news cycle has made the world any worse than it ever was. Our increased knowledge about what is going on around the world is only evidence that the technology that brings us the news has been enhanced. From the moment that Adam and Eve tasted the Forbidden Fruit, the world has been full of murder (Genesis 4:8) and all kinds of sins... The global, catastrophic Flood of Genesis 7 is simply testimony to the reality of the depravity of men's hearts! (Genesis 6:5)
So, what's the solution? Most of us want the world to be a better place, and so many think that they know how to bring such a world about. There are political solutions, and every four years, we get a summary of those. There are educational solutions; see, for example, Aldous Huxley's book, Ends and Means.
Then there is a relatively new phenomenon: www.values.com. You've seen the billboards and TV commercials, right? A listing of the virtues that some group of enlightened people have decided would make the world a better place. These people "believe people are basically good but sometimes just need a reminder." Hmmm. Really? Maybe I should list the top headlines...
Do you know what political platforms and Aldous Huxley and Values.com all have in common?
It's simple: Rules. Regulations. Dictates. In short: Laws.
The Progressive agenda envisions a utopian society that they will craft via legislation, Executive Orders, and regulation. Aldous Huxley's Ends and Means is sheer genius front to back, full of insights and great ideas for how the future should look and how we should craft society to get there. And Values.com - who can argue with Compassion, Live Your Dreams, and Teamwork?
Only one problem: none of this is going to work. Not political platforms. Not Huxley's genius. Not Values.com. God gave us the Mosaic Covenant - the Law of God, written by God Himself - to demonstrate to us not that Laws will solve our problem, but that human beings in our Fallen state are incapable of keeping the Law and that we are in need of something more than a Law.
You see, if men are merely in need of reform, then the Law is enough.
But reform is not what men need. Men are in need of rebirth. Men are in need of a deep, spiritual heart transformation that will not only conform them externally to the Law of God written on tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18), but conform them internally to the desires of a Holy God. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) And men and women are born again only by the power of the gospel - the good news of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross at Calvary. The Apostle Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16).
Political platforms are not the gospel. Educational and sweeping societal reforms are not the gospel. And, no, Values.com is not the gospel; in fact, it is anti-gospel.
So let us learn the gospel and embrace the gospel and preach the gospel in the hope that men and women will get what they really need: rebirth by the Holy Spirit of God. And let us proclaim this gospel without fear as we await the return of our Glorious King Jesus from heaven. Then and only then will this mess of a world be all that we desire it to be.
"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." (1 Timothy 1:15)
Posted by Steve Vinay III
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